Catapult Wealth eliminates debtors with predictable cash flow
Financial planning business Catapult Wealth grappled with debtor issues due to disconnected proposal, invoicing and payment processes. Ignition unified and automated these workflows, improving cash flow and eliminating debtors.
"Ignition took multiple problems away in one package. It became a single point where we could issue an invoice, collect a payment, track acceptance, and automate invoicing in Xero, all through placing a single proposal into the system."
- Dylan Evans, General Manager at Catapult Wealth
The challenge: Poor cash flow from manual and unintegrated processes
Catapult Wealth's client engagement and invoicing process was pretty standard—they would have a conversation with a client and send a proposal based on their financial planning needs. Once the client agreed, the team would send an engagement letter and invoice them monthly for ongoing services.
It's straightforward in theory, but because the business manually invoiced and collected payment from clients, the team ran into issues like drawn-out workflows, delayed payments, and cash flow challenges.
Manual workflows that hindered the flow of operations
According to Dylan Evans, General Manager at Catapult Wealth, the firm's initial processes were cumbersome and involved several steps.
The team would use an engagement letter template and send it via Docusign to get the client's signature. They would then use Xero to invoice the client and wait for them to initiate the payment.
"Someone would manually raise the invoice, send it out, and chase it up...it was multiple steps," Dylan explains.
In some cases, they also ran into human error issues, such as missing step completions.
"The manual process would lead to problems where sometimes we would get payment, but no one had created the invoice. That's one example of what was happening, so getting a good handle on exactly where everything was was difficult."
Debtor issues that led to poor cash flow
Every business knows the importance of cash flow—especially when collections start piling up. Because Catapult Wealth had no streamlined way to collect funds automatically, outstanding invoices became a problem and payments were delayed.
"Our old process filled our system with invoices, but the payment side of the equation wasn't happening as well as we'd like."
Dylan recalls looking at the firm's financials with the CFO and seeing that while they were invoicing clients the right amounts, the cash simply wasn't flowing through fast enough.
"When I looked on Xero, the numbers looked good, but when we looked on the cash flow side, we had a large debtors book."
"It wasn't because clients weren't paying intentionally; it's just because our process wasn't good enough to capture their payments."
The solution: Ignition to unlock better cash flow and eliminate debtors
The business made the switch to Ignition, and doing so catapulted its efficiency and financial health to new heights.
Adopting Ignition enabled Catapult Wealth to replace its disjointed processes—which involved manual steps and multiple apps—with one seamless platform. This meant client proposals, engagement letters, invoices, and payments were all managed in one place, reducing errors and saving time.
Now, when Catapult Wealth brings on a new client, the team leverages standardized proposal and engagement letter templates to quickly send agreements from Ignition. Payment details are captured when clients sign the proposal, and payment for the initial engagement is collected upfront.
Ignition also automatically generates invoices in Xero, and collects payments on a monthly basis for ongoing financial planning services—without Dylan or anyone in his team ever having to get involved.
With client agreements, billing, and payments handled in one platform, Catapult Wealth is able to run tighter, more efficient operations.
"Ignition just solved for all our client engagements and invoicing through the one software product, which was pretty big. Multiple steps got crunched into one," says Dylan.
And because the team could collect payments upfront, cash flow improved dramatically, and debtor issues were eliminated.
"We've basically had no cash flow problems since using Ignition because there are no clients that have come on board that haven't paid. They just don't exist."
Ready to transform your business like Catapult Wealth?
Join the 7,500+ smartest businesses running on Ignition.