Cleany

Cleaning up cashflow with automated payments

Cleany is an office cleaning company based in Paris. It sells around 33,000 cleaning hours a month and turned over EUR 11m in 2023. It also has a strong CSR policy, inspired by its founder’s grandfather.

“I’m the grandson of a janitor so we have strong values around respecting people and making sure they have everything they need to do great work in a respectful environment,” said Alexandre Bellity, founder and CEO, Cleany.

Cleaning is a low-margin industry, so getting paid on time is vital to ensuring Cleany can continue to invest in CSR practices while staying profitable. To ensure customers pay on time, every time, Cleany gets paid by GoCardless and manages and automates the cash collection process with Upflow.

The stress of late payments

Before getting paid by GoCardless Cleany faced major challenges with outstanding invoices.

“We learned the hard way that issuing an invoice doesn’t mean people will pay you,” explained Alexandre.

The days-sales-outstanding (DSO) problems this created meant Cleany had to raise extra money to fund its operations. It also meant work wasn’t much fun for Alexandre.

“As CEO a lot of my job is dealing with problems,” he said. “That meant making lots of calls to late payers, which took a lot of time and caused a lot of stress.”

An easy decision to make

When exploring ways to fix the problem, adopting GoCardless as a way to automatically collect payments from customers via Direct Debit was an easy decision for Cleany to make, and the implementation took only a few weeks.

“GoCardless came highly recommended by other entrepreneurs and the team that benchmarked the solution before we signed the deal told me it was a no-brainer,” said Alexandre.

Once Cleany had decided to push the button the technical implementation was extremely smooth. “It took just a few weeks and we didn’t need any third-party specialists. That’s not the case with most software and technology, which can take months and cost thousands,” added Alexandre.

Later, Cleany added the Upflow accounts receivable solution to its payments stack to drive further online payment adoption and move away from old school methods like cheque. 

“We had a consultant bailiff who did it the old school way, picking up the phone to pressure overdue customers with threats of escalation, but it was just one person and it was very manual,” said Alexandre. “With Upflow we have been able to create a set of metrics that drive automated chasing of late payments and define when we escalate things.” 

More cash in the bank – and more time in bed

The dream team of GoCardless and Upflow has transformed Cleany’s DSO and overall cashflow.

“DSO has gone from 90 days to just 14 thanks to GoCardless and Upflow,” said Alexandre.

The game-changing impact of GoCardless and Upflow can also be measured in something just as valuable to Alexandre: less stress and more hours of sleep.

“I haven’t had to call a customer about an unpaid invoice for 18 months, which I’m so glad about,” said Alexandre. “I also sleep a lot better at night now that we have lower risk around client debt, which is so important during tough economic times.”

Lean finance team

Today almost every single one of Cleany’s customers pays by Direct Debit. 

“Even one of our biggest customers and one of France’s biggest companies has signed up to pay by GoCardless,” said Alexandre.

The automation and reliability of GoCardless and Upflow ultimately means Cleany can run an extremely lean finance team.

“We only have two people in the finance team – the CFO and someone managing GoCardless and Upflow – which is amazing for a company with EUR 11 million in income,” said Alexandre. “Without GoCardless and Upflow we would need at least four or five people in finance.”

Lower risk = faster growth

With lower risk on its debts and more cash on hand Cleany is all set up to pursue its aggressive growth plans and expand its CSR agenda.

“More money in the bank means more flexibility to invest in CSR training and taking care of our employees,” said Alexandre. “We’re also targeting EUR 50 million in revenue by 2030 – I wouldn’t want to imagine the DSO problems we’d be facing without GoCardless and Upflow.”

This leads Alexandre to his final words for anyone looking to stamp out late payments with GoCardless: “Just do it – treasury and cashflow management is too sensitive not to manage thoroughly and perfectly, which GoCardless will allow you to do.”