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Discover how the global Ship and Crew Management company streamlines complex financial operations using Aritma Control and Aritma Pay.
We save a lot of time by not doing this manually. Now we automatically reconcile transactions on a daily basis and know that we are always up-to-date with our bookkeeping.
OSM Thome (previously OSM Maritime Group) is a Norwegian group of worldwide companies that provides services in the ship management sector both in the form of crew management and full technical management. With more than 30 years’ experience in the maritime industry, they currently employ in excess of 30,000 sailors from 70 different countries. The company also operates more than 1000 vessels. As a result, the business handles extremely high number of payments on behalf of its shipping companies.
Managing vast transactions across currencies became inefficient and error-prone with manual processes as OSM Thome grew.
OSM Thome implemented Aritma Control and Aritma Pay, automating reconciliation and payment processes, integrating with Visma Business.
Automation led to significant time savings, improved accuracy, and support, enabling daily reconciliations and streamlined operations.
OSM Thome, managing vessels worldwide, faced a challenge with handling a vast volume of transactions in multiple currencies. Jostein Aase, Group Controller, highlighted the need for precise payments to ensure smooth operations for shipping owners. When Aase joined the company in 1996, there were just a handful of people working in the accounting department split across Norway and its Manilla office in the Philippines, but today there is a team of 200 – necessitating robust systems and streamlined processes.
– Since we operate vessels on behalf of shipping owners, ensuring that we have good systems in place that run properly without any downtime provides them with great certainty, Aase emphasized.
As the company grew, the manual handling of transactions became impractical and error-prone. Aase noted the inefficiencies and potential for mistakes in processing numerous transactions manually.
– We simply didn’t have the time to keep on processing that many transactions manually any longer. It was taking too long, and manual processes lead to the possibility of errors, Aase stated.
OSM Thome adopted Aritma Control, integrated with their accounting system, Visma Business, to automate and reconcile accounts continuously. This automation allowed for daily reconciliation and transaction checks, significantly reducing manual efforts.
– We began by trialling automatic reconciliation of bank transactions, and we found it worked very well. We save a lot of time by not doing this manually. Now we can reconcile transactions on a daily basis and know that we are always up-to-date with our bookkeeping, Aase said.
OSM Maritime Group is an umbrella for dozens of subsidiary companies, which means that the accounts team have hundreds of accounts to stay on top of. To address the complexities of the payment process, OSM Thome also implemented Aritma Pay. This solution automated both receipts and payments, eliminating the need for manual online bank logins and could instead work directly in Visma Business.
– One of my colleagues who is responsible for our bookkeeping told me she found it really beneficial for inbound payments to be filtered straight into the right client in Visma, so that she could reconcile the transaction right away. This is the real upside here, where we’ve streamlined our day-to-day activities in all matters related to bank transactions, Aase mentioned.
The automation provided by Aritma Control and Aritma Pay led to substantial time savings and improved accuracy in their financial operations. Daily reconciliations ensured up-to-date bookkeeping, and streamlined processes reduced the risk of errors.
– Now we can reconcile transactions on a daily basis and know that we are always up-to-date with our bookkeeping, Aase noted.
OSM Thome benefited from continuous support from Aritma, facilitating quick resolutions to any issues and contributing to more efficient operations. The company plans to expand its use of Aritma solutions to further enhance its accounting processes.
Although OSM Thome has been using Aritma’s solutions for many years, they still see opportunities to make their accounting processes even better and more streamlined:
– We’re only going to expand our partnership with Aritma. Among other plans, we want to start using Aritma Control to reconcile other balance sheet accounts. At any rate, we are keen to do so in respect of large volume accounts where we disburse payments to thousands of sailors, make loan repayments, or have advances that are being held and need to be recognised in the balance sheet. You need to stay in control of your balance sheet, and this is a great tool to help you do that, Aase stated.
OSM has now automated the full payment process, and Aase feels that the company has benefited from great support throughout:
– As far as support from Aritma goes, we’ve really worked brilliantly together. We’ve remained in constant contact via Teams and there’s always help at hand if we find ourselves stuck," Aase said.
OSM Thome’s journey with Aritma exemplifies the transformative impact of automated financial solutions on large, complex organizations.
Recognize these challenges in your financial operations? Discover how Aritma Control and Aritma Pay can streamline and automate your processes today, or reach out to our team for more information.
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Aritma AS is a licenced PSD2 provider through the Norwegian Financial Authority (Account Information Service Providers).