Metallbude: Gaining Control and Saving Time with Agicap's Spend Management
Furniture manufacturer Metallbude has integrated Agicap into its financial management processes, enabling more efficient navigation of its rapid growth and optimal liquidity management. Tobias Stermer, CEO & Head of Administration at Metallbude, explains how Agicap facilitates this and emphasises the importance of comprehensive liquidity planning and efficient spend management.
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Key takeaways
E-commerce brands such as Metallbude often fund their growth through their own cash flow. Given the highly seasonal nature of the business, it is essential to maintain an up-to-date overview of liquidity at all times.
Utilising multiple tools for financial management is cumbersome and heightens the risk of errors. The manual effort required for spend management and maintaining a liquidity overview is considerable.
Agicap addresses these challenges within a single application, making it an indispensable tool for Metallbude and significantly contributing to the achievement of their planned growth.
" "Having everything in one tool is the biggest advantage of Agicap for me. This way, we don't experience any unpleasant surprises regarding our liquidity. We see the cash flow every day and know how much we have left at the end of the day. This allows us to anticipate and mitigate liquidity bottlenecks early." "
€9 million
in revenue
50%
growth compared to the previous year
+ €1 million
in marketing expenses
Customer’s history
At Metallbude, customers receive high-quality furniture directly from in-house production. Since 2020, the brand has been selling timelessly designed pieces made of wood and metal through an online shop. Tobias Stermer is one of the four founders of the e-commerce brand and, as CEO and Head of Administration, he is responsible for the company's finances.
The company is growing rapidly. Founded in September 2020, the first million euros in revenue was achieved by the following summer. Today, planned revenue stands at nearly ten million euros. The biggest challenge of the business model is short-term liquidity management. In the e-commerce industry, it is common to experience significant seasonal fluctuations. For Metallbude, this means around half of the revenue is generated in the last quarter. To finance strong growth, seven-figure marketing expenses, and inventory primarily for the high-sales fourth quarter from its own cash flow, liquidity must be ensured at all times.
" "I don't want to use and switch between five or six tools; I prefer to have everything in one place. With Agicap, I have everything related to finances in one tool – from spend management to bank integration to liquidity planning." "
This posed a significant problem for Metallbude and Tobias Stermer. The current systems did not provide a comprehensive overview of all finances, as multiple tools were in use. Another challenge arose in the area of spend management. On average, 200 to 300 transactions per month without receipts – primarily from Meta and Google – required a high level of manual effort in spend management, just like other marketing expenses from various employees.
Customer’s needs
Overview of short-term liquidity: A precise overview of liquidity with a 30-day forecast that includes all expected transactions.
One tool for everything: No need to use and update five or six tools in parallel; instead, a financial tool that covers both spend management and liquidity planning.
Simplified spend management: A system that enables all employees with virtual cards to easily record expenses, which are then consolidated in one system.
Automated receipt allocation: Hundreds of transactions without invoices, a common practice among major advertising platforms like Google or Meta in e-commerce, should ideally be assigned automatically.
Easy collaboration with tax advisors: Transfer all relevant data from preparatory accounting with just a few clicks.
Solution
The solution to these challenges for Metallbude lies in a single tool: Agicap. Tobias Stermer and his team primarily use the solution for short-term liquidity planning and spend management.
In short-term liquidity planning, the 30-day forecast is particularly useful. Tobias Stermer reviews it every morning and can quickly identify potential liquidity bottlenecks in the near future. All revenues and sales from the online shop (accounting for 80 percent of total revenue) are included in the calculation, as well as all marketing expenses, supplier and goods costs, and other relevant items. This allows for quick actions in case of potential bottlenecks, whether by extending an invoice or launching a flash sale to generate liquidity quickly.
" "Agicap Spend is our favorite tool in the area of cash management. All marketing expenses flow directly into short-term liquidity planning. This way, I don't have to waste so much time on bookkeeping tasks." "
One reason why all data is available in real-time is the integration of Agicap Spend. Metallbude primarily works with virtual cards used by various employees for different purposes. From Tobias Stermer's perspective, the advantage is clear: all data flows live into the system, and employees are automatically reminded to upload receipts. This makes budgeting significantly easier and reduces manual effort.
The use of the tool is further enhanced by the interface with the tax advisory service. All Metallbude data is transferred via the DATEV interface, which has significantly reduced the workload for preparatory accounting compared to the time before Agicap.
" "Having everything in one tool is the biggest advantage of Agicap for me. This way, we don't experience any unpleasant surprises regarding our liquidity. We see the cash flow every day and know how much we have left at the end of the day. This allows us to anticipate and mitigate liquidity bottlenecks early." "
Conclusion
Agicap serves as an all-in-one tool for comprehensive cash management at Metallbude. While Agicap Spend and liquidity planning functions are at the forefront, the tool also integrates bank connections and interfaces with tax advisory services.
With Agicap, Tobias Stermer, the financial manager at Metallbude, has a real-time overview of all payment streams and cash flows, allowing him to identify liquidity bottlenecks before they occur. This is crucial for financing growth from the company's own cash flow and managing seven-figure marketing expenses.
In the area of spend management, Agicap significantly simplifies the handling of expenses. Hundreds of transactions without receipts can be automatically assigned to the correct invoice with just one click.
Agicap has streamlined the company's entire preparatory accounting process, resulting in significant time savings.
Hornberger Consulting
Business Sector:
Business services
Where:
Hamburg, Germany
Cashflow Problem:
Anticipate cash flow shortages beforehand, craft scenarios that are based on actual financial data, extend ERP-systems with cash flow management capabilities
M2A Media
Business Sector:
Media Agency
Where:
London, United Kingdom
Cashflow Problem:
Manage multiple entities during internalization, managing different currencies and different banking providers
“Agicap provides the view the board needs if it is going to make strategic decisions.”
Business Sector:
Software Development
Where:
Dublin, Ireland
Cashflow Problem:
High manual effort in consolidating the cash flow data of 8 companies and 15 bank accounts, high susceptibility to errors, outdated data and hardly any chance to provide management with reliable reports for strategic decisions.
