Catapulting Cash Flow: Xentral's Offline-to-Online Payments Shift Spurs an 80% Reduction in Outstanding Receivables

Due to offline payment methods, Xentral faced limitations in scaling its operations and expanding globally. Around 40% of customers paid via SEPA (a direct debit model available in 35+ European countries), requiring manual updates in their legacy ERP system, while the remaining 60% relied on invoice-based payments that demanded constant follow-ups.

Besides being highly time-consuming to its lean finance team, the late payments impacted its cash flows and, ultimately, the bottom line.

The Xentral team had a specific problem: German B2B customers are accustomed to paying by invoice. Asking them to switch to card or SEPA Direct Debit required more than a system change — it required giving customers a reason to make the switch themselves. The answer was the Chargebee self-serve portal. Rather than asking customers to contact Xentral to update payment details, the portal let customers upgrade their own plan, change their user licenses, and update payment information without involving the support team. "Our primary goal was to ensure customers understood the long-term benefits of this change. By switching to online payments, our customers could leverage the Chargebee self-serve portal for plan upgrades or user license changes instead of contacting our team. This convenient solution proved an instant success, significantly saving time for our customers and support teams," said Julian.

Chargebee's integrations with both Mollie and Stripe allowed Xentral to support SEPA Direct Debit and card payments simultaneously — covering the two dominant online payment methods in the German market without building separate infrastructure for each.

Xentral recognized that successful implementation required cohesive internal efforts and customer-centricity. They mapped out crucial phases, such as transferring SEPA mandates, gathering payment information, and migrating subscriptions. Then they worked backward on what level of communication the customers should (or should not) receive at each phase.

The following flowchart illustrates Xentral's strategic approach and phased execution plan, spanning over five months.

• 90% subscriptions on auto-pilot: Through this initiative, Xentral successfully transitioned approximately 90% of customer subscriptions to online payment modes, reserving offline options for high-value subscriptions. This shift significantly boosted productivity and efficiency for the Finance team, as nine out of ten subscriptions now operate seamlessly without manual intervention.

• Reduction in outstanding receivables: The transition to online payments increased on-time payments and eliminated the need for manual follow-ups, leading to an impressive 80% reduction in outstanding receivables within just five months. This achievement directly improved cash flow, further strengthening Xentral's financial position.

• Capital savings and better resource allocation: Despite processing 50% more revenue than the previous year, Xentral's lean finance team handled the increased workload without requiring additional staff. This capitalizes on better resource allocation and ensures efficient operations to support the company's growth trajectory.