This company, a world leader in glass pharmaceutical packaging, selected the BuyCo platform to manage its container shipments. Thanks to this tool, the freight teams can prepare and track shipments while facilitating collaboration with freight forwarders.
The existing integration between SAP ERP and BuyCo automates the reception of transport requests. With the addition of a feedback interface, information flows back from BuyCo to the ERP, enhancing collaboration between freight, accounting, and finance teams—improving revenue recognition and invoicing processes. The benefits are significant: reduced workload, better management, increased visibility for financial teams, and improved customer relationships.
Automation Accelerates Revenue Recognition
This project was initiated under the leadership of the CFO to speed up the revenue recognition process. The objective was twofold: to minimize the time required for accounting and freight teams to verify each file by automating tasks and to accelerate monthly revenue reporting to enhance the group’s financial analysis capabilities.
Thanks to BuyCo’s integration with SAP, the company moved from a quarterly to a monthly revenue recognition cycle. Previously, freight teams had to manually verify all end-of-month shipments. Now, the critical information for attributing revenue to a specific calendar period—such as the shipment or delivery date, depending on Incoterms—is automatically transmitted to accounting teams. This significantly reduces the need to verify hundreds of records manually.
By integrating operational and financial systems, the company has extended the use of an operational tool into non-traditional areas like finance.
The impact is substantial: financial analysis cycles are faster, the pressure on accounting and freight teams for file verification is reduced, and revenue declaration, which previously occurred three days after month-end, is now completed in just two days.
Expanded Collaboration to Improve the Invoicing Process
For invoicing, it is mandatory to bill for any shipped product as soon as it leaves the factory. However, fluctuations in maritime transport lead times sometimes resulted in invoices becoming due before the goods were delivered, causing occasional disruptions with customers. This also required finance teams to manually process numerous files.
With BuyCo’s integration into the ERP, invoice due dates are now automatically recalculated based on the actual delivery date provided by BuyCo. Traceability is maintained by keeping the initial due date for reference. This precise recalculation (actual delivery date + contractual payment term) enables the company to better manage cash flows and trigger follow-up actions only when truly necessary.
Benefits for the Company
- Improved customer relationships through more accurate payment deadline management.
- Better visibility for financial teams, allowing them to anticipate payments and handle potential delays due to late deliveries.
- Reduced manual work for finance teams, who no longer need to manually verify and justify payment discrepancies.
This company-wide project, supported by the CEO and led by the CFO of this industry leader, strengthens BuyCo’s position as a strategic tool that goes beyond container freight management. It now delivers tangible value to both financial and commercial teams.
