Key Takeaways

Integrated communication and dispute resolution module

Full visibility to all intercompany invoices at any time

Reduced workload for treasury team

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Vetropack Holding AG is a Switzerland-based holding company engaged in the manufacture of glass packaging for the food and beverage industry. The Group offers such services as the design, production and delivery of tailor-made glass, as well as consulting and support services in the area of packaging analysis, bottling, conditioning, closure technology, decorative refinement and labeling. The Vetropack Group operates seven production sites and 16 melting furnaces with a total aggregate production capacity of more than 4,000 tons per day.

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Challenges

The Company operates collection centers at its production site in order for used glass to be brought in for recycling. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 11 subsidiaries located in Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia and Slovenia.

The Vetropack Accounting System SAP is split into different accounting areas and only Corporate Accounting has full access and an overall view. The monthly intercompany payments were prepared by the Accounts Payables in each subsidiary. The total amounts to pay for each counterparty was entered into an excel spreadsheet and sent to the HQ, without any invoice details. It was at the Corporate where the expected accounts receivables have been reconciled with the confirmed payables. It was a cumbersome process to discuss and negotiate with the payers the missing or wrong amounts. All this was mainly done manually and via phone calls. The final agreed amounts were either physically paid or booked into current accounts into SAP TRM system. The paid invoice details had to sent to receivers separately could offer a robust, future-proof solution, and a mutually beneficial partnership.

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Solution

Today, both invoice level receivables and payables are uploaded into GTreasury Netting via an interface from SAP 6.0. The system is set to run the netting receivable driven and does an automatic matching of these receivables (from AR) against the payables (from AP). The payer is then able to discuss online with the counterparty any differences between AR and AP details. Mismatches can then be flagged, and in case of no agreement, disputed.

Therefore the subsidiaries have full visibility and control and the payer is still able to block a payment according to a set of rules. Corporate Accounting is not involved in reconciling the invoices anymore. After the payment run a file is distributed to the subsidiaries with all paid invoices which can be loaded into SAP to clean the books before month end. Each month the netting calendar that is set in the system defines the input cut-off date which is around the 10th of the month, the subsidiaries then have 3 days to reconcile mismatches and missing items. The result of the netting is debited or credited in the treasury system of SAP. Today all subsidiaries with any intercompany transactions are included in this solution.

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Benefits

• Reduced workload in Corporate Accounting
• Full visibility to all Intercompany invoices at any time
• Automated matching between AR and AP
• Integrated communication and dispute module
• Increased payment discipline
• Common pure browser platform for all subsidiaries

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