Tilbago automates debt collection processes and provides support with accounts receivable management. The cloud solution can be used via your browser. Tilbago is operated from PostFinance’s data center. It enables business customers to manage their payment collection service independently and cost-effectively.
With Tilbago, PostFinance has won the “Best Collaboration with a Startup” award at the Corporate Startup Summit 2019 in Zurich. The prize was awarded for the successful collaboration with the PostFinance innovation laboratory, from the development process right through to its launch in 2016.
A debt collection process is the last resort in the customer relationship. It should be used with great care to avoid tarnishing the company’s image. An indication of this is the high number of orders to pay that drop through the letterbox of debtors in Switzerland each year : almost three million. This huge number of debt collection processes affects a large share of the population, but also the companies which incur high costs as a result.
Due to the high manual workload involved in the debt collection process in the past, companies usually outsource it to a payment collection company. They still have quite a strong influence over how debt collection is carried out. They act as the creditor themselves in the debt collection process or transfer everything to their payment collection partner. In both cases, the correct handling of the procedure is vitally important to the customer relationship. “A customer is still a customer even if you have to issue them with an order to pay,” says David Fuss, CEO of tilbago. The Lucerne-based fintech start-up handles the digital processing of the debt collection procedure in cooperation with PostFinance. “A permanent relationship of trust helps to enforce the claim, avoids misunderstandings and fosters mutual agreement. It also allows customers facing difficulties to get back on their feet.” In order to focus on the customer and their individual problem, it is vitally important to retain control over the entire debt collection process. In the past, this required extensive knowledge of the legal framework and the various cantonal procedures.
tilbago makes it easier for SMEs, in particular, to support their customers through the difficult period of the payment collection process and to shorten its duration. The benefits: accounts receivable management is simplified, putting less strain on cash flow. The process is as easy as sending a reminder. The debt collection offices of the municipalities register in the digital process and the software carries out the payment collection procedure step by step. As a result, companies obtain their accounts receivable sooner than they would under a conventional procedure. They also only pay a fixed price per case and receive volume discounts. The accounts receivable are not sold. In other words: no debt collection, no costs. “We’re not a debt collection agency,” explains tilbago CEO David Fuss, “but instead a neutral solution provider for the self-processing of payment collection cases.” This is very important to SMEs for whom every customer counts: “Unreasonable payment collection can damage your image,” says Fuss. “Firstly, many customers only face problems at certain times and, secondly, news of bad experiences quickly spreads via social media.”
There is no need for software installation or expensive changes to the company’s own ICT infrastructure. The data connections between business customers and tilbago are secure: the application is operated at PostFinance’s data center on its own servers. Customers can store the payment collection data locally at the touch of a button at the end of the procedure and delete it from the cloud. The secure cloud solution enables authorized employees to manage tasks centrally. They obtain access to their own data sets. The status can also be checked on any device with Internet access.
