OCEA switches from Excel to Agicap to improve the reliability of its cashflow and investments

OCEA Group is a French company specialising in energy efficiency in buildings. Their customers are social landlords, co-ownership associations, companies, local authorities, office managers and property developers. They are the only player to integrate the entire value chain, from data collection (water, heating, electricity) to energy performance consultancy, including project management assistance and the integration of electric vehicle charging stations.

Since it was founded in 1996, the company has continued to grow both organically and through acquisitions, such as the 2022 acquisition of Qowisio.

The software is now used by more than a dozen employees in the finance department.

OCEA build their 2-week cash flow forecast in Agicap

The finance department needed to produce 2-week cash flow forecasts, taking into account the following constraints:

• There are several subsidiaries, but one of them generates most of the business, which means that the others have cash requirements.

• Financial management is based on P&L, which must be converted into cash.

• Cash flow forecasts for customer collections were unreliable due to the very large number of customers with diverse profiles.

Thanks to Agicap, OCEA group now has an up-to-date cash flow forecast. The P&L provided by management control is converted into a cash forecast using the dedicated Agicap module. The integration of historical banking data has enabled us to gain a better understanding of past cash flow trends, and thus to better model the cash flow forecast.

OCEA optimise their cash investments with Agicap

Following the sale of a subsidiary in 2022, the Group had a larger-than-usual cash surplus. With inflation and rising interest rates, it was all the more important to invest it correctly, as the shortfall would have been substantial. Thanks to Agicap, the finance department can define the optimum investment strategy at any given time, based on actual cash performance, and monitor its implementation. Agicap enables them to determine the remaining cash to be invested and the maximum investment period.

OCEA improve their reporting thanks to Agicap

Every month, the Finance Department prepares a cash report for General Management. It focuses on changes in the cash position compared to the previous month and year. At the same time, twice a year, in May and October, the forecasted P&L is done, enabling Nihal to update cash forecasts thanks to easy access to the difference between actual and forecast and the new EBITDA targets. The integration of Agicap has accelerated this process. Actual and forecast data are automatically reprocessed in the form of graphs in Agicap, so you can move from analysis to action. Above all, all the data can be exported in Excel format for reporting. "When I prepare my reports, I can export data from Agicap in just a few clicks to update my Excel file, to which I add other data. Eventually, however, the aim is to produce reports directly from Agicap's dashboards for the Finance Department." Nihal Atasay, Head of Accounting and Consolidation, OCEA Group.