Case Elkjøp ACCURATE FORECASTS AND IMPROVED CASH AND LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT

With around 300 retail outlets scat- tered across the Nordic region and “Elkjøp Nordic started to use OpusCapita turnover in the range of NOK 25 bil- liquidity in 2011 to automate the analysis lion a year, Elkjøp is one of the Nor- of cash flows. “Now we can spend more time dic area’s largest retail companies in predicting cash flows, and we see that our consumer electronics and electrical forecasts are more accurate.” household appliances Kenneth Bergerud, cash flow controller Elkjøp Nordic

Cash management a file that he sends to headquarters, the Expanding application high priority week’s cash flows and forecasts for fu- Deployment of OpusCapita Liquidity “Cash management and understanding ture cash flows are broken down into a was done country by country, and cur- the cash flows is extremely important to number of categories and types of costs, rently all banking transactions for all Nor- us. It is a high priority in our parent compa- such as salaries and rent. dic activities are included. In the future ny, Dixon Retail,” says Kenneth Bergerud, even more data from stores and ware- cash flow controller with Elkjøp Nordic. “Data volumes are huge. Previously houses will be used. we started work on this report on Sun- Elkjøp Nordic accounts for about one days, and spent almost all our time “The main purpose is to become more third of turnover in the Dixon Group. on manual work classifying the data. accurate in our cash flow projections. The weekly cash flow reports Bergerud Then there was no time left to analyse We will therefore try to make the system submits to the listed electronics giant cash flow, to look forward and make ‘smarter’ by including more and more data are therefore read with great interest. good forecasts,” Bergerud explains. in the system,” Bergerud continues. Reporting is very detailed. In the Excel Case Elkjøp

“The fewer errors, the more time we have to understand the cash flows and make accurate forecasts.”

Cash Flow controller Kenneth Bergerud, Elkjøp Nordic

The main banking partner Nordea pro- to understand the cash flows and make The Challenge vides the raw data for the bank transac- accurate forecasts,” Bergerud states. » Too much time was spent on tions. “We are very satisfied with the system,” manual work entering and Bergerud claims, who adds that he is classifying transaction data. This “Currently 70 per cent of all transactions considering expanding the use of the was at the expense of time that could be spent understanding the are correctly entered into the system. The OpusCapita tool to also include treasury cash flows and making accurate time we spend on manual work entering management. forecasts. and interpreting transactions has declined significantly,” Bergerud says, who adds The Solution that it is a challenge that the quality of » OpusCapita Liquidity automates transaction data to be entered into the entering and analysis of the cash system varies. flows from more than 300 stores scattered all over the Nordic coun- tries. “Among other things, there are » Bank transactions are broken different formats and local adjustments down into a number of categories in how bank transactions are presented. and cost types. This classification In order for the system to correctly ‘under- is the basis for detailed weekly stand’ and categorize bank transactions, liquidity reports with forecasts of continuous fine-tuning is carried out. future cash flows. The fewer errors, the more time we have

Elkjøp Nordic is one of the Nordic region’s largest retail companies in consumer electronics and electrical household appliances. Elkjøp Nordic operates in all the Nordic countries, represented by the Elkjøp and Lefdal chains in , in Sweden and Denmark, Gigantti in Finland, Elko in Iceland, Elding in the Faroe Islands and Pissifik in Greenland. Elkjøp Nordic is owned by British Retail. Contact

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