ClimatePartner

Founded in Munich in 2006, ClimatePartner is an international provider of climate action solutions for businesses. With more than 300 employees across 13 locations in Europe and the United States, the company supports over 6,000 customers in more than 60 countries.

Its services cover the entire climate action journey, from calculating carbon footprints and developing emissions reduction strategies to financing climate projects and communicating sustainability efforts transparently. During a period of rapid growth in the climate solutions market, the company expanded significantly through organic growth, resulting in increasing complexity across both its finance organization and group-wide systems landscape.

For the central treasury team, this growth meant processing information from an increasingly heterogeneous and decentralized systems landscape, with internationally distributed entities using different ERP systems and data sources. The expectation for finance processes was the same as for the core business: they should enable further growth, not stand in its way.

The challenge: Integrating multiple countries and decentralized systems after a period of rapid growth

ClimatePartner's rapid international expansion and the establishment of new entities across multiple countries—each working with its own local accounting and tax service providers—resulted in a highly fragmented system landscape across the group.

The central Treasury team, which at the time consisted of three people, was faced with the challenge of accurately recording and processing a growing number of intercompany transactions, including guarantees, loans, and cash pooling, while building a group-wide liquidity forecasting process that incorporated information from all relevant data sources and ensured that each forecast item was included only once, with double-counting avoided.

The Excel-based solution used up to that point could no longer keep pace with the complexity of the company structure. Gaining a consolidated, timely view of the group's cash forecast required significant effort and was often delayed, as a considerable amount of time was spent checking the accuracy and timeliness of data, formulas, and links. Mapping financial transactions in Excel also produced discrepancies with Accounting book values, often due to uncertainty around the single source of truth.

 "Updating all the Excel links alone took several hours every week—time we can now spend on much more valuable tasks."

– Uwe Drahtschmidt, Group Treasurer, ClimatePartner 

To keep pace with the company's growth, Treasury decided to replace its manual processes by implementing a Treasury Management System.

The solution: Bringing all financial operations onto one platform

After evaluating six Treasury Management System providers, ClimatePartner selected Nomentia.

"What convinced us about Nomentia was the credible presentation of the proposed solutions and the depth with which the Nomentia team engaged with our individual requirements. Nomentia's commitment and dedication throughout the implementation were truly unique in the market."

– Uwe Drahtschmidt, Group Treasurer, ClimatePartner

Nomentia's modular platform and convincing product roadmap were additional factors that gave ClimatePartner confidence in their long-term decision.
Today, all internal and external financial transactions at ClimatePartner are mapped and posted through Nomentia. Tailored interfaces integrate data from the payment system as well as the various ERP systems and other relevant systems. 

"All relevant financial information now comes together in a single consolidated view in Nomentia without requiring changes to the operational ERP processes of our individual entities."

– Uwe Drahtschmidt, Group Treasurer, ClimatePartner

For daily cash reporting and liquidity forecasting, cash flows from open receivables and payables, overdue items, and planned cash inflows and outflows from financial planning are transparently consolidated in Nomentia. Outdated or missing data is flagged or archived by the system based on standardized rules. Treasury can now immediately identify forecasting errors and special effects when preparing the forecast and align with management on relevant individual matters.

Cash pooling is now processed and interest calculations are performed automatically. A flexible manual settlement function also allows Accounting to offset intercompany receivables and payables directly against the cash pool without triggering actual cash movements.

Reporting has been tailored precisely to the needs of internal and external stakeholders. Thanks to customized permissions, management, Accounting, and auditors can access the information relevant to them directly, without a single Excel file being circulated.

During the implementation, ClimatePartner's Treasury team also took ownership of administering master data and system structures themselves, including creating new legal entities, managing users, and assigning access rights. The platform is therefore designed to scale alongside the business.

"We can now connect new entities and systems following an established blueprint and without extra support needed from Nomentia."

– Uwe Drahtschmidt, Group Treasurer, ClimatePartner

The results: A single source of truth for the entire finance department

With Nomentia in place, ClimatePartner not only transformed Treasury processes but also created value for Finance teams across the entire group.

• Greater financial transparency with fewer surprises: The Group CFO now has access to a robust, centralized overview of all financial transactions, supported by a weekly liquidity forecast with full drill-down capability to individual transactions.

• A single source of truth for all local accounting teams: Both internal Accounting and external accounting offices now rely on a dependable and consistent basis for their postings, eliminating discrepancies in the Finance context.

• Simplified compliance and audits: External auditors receive direct system access, significantly reducing follow-up questions and requests for additional information.

• Automated cash pooling with flexible intercompany settlement: Accounting can settle intercompany receivables and payables directly through the cash pool without requiring operational coordination with Treasury.

Although the market for sustainability solutions and the company's strong growth have since consolidated, ClimatePartner is well positioned for the future together with Nomentia.