Case Study: The Chefs’ Warehouse achieves faster cash application, reduced lockbox costs, and improved visibility with BlackLine Cash Application

Saving Time & Resources by Bringing Cash Application In-House

The Chefs’ Warehouse, a specialty food distributor with more than $1.1 billion in annual sales and tens of thousands of SKUs across North America, faced growing complexity and rising lockbox keying fees as payment volumes increased across multiple ERP systems. The finance team wanted to automate cash application without relying on external keying services and with minimal IT burden, so they evaluated solutions that could handle a multi‑ERP environment and provide transparent pricing and better visibility.

They implemented BlackLine Cash Application (building on existing BlackLine tools) after a proof of concept that impressed both finance and IT. The solution instantly matches payments to invoices, enables an ERP‑agnostic shared‑service approach, and frees staff for strategic work. Results include roughly 20% reduction in lockbox fees to date (projected to reach ~36% once fully rolled out), time and resource savings, and improved visibility into match rates and customer payment behavior.

The Chefs’ Warehouse

Nelson Lopes

Director for Financial Reporting and Treasury