Outsourced Finance Back Office and Credit Control for Driver Provider UK

Driver Provider UK is a British recruitment agency supplying HGV drivers to waste management, drainage, food and logistics companies. It was launched in 2021 in response to the exceptional shortage of drivers in the UK, particularly those with skills specific to those industries.
Nick Campbell, a recruitment consultant with an 18-year track record, is CEO of Driver Provider:

“When we launched Driver Provider – on April 1st – Britain was emerging from COVID-19 lockdown, while the industry was contending with Brexit and changes to the IR35 regulation. It was a difficult time due to the well-publicised driver shortage in the UK, but that didn’t
necessarily hinder us. Having almost 20 years in the industry in the same sector, I’ve worked with a lot of drivers and have many contacts.”

When first starting up, Driver Provider faced the problem of requiring strong process and expertise from the outset, but with only a low level of business initially to meet the cost. One of the directors had experience of using Sterling, so understood the benefits of outsourcing in such a scenario. Sterling was able to implement a service to cover the complete back office scope, starting at minimal scale and cost, but ramping up quickly to meet the growing demand as Driver Provider took advantage of the market opportunity.

Finance Back Office: Seamless Integration
On a weekly basis Sterling manages driver hours and expenses data. This entails receiving driver’s logged hours, getting corresponding confirmations from the end-client to make sure they match and resolving any related queries. We process this data and send it to the drivers’ umbrella payroll companies, which in turn invoice us for their clients’ pay.

Nick Campbell, Driver Provider: “This is where Sterling has really come into play. They’ve allowed me to not to have to focus on the back office. I trust them completely to look after my credit control and payroll. That has also allowed me not to take on extra staff.”

Scaling Service to Meet Demand
Driver Provider UK grew rapidly from the very start, with Sterling scaling up service as needed. Now that Driver Provider has a solid base of corporate clients, as well as ad hoc clients coming to them in reaction to short-term increases in demand for drivers, Sterling can put more service time into the early part of the week, when most focus is needed.

Daniel Finnegan, Finance & Accounting Team Leader, Sterling: “We are an integrated part of our client’s business, so that divisions between us are invisible. We look after many operations, including liaising with their suppliers; issuing, processing and reviewing invoices; taking incoming calls about payments or other queries; and dealing with any questions their drivers have.”
The most important metric of success for this process is how quickly the finance department can close a month, since there can be absolutely no delays. This means completing and delivering management data to the client exactly when they need it, which is up to five working days into the next month. We aim to finish well ahead of this deadline.

Nick Campbell, Driver Provider: “When I ran my first business I had to go through timesheets, checking hours, sending them to the client, getting the clients to agree to the costing, then getting a PO number, raising the invoice and keeping an eye on all of that. Sterling allowed me to hand over that part of Driver Provider’s business and over the last couple of years we have built enough trust for me to not have to be concerned about anything that they do.”

Credit Control and Debt Recovery
Sterling also provides Driver Provider’s credit control function, which includes new client credit checking and onboarding, invoice production, collection and payment allocation. If any clients refuse to pay then they are referred to Sterling’s debt recovery team. Driver Provider also have access to Sterling’s solicitor specialising in staffing and recruiting debt, should litigation be necessary.

Mike McBride, Credit Control Team Manager, Sterling: “For the credit control side of the service, we use Day Sales Outstanding as the metric for how quickly invoices are paid. In this case, we achieve 38 days, from date of invoice to actual payment, against an industry average of 50 days. This is beneficial for cashflow.”

Continuity and Trust
A client’s experience with Sterling begins with a dedicated person as their point of contact, week in, week out, so that relationships are built with customers, suppliers and stakeholders. Trained absence cover is provided within the team, so the service works each week without fail.

Daniel Finnegan, Finance & Accounting Team Leader, Sterling: “With other finance and accountancy services providers, particularly bigger companies, they can have a detached, anonymous approach. Clients don’t have the connection that we believe they should have. Driver Provider know who at Sterling is responsible and we’ve built personal relationships.”

Synchronised and Integrated Systems
Because Sterling has been with Driver Provider from the beginning, we have been able to embed streamlined processes that we thought would be a good fit right away. In other cases, legacy systems can limit the flexibility of processes. Using Xero, the industry benchmark for cloud-based accounting platforms, gives us the scope to integrate many processes. We can connect to bank account feeds which allows us to see clearly how invoices issued correspond with payment allocations. This also makes management account report generation straightforward and comprehensive.

Help with Terms of Business
During implementation Driver Provider asked Sterling for advice on the contracts they planned to use with their clients. Sterling’s solicitor used his expertise in the staffing and recruiting sector to draft water-tight agreements for Driver Provider, ensuring the business is in the strongest possible position should it encounter a difficult client.

Nick Campbell, Driver Provider: “Sterling has given us the peace of mind to get to where we are. We have been happy with what we achieved to date. I’ve got so far, with turnover now at £1.5m, but we’ve got so much more growing to do. We’ve now narrowed our focus to supply a specific sector with well-trained drivers. We wouldn’t have reached this stage of our development without Sterling. I can focus on the growing the business, while they look after the back office.”