Case Study: Fletcher Steel achieves automated cash allocation and faster month-end closures with Esker’s Cash Application

By implementing Esker’s Cash Application solution, Fletcher Steel has automated its payment allocation process and eliminated month-end closure headaches

Fletcher Steel, the steel distribution arm of Fletcher Building in New Zealand, processes hundreds to thousands of transactions daily for roughly 8,000 customers across multiple business units. Its collections team was overwhelmed by manual cash-allocation tasks—pulling data from varied payment sources and formats, resolving missing remittances and hundreds-line remittances, and working long hours to meet month-end deadlines—resulting in high stress and significant unapplied payments.

In April 2021 Fletcher Steel implemented Esker’s Cash Application to centralize remittance capture, automate matching and ERP reconciliation, and provide AI-driven suggestions for exceptions. The automation delivered measurable gains: unallocated payments fell ~20–30%, end-of-month processing time dropped ~40%, large remittance processing moved from 2+ hours to seconds (when remittance details are correct), and daily banking time fell from 5/16 hours to under 1/7 hours. The team now spends less time on routine work, focuses on collections and exceptions, and benefits from improved visibility, faster cash allocation and reduced stress.

Fletcher Steel

Mozima Mohammed

National Credit Manager