Multimodal Logistics Giant Slashes DSO from 40 to 5 Days by Automating Cross-Border AR with FreePay

The Objective

To automate the cross-border inward remittance process to improve working capital efficiency and cash flow.

The Background

This multimodal transport enterprise receives high volumes of international payments from NVOCCs, 3PL players, and freight forwarders. Their payment process typically involves issuance of pro forma invoices, grouped remittances, and managing early payment discounts and service-related deductions like demurrage.

The Numbers

0X

Faster Reconciliation

4 0Days

Reduction in DSO

0%

Dealers on FreePay

The Numbers

40 to 0Days

Worth Invoices Processed Automatically Every Month

0%

Cross-Border Transactions are Reconciled in Real-Time

0%

Automation of Invoice dispatch from ERP and reconciliation into ERP

The Challenge

Managing cross-border receivables posed growing operational challenges for this transport leader. Manual processes, fragmented documentation, and multi-party dependencies slowed down reconciliation and impacted collections.

01 Invoice Complexity & Fragmented Communication

Earlier the invoices were dispatched via emails. Payments received often included multiple invoices clubbed together and deductions like demurrage or early payment discounts, usually backed by supporting documents sent separately. This made it difficult for the AR team to validate deductions or track payment accuracy in one go.

02 Manual Dependencies for Bank Acknowledgements

Upon receiving funds in the Nostro account, the bank required a manual response from the AR team with purpose codes, mapped invoice details, and remittance advice, before crediting the company’s current account. This caused frequent delays and prevented timely access to funds.

03 Slow ERP Reconciliation

Reconciling payments into the ERP system was slowed by FX conversion mismatches, dispute-related holdbacks, and inconsistencies in documentation. Finance teams spent hours chasing resolution, which delayed financial closing cycles.

04 Locked up working capital

With DSO creeping past 40 days, the company’s cash flow took a direct hit. Money was technically in the system, but not accessible when needed.

Our Solution

To address these bottlenecks, the company implemented Global PayEX’s Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) solution, FreePay and directly integrated it with their ERP system:

01 ERP-Integrated Auto Invoice Dispatch

The moment a final invoice is generated in ERP, FreePay automatically fetches it and dispatches it to the customers across multiple channels—email, WhatsApp, and a secure mobile/web portal. Buyers receive automated reminders for pending invoices, ensuring better visibility and timely action.

02 Pre-payment deductions & document uploads

Buyers can now use the portal to select invoices for payment, apply allowed deductions (such as demurrage or early payment discounts), upload supporting documents, and submit payment references like SWIFT MT940. This gives PayEX early visibility into expected funds, references, and invoices being cleared, significantly accelerating downstream reconciliation.

03 Real-time Bank Coordination

Upon receiving a “funds sighted” email from the Nostro bank, FreePay instantly matches the amount and date, applies FX tolerance, and automatically responds to the bank with the mapped invoice numbers and purpose codes in real-time. As a result, funds are credited to the company’s regional account on the same day (T+0), avoiding manual back-and-forth with banks.

04 Automated Reconciliation & Ledger Updates

Once the funds are received, FreePay auto-reconciles them in the ERP by matching customer ledgers, classifying deductions to the correct GL accounts, and auto-generating credit or debit notes where needed. Human intervention is required only for rare exceptions, freeing the AR, finance, and sales teams from routine reconciliation tasks.

The Results

The deployment of Global PayEX’s FreePay solution transformed the company’s cross-border receivables process from fragmented and reactive to fully automated and proactive. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) dropped sharply, from over 40 days to just 5, unlocking significant working capital and improving cash flow predictability. Thanks to real-time validation of payment references and automated bank responses, the company now receives cross-border funds on the same day they’re sighted in the nostro account.
With a digital portal for buyers and automated coordination with banking partners, the organization has improved transparency, responsiveness, and trust across its receivables.

“A highly adaptable solution that has transformed the way we do business”

We have been using FreePay since 2017 and the improvement and efficiency it has brought in our collections and account receivables management has been remarkable.

FreePay has helped deliver electronic invoices to our Channel Partners in real time, process payments with all our business terms plugged in and taken care of our end-to-end customer account reconciliation.

Our Channel Partners have also been very appreciative of introducing FreePay to them especially for its feature capabilities, ease of use, transparency and customer support, without adding any cost to them.

Joseph Selvakumar , Vice President – Commercial ,

V-Guard Industries Ltd.

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0%

Reduction in Manual Efforts