Helen Oy

The coronavirus pandemic has affected the entire world. What does the crisis look like from the perspective of the finance department of a large energy company? What tools are most useful when the operational environment changes drastically?

Accounting Specialist Antti Hänninen answers the call in his living room. He is working from home, as is the whole finance department. Everything that can be done remotely is done via the web or over phone.

"The workload has increased significantly. More invoices than before have to be processed. The importance of cash management has also increased. The situation is monitored much more closely now. Monthly reports and forecasts are no longer enough. The company's cash flow is tracked weekly, even daily."

Antti Hänninen, Accounting Specialist, Helen Ltd

An important part of Mr. Hänninen’s work is improving processes. In the autumn of 2019, one such project was automating cash management and short-term cash forecasting by implementing the Nomentia Cash Flow Forecasting solution.

Previously, at Helen Ltd. only the account book and upcoming major events were forecasted on a daily basis. It was determined that short-term cash flow management and forecasting needed to be more accurate. This need has increased since the onset of the pandemic.

Luckily the Cash Flow Forecasting solution had already been in use at Helen Ltd for six months before the global crisis hit. The finance department reacted by putting together a workgroup of experts from different departments of the company. All of them possessed good knowledge of their sectors' cash flows and what could affect them. The group was able to quickly and correctly pinpoint what kind of data needed to be collected in this novel situation.

"At the moment, our cycles are stabilizing and Nomentia cash flow forecasting fits well into our day-to-day work. Adjustment work is largely complete within the parent company. Next up is the same process for our subsidiaries."