CCT - Collections - Operational Procedure Customer Services (SBS Curitiba)

Table of contents 

1. Objective and Scope 

   1.1 Objective of this Procedure

   The purpose of this document is to explain the interactions the Collections team has daily with Customer Services and Sales teams. Best practices suggestions, guidance to escalations, description of CS (Customer Services) responsibilities, and Sales.

   1.2 Scope 

   This procedure applies to all collectors who interact with CS and Sales.

   2. Overview of Customer Services

   
   

   Customer Service is the team responsible for:

   • Billing

   • Ensure that customer orders are following all the agreements made by the sales team 

   • Policies and requirements of each GBU

   
   

   Customer services need to add orders precisely in the SAP system, containing the price, quantity, and terms agreed with the customer. They also need to monitor deliveries to ensure to carry out according to the expected delivery time and material shipped.

   Problems with billing, collections (any issues we have in the invoice sent to the customer), the Collections team will contact Customer Services to resolve. Each Purchase Order has more information and documentation on each customer's billing forms and condition.

   Customer service communicates directly with internal stakeholders to ensure that purchase orders are filled on time.

   They also provide support to the sales team, where they receive prices treated with each customer, terms agreed for invoices and purchase orders, and carry out this registration, to be able to issue all documentation to the final customer correctly.

   Customer support is responsible for maintaining orders in the system, such as shipping the material - "shipping" - terms, quantities, information of the carriers "carriers," delivery. Most of the topics about the invoice or delivery documentation are the Customer Service's responsibility - which we contact daily, as this is the essential information and is widely used by the collection team.

   3. Interactions Customer Services have:

   Customer Services interact directly with:

   
   

   • Sales team (prices, terms, any extraordinary event with discounts, special prices) - this information needs to be clear to the CS team;

   • Communicate with the logistics team;

   • Planning - which is related to the delivery of material;

   • Account administration and management team;

   • Data Team - To maintain, update information such as address, plants (GBUs), bank details within the SAP system;

   • Pricing team - to confirm/change prices;

   • CC&T - We have a very intense interaction with the customer service team, as there is always some discrepancy in price, quantity, so when it comes to the collections team, we have to check with CS what to do, and it is the team that we escalate these points - usually escalated via email.

   Example: a customer who sends an invoice with the wrong price. We sent it to CS to approve. If it confirms the price is incorrect, CS will cancel the original and rebill the invoice.

   
   

   4. Order Lifecycle:

   
   

   • Sales order - Order received, confirmed, added to the system, and reviewed;

   • Availability and Credit Check - Order confirmation and credit analysis;

   • Outbound / Delivery - Check the stock and separate material for the order in the system;

   • Picking / Packing - Physically separate and pack for shipping

   • Transportation - TMS - Transportation Management System - Transportation Management System - shipping scheduling and tracking

   • Goods Issue - Shipping of goods

   • Freight costs - Billed automatically during the night, if there are no impediments such as billing block or missing freight costs in the system

   • Billing - material delivered. The invoice is distributed by email or sent to the billing address

   5. Commercial team:

   Collectors usually work with three teams:

   • Sales - They sell Solvay's products;

   • Customer services: They issue invoices and have all the documentation. 

   • The credit team checks on that customer's condition, if everything is up to date if we can sell to the customer if you have any credit. They are also responsible for prices, payment terms, discounts if you pay in advance or not, depending on the relationship we have with that specific customer and maintaining future sales with that customer, through trust, delivering the best service to guarantee future sales.

   Often the CS team itself turns to the sales team when we escalate a specific situation for them. Example: when sales agree on terms that are different from the documentation that customer services have — price, quantity, delivery.

   Standard Terms: As we have several kinds of payment terms, it is according to the customer.

   The sales team generally has more high-level contacts with customers.

   The collection team usually contacts accounts payable. And when we don't get an answer, the sales team can contact a manager or board to help with payment collection.

   6. Shipping Documentation:

   These are some terms that we will see in our day to day collection.

   
   

   • Bill of Lading (BOL) A Bill of Lading is a written receipt from a carrier for the transportation of materials;

   • Proof of Delivery (POD): is the receipt signed by the recipient of the materials - with all information regarding the delivery (quantity, date, and whatever is mandatory according to each product);

   • Packing list - Bill of materials: this document serves as a means for the recipient to verify that the items identified on the bill of lading are delivered to the recipient;

   • Commercial or proforma invoice: sent to the buyer before delivery of the shipment. Necessary document for a customs broker to show the value of the goods, fees, and taxes: Commercial or proforma invoice sent to the buyer before delivery of the shipment. Necessary a document for a customs broker to show the value of the goods, fees, and taxes. It indicates the buyer, seller, date, terms of sale, quantity, packaging, description, amount, and insurance rates. This commercial (or proforma) invoice sometimes the customer pays before receiving the product, so there is no way to generate the invoice, as it is only generated after the delivery of the material - as information, it is not very common to have requests for products. Form for the CCT. So, for the client to pay, he needs a document for what the proforma serves. After they receive the goods, the invoice is generated, and we clear this open invoice in our system - usually, GBUs do this to get cash in advance;

   • Certificate of Analysis (CoA): A Certificate of Analysis is a document issued by Quality Assurance that confirms that a regulated product meets the specifications of your product;

   7. When to escalate?

   Collection team escalates to CS, Sales, or credit when the customer presents:

   • Material issues

   • Invoice issues

   • Credit notes - when the customer pays the invoice with a different amount than it is, we need to understand why. If necessary, we send it to the customer service, and they issue a credit to resolve this difference.

   • Debit / Rebill Notes - when there is an error, or there is a need to reissue the invoice, and sometimes they directly issue the invoice to the customer, depending on the specificity of each customer.

   • Material delivery

   • Update Master Data - SAP - when the customer changes, telephone, bank details. - sometimes, the customer does not pay the invoice for not having received it - it is usually the data that is out of date in our system.

   
   

   It is possible to check who should be escalated in the company org chart. Usually, we escalate to the Customer Services Managers related to the Business Unity we are trying to contact unsuccessfully. 

   
   End of document.