How Pestokill Achieved a 72% Reduction in Overdue Balances

The Challenges

As Pestokill’s operations expanded across the UK, their finance team encountered increasingly complex challenges in managing their accounts receivable process. The manual nature of their collections system couldn’t scale efficiently with company growth, creating several critical pain points that affected cash flow and operational efficiency.

Disconnected Systems Creating Data Silos

Pestokill faced significant challenges with data fragmentation between their internal hub and ERP system. Invoice information, customer records, and payment statuses existed in separate systems, creating information gaps that made effective collections nearly impossible. The finance team struggled to get a unified view of outstanding invoices, leading to missed follow-ups and payment delays.

“Before implementing Kolleno, we had to constantly switch between multiple systems just to get a clear picture of our receivables situation,” explains Becky Rimmer, Head of Central Operations at Pestokill. “Information was scattered, making it difficult to know which accounts needed immediate attention.”

Overwhelming Manual Communications

The finance team spent countless hours crafting individual payment reminders, following up on outstanding invoices, and updating payment records. With no automation in place, even routine communications required significant manual effort, pulling staff away from more strategic financial activities.

Each outbound communication—whether an initial invoice notification, a payment reminder, or an escalation notice—had to be created, sent, and tracked individually. This not only consumed valuable time but also led to inconsistent messaging and follow-up gaps as the volume of transactions grew.

Inefficient Task Prioritization

Without a structured system to organize and prioritize collections tasks, the finance team struggled to focus on the most critical accounts. High-value overdue invoices sometimes received the same attention as smaller amounts. Meanwhile, there was no clear workflow for escalating accounts based on aging or risk profiles.

“We had no systematic way to determine which overdue accounts required immediate attention,” notes Oliwia Oginska, Senior Credit Controller at Pestokill. “Our team was constantly reacting to the most pressing issues rather than working through accounts strategically.”

Limited Visibility Into Collection Performance

The finance team lacked real-time visibility into key collection metrics. This made it nearly impossible to measure performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement improvements. Without accessible reports on key metrics, management couldn’t make data-driven decisions to optimize the accounts receivable process.

The Solution

Why Kolleno Accounts Receivable Management?

After evaluating their accounts receivable challenges, Pestokill needed more than just incremental improvements to their manual processes. They required a comprehensive solution that could transform their entire collections approach, provide real-time visibility into outstanding invoices, and free up their finance team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than administrative tasks.

Specifically, Pestokill needed to:

Implement structured task management to prioritize collections activities effectively.

Automate communication workflows to reduce manual follow-ups and ensure consistent customer outreach.

Integrate seamlessly with their Sage accounting system to maintain data consistency across platforms.

Provide payment flexibility for customers through an intuitive portal with multiple payment options.

After reviewing several accounts receivable solutions, Kolleno stood out as the clear choice. The platform’s powerful automation capabilities, intuitive task management system, and seamless integration with Sage aligned perfectly with Pestokill’s requirements.

“Kolleno instantly stood out,” explains Becky Rimmer, Head of Central Operations at Pestokill. “The platform’s ability to consolidate our data, automate communications, and provide a clear structure for our collections process was exactly what we needed.”

Task Manager for Strategic Collections

Prior to implementing Kolleno, Pestokill’s collections team lacked a structured approach to managing daily activities. Follow-ups were often reactive rather than strategic. Worse yet, there was no clear way to prioritize accounts based on value, aging, or risk.

Kolleno’s Task Management system changed everything. Now, the finance team starts each day with a clearly organized, prioritized list of activities. The system automatically assigns tasks based on predefined rules, ensuring that high-value and high-risk accounts receive appropriate attention.

“The task manager organises and plans our day, giving the team a clear overview of their daily tasks. It serves as a guiding hand, assigning responsibility and directing attention to key priorities,” explains Oliwia Oginska, Senior Credit Controller at Pestokill.

The system centralizes all collection activities in one place—from following up on overdue invoices to handling customer queries and processing payment promises. Team members can add notes, record customer interactions, and track progress directly within the platform. In other words, they can create a comprehensive audit trail that ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

This structured approach has transformed productivity. It allows the finance team to accomplish more in less time while ensuring consistent follow-up on all accounts—not just the loudest or largest ones.

AI-Powered Collection Workflows

Manual communication was one of the biggest pain points for Pestokill’s finance team. With Kolleno’s customisable workflows, 75% of outbound communications are now fully automated, saving the team substantial time while ensuring consistent customer outreach.

Kolleno’s workflow engine allows Pestokill to create sophisticated, multi-step communication sequences triggered by specific events such as invoice creation, payment due dates, or missed payments. These automated workflows ensure that customers receive timely, professional reminders without requiring manual intervention from the finance team.

The AI-powered system also adapts to customer behavior, adjusting communication timing and channels based on historical response patterns. This intelligent approach improves effectiveness while maintaining positive customer relationships through appropriate tone and timing.

“Before Kolleno, we’d spend hours crafting individual payment reminders and following up with customers,” says Becky Rimmer. “Now, our workflows handle routine communications automatically, allowing us to focus on more complex cases that truly require a personal touch.”

Perhaps most impressively, these workflows aren’t just automated—they’re personalized. The system uses customer data and payment history to tailor messages appropriately, creating a more effective and customer-friendly collections process.

Seamless Sage Integration

Data fragmentation between systems was a major challenge for Pestokill. Now, thanks to Kolleno’s seamless Sage integration, all financial data is synchronized automatically, creating a single source of truth for accounts receivable management.

This integration eliminated the need for manual data entry and reconciliation between systems. When an invoice is created in Sage, it appears automatically in Kolleno. When a payment is recorded, it updates across both platforms instantly. This bidirectional synchronization ensures that the finance team always works with accurate, up-to-date information.

“The Sage integration has been transformative,” notes Becky Rimmer. “We no longer waste time jumping between systems or manually updating records. Everything syncs automatically, giving us complete confidence in our data’s accuracy.”

The integration also extends beyond basic invoice and payment data to include customer information, credit terms, and custom fields specific to Pestokill’s operations. The finance team always has the context they need to manage collections effectively without switching between applications.

Customer Payments Portal

Kolleno’s customer payments portal has revolutionized how Pestokill’s clients interact with invoices and make payments. The portal provides customers with a modern, self-service interface where they can view outstanding invoices, access payment history, and settle balances using their preferred payment method.

This flexibility has significantly improved the payment experience for customers while accelerating collections for Pestokill. Rather than waiting for mailed checks or manual bank transfers, customers can now pay instantly with just a few clicks.

The portal also integrates with Kolleno’s communication system, automatically sending payment links in reminders and follow-ups. These embedded links remove friction from the payment process, making it easier for customers to settle invoices promptly.

The portal’s design is clean, intuitive, and mobile-friendly, ensuring that customers can manage their accounts from any device. This accessibility has been particularly valuable for Pestokill’s customers who need to approve and process payments while on the go.

Kolleno delivered what Pestokill’s finance team had always been lacking: control over collections. It automated routine tasks, provided structured workflows, and offered unprecedented visibility into every aspect of the accounts receivable process.

The Onboarding Experience

Implementing a new financial system can often be disruptive, but Pestokill found Kolleno’s onboarding process surprisingly smooth and efficient. The Kolleno team worked closely with Pestokill’s finance department to ensure the platform was configured to match their specific requirements and workflows.

Kolleno’s team took the time to understand Pestokill’s unique collections processes, customer segments, and communication preferences. This discovery phase allowed them to tailor the system to Pestokill’s exact needs rather than forcing the company to adapt to rigid, predefined workflows.

The Sage integration was streamlined and efficient, pulling in historical invoice data, customer records, and payment information without disrupting day-to-day operations. Custom fields and classifications were set up to match Pestokill’s existing categorization system, ensuring the transition felt natural to the finance team.

Training was comprehensive but concise, focusing on practical, day-to-day tasks rather than overwhelming the team with every feature at once. The intuitive interface meant that Pestokill’s finance team could quickly become proficient with the core functionality, with advanced features introduced gradually as they became comfortable with the system.

Shortly, the Pestokill had fully transitioned to Kolleno. All historical data was migrated, workflows configured, and the team was ready to leverage the platform’s full capabilities.

The Impact

The results speak for themselves. Since implementing Kolleno, Pestokill has achieved remarkable improvements across their accounts receivable operations:

• 72% reduction in the total overdue balance in the first 3 months
• 2.5 hours saved each day through automation
• 75% of outbound communication automated every month

But these statistics only tell part of the story. The real transformation has been in how Pestokill’s finance team operates on a daily basis.

Before Kolleno, collections were reactive, time-consuming, and often inconsistent. The finance team spent hours manually tracking overdue invoices, crafting individual follow-up emails, and updating spreadsheets. Manual reconciliation consumed valuable time that could have been spent on more strategic activities.

Today, Kolleno orchestrates a seamless collections process. AI-powered workflows automatically handle routine communications, ensuring customers receive timely, professional reminders without requiring manual intervention. The task manager organizes the team’s priorities, making sure nothing falls through the cracks and that high-value, high-risk accounts receive appropriate attention.

“With Kolleno, we finally have complete visibility and control over our collections process. We’ve moved from constantly playing catch-up to confidently staying ahead of our accounts receivable.” 

– Becky Rimmer, Head of Central Operations at Pestokill.

Ready to Transform Your Collections Process?

Book a demo today to see how Kolleno can revolutionize your accounts receivable management.

Watch the video to learn more:

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