Waste Connections is a North American integrated waste services company that provides waste collection, transfer, disposal and recycling services, primarily of solid waste. It has operations in both the United States and Canada, and headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas and Vaughan, Ontario.
Need
Waste Connections entered the Canadian market in 2016. Their Canadian locations were manually processing thousands of payment transactions a month, taking days to complete the deposit and posting processes. Waste Connections’ invoicing and collection process was decentralized, taking in a large volume of low-dollar amount payments in multiple locations. In some instances, customers would send payments to multiple sites which required employees to trade the money between each location. Furthermore, the disparity of payment volume between customers meant that some Waste Connections sites had a low number of payments to process, while others had volumes in the thousands. Without a Canadian bank offering a centralized lockbox solution, Waste Connections turned to PNC, who has been doing business north of the border since 1998 with offices in Toronto and Mississauga.
Solution
Waste Connections was seeking a direct relationship with a financial services company to improve lines of communication, accelerate delivery and expedite availability of funds. They also wanted to reduce manual workflow to free up resources. Waste Connections had already worked with PNC in the US to re-engineer their collections process in 2019 and PNC recommended Integrated Receivables for Canada to leverage the PNC Treasury Management Platform across North America. PNC recommended Integrated Receivables, a comprehensive system to manage checks that can easily update customer accounts and maximize cash flow with timely, online access to check images and other remittance information.
PNC and Waste Connections exchanged ideas throughout the implementation process to ensure the right workflows and systems were in place to eliminate duplication of existing processes. The team worked also worked to streamline the invoice process by adding an OCR coupon to bring consistency and cost savings for the Canadian market. PNC was able to customize a receivables solution that met Waste Connections’ specifications and provided flexibility for future enhancements.
Results
Waste Connections now processes checks in a matter of hours, which has automated and streamlined their back-office operations and reduced costs. This solution proved particularly helpful during the global pandemic when Waste Connections employees were not permitted onsite. PNC’s Integrated Receivables solution was able to process incoming payments while employees worked remotely. The solution also trimmed Waste Connections’ Days Sales Outstanding to up to five days — making a tremendous difference financially.
“PNC has been an essential piece of both our receivables and payables matrix,” said Joshua Moehle, treasury manager, Waste Connections. “Their attention to detail and top-notch customer service has provided efficiencies, which have reduced our overhead and decreased DPO, while providing a seamless experience for our customers. We’ve been very happy with our relationship with PNC.”
PNC has been an essential piece of both our receivables and payables matrix. Their attention to detail and top-notch customer service has provided efficiencies, which have reduced our overhead and decreased DPO, while providing a seamless experience for our customers. We’ve been very happy with our relationship with PNC.
