ALLENTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With long payment cycles, supply chain shortages, seasonality and a reliance on manual collections processes, logistics companies often struggle with managing cash flow. This is something that Josh Simon, Global Risk & Receivables Director at JAS Worldwide, knows all too well.
As a company that operates in over 100 countries, JAS Worldwide couldn’t afford to be lax with cash flow management. If cash flow drops or isn’t stable long-term, that could damage supplier relationships, impact customer trust and lead to financial losses. These are challenges the company has been able to tackle and improve since working with Creditsafe for the past two years.
Like many Accounts Receivables teams, Josh and his team keep a watchful eye on Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) as it’s one of the most important indicators of a healthy or weak cash flow. DSO measures the average number of days it takes a business to receive payment for goods and services purchased on credit. If DSO is high or increases over time, this indicates that customers aren’t paying their invoices on time and are putting a strain on JAS Worldwide’s cash flow.
Measuring Success: Improving DSO, Credit Management and Due Diligence
- Improved DSO: Josh and his team were able to slash the company’s Days Sales Outstanding by 33%.
- Better Credit Management: Josh and his team were able to get a better understanding of the credit risks of potential customers so they could set the right credit limits and improve the team’s overall credit management.
- Thorough M&A Due Diligence: As JAS Worldwide looks to invest in mergers and acquisitions, Creditsafe’s data has been vital and easy to use for vetting companies prior to acquisition.
When Josh joined the company as Global Risk & Receivables Director in 2021, he assessed the company’s then current credit risk providers and identified a few areas for improvement. First, most of the countries where JAS Worldwide has a presence were using different credit risk providers. So, there wasn’t a consistent risk management method or platform used by the entire company. Not only was this causing confusion, but it also created disparities in how credit risk was assessed, leaving the company vulnerable and exposed to unnecessary risks.
Another problem Josh faced when using other credit risk providers was that the data wasn’t presented in a consistent, logical and intuitive way. So, Josh’s team often struggled to assess customers’ credit risk effectively and quickly. This was affecting the team’s productivity and success in their roles.
Josh explains, “Managing credit risk globally is no easy feat. We have built a robust strategy that involves analyzing and measuring our risk and AR performance across over 60 key metrics. These include reducing our Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), the total number and dollar value of late invoices, open Accounts Receivable disputes, billing timelines and adherence to credit limit, just to start. Since working with Creditsafe for the last two years, we’ve been able to tackle this head-on and improved our Days Sales Outstanding by 33%. Our expanded use of Creditsafe is a contributing factor.”
Helping JAS Worldwide Mitigate Risks on Multiple Fronts
- The Creditsafe team worked with Josh to set his team up with Creditsafe Business Reports to do their due diligence and determine whether customers pose a low, moderate or high risk to the company.
- The Creditsafe team provided comprehensive onboarding and training, helping JAS Worldwide understand how to find various information in reports and how to use the data effectively to reach accurate and reliable credit decisions.
- The Creditsafe team set up JAS Worldwide with access to Creditsafe International Reports so they could properly vet suppliers to make sure they are financially stable enough to complete orders.
- The Creditsafe team set up JAS Worldwide with access to Creditsafe Protect, which makes it easy to verify the identity of suppliers, screen suppliers against sanctions lists, identify Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) and more.
Josh concludes, “While we have seen quantifiable improvements in certain areas, that’s not all we consider when evaluating how useful Creditsafe is to our business. I can definitively say that we’re very happy with the quality of data Creditsafe provides on businesses globally. Having strong quality data can make or break a company’s risk management strategy. If we didn’t have the right data on the different multinational customers and suppliers we work with, we wouldn’t know what risks pose the biggest threats to our business. This is something I have come to rely on with Creditsafe data.”
Matthew Debbage, CEO of the Americas and Asia for Creditsafe, is immensely proud of the success JAS Worldwide has seen since working with Creditsafe. “We know all too well just how important data quality can be in managing Accounts Receivables and risk. Quality data is something we pride ourselves on – delivering the most accurate, reliable credit risk data in a format that’s easy to find, understand and put to use inside finance and risk teams. The ultimate goal is to help businesses like JAS Worldwide use our data to plot their growth trajectory and protect themselves from unnecessary risks. Working with Josh and his team at JAS Worldwide has been a pleasure and we look forward to helping them mitigate risks for years to come.”
ABOUT CREDITSAFE
Creditsafe, the global expert in credit monitoring and risk management, is the world’s most used provider of business reports. Today, over 115,000 customers globally depend on Creditsafe to make critical business decisions. Using real-time data from over 9,000 sources across over 200 countries and territories, Creditsafe’s mission is to help businesses mitigate financial, legal and compliance risks, while also empowering them to make more informed decisions. To learn more, visit our website.
