“Atlar gives us peace of mind about our cash positions, so we can move from control to action and focus on strategy. Without it, I’d need to hire double the team, and we’d probably still be working extra hours.”
THE CHALLENGE
A global supply chain business running treasury on spreadsheets
Forto is a Berlin-based, tech-enabled freight forwarder that coordinates shipments across the full supply chain on behalf of its customers. Founded in 2016, the company has grown to more than 500 people across 13 offices in Europe and Asia, a digital-first business in an industry where most work still happens manually.
That growth carried a cost inside finance. Every new market added entities, banks, and accounts, and the tooling underneath did not keep up.
“We didn’t have a treasury tool. Everything was more or less done in Google Sheets, so we didn’t always have an up-to-date view of our cash positions,” says Oliver Werner, SVP of Global Finance and Accounting.
For Caio Kruse, Team Lead for Corporate Finance and Financial Risk, that meant starting each day inside the banks. Balances came out of five or six separate portals and were pieced together by hand into a group position that was out of date by the time it was finished.
“Imagine working across different countries in Europe and Asia. The complexity of information is enormous, and without a tool that aggregates it, we were spending hours producing reports that were prone to errors. That didn’t let us grow very fast.”
THE SOLUTION
Choosing Atlar for Business Central fit and bank connectivity
Forto’s requirements were shaped by a decision it had already made: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central would be the accounting core. Any treasury platform had to work with it natively rather than through exports and templates.
“First of all, there was a fit with our overall system environment,” Oliver says. “Being able to connect Atlar with our ERP system, Business Central, was one of the main advantages we saw.”
The second factor was the team behind the product.
“We felt the Atlar team was flexible and agile in supporting us through the whole go-live,” he says. “It was a great success for everyone involved, our internal team and Atlar’s, and that played a real part in the decision.”
Atlar builds and maintains direct connections to banks in more than 100 countries, all in-house, and replaced Forto’s portal logins with a single platform. Payments, balances, transactions, and reconciliation now run through one interface, with four-eyes approval applied the same way regardless of which bank sits behind the payment. For a team whose remit includes financial risk, that consistency mattered as much as the visibility.
“There’s always four-eyes approval, and if there’s ever a payment we’re not sure about, we can trace exactly what happened,” Caio says.
“You don’t need days of training or a certification to use Atlar,” Oliver adds. “You can start right away, and that’s very important, especially for young companies.”
THE RESULT
Idle cash earning yield and treasury ready for the next market
The morning is where the change shows first. Checking group liquidity, once a portal-by-portal exercise, takes 15 minutes now. “Those first 15 minutes save me hours later,” Caio says.
The most direct financial return came from cash scattered across operating accounts, where it sat earning nothing. Forto now pools the excess and puts it to work, leaving each entity only the working capital it needs. “Making sure cash doesn’t sit idle generates extra income,” he says. “For a growing company, that’s always valuable.” The yield is one of the reasons Atlar covers its own cost several times over each year.
Meanwhile, Atlar’s Business Central integration cut most of the reconciliation work that had been piling up as accounts multiplied. Invoices approved in the ERP pass to Atlar through the API, are executed, and return automatically against the ledger. “We save a lot of time on reconciliation,” he says. “Payments get approved much faster, and the reporting is instant.”
Forto’s finance function has absorbed several years of expansion across two continents without adding headcount. The clearest test came earlier this year, when the team discussed a possible entry into a new European market, the kind of decision where treasury readiness usually sets the timeline. “Atlar was 100% ready for it,” Caio says. “That wasn’t a blocker at all.”
Forto describes itself as a tech-empowered freight forwarder, and expects its finance stack to follow. Oliver already has the next use case in mind: AI that handles the funding of the group’s accounts, technology that “monitors the balance on every account and raises a hand when cash goes out for whatever reason.” “AI is coming, and Atlar is ready for it,” Caio adds. “Forto is working on being ready as well.”
Oliver’s advice to other finance leaders comes back to connectivity.
“You can link Atlar to the other tools you use across finance, so all of these systems speak the same language, instead of reconciling them by hand with Google Sheets and templates. It can support that kind of journey better than traditional treasury tools can.”
Forto moves goods across borders for a living. The next time the company crosses one itself, treasury will not be the reason to wait.
Discover how high-growth finance teams gain control and save time with Atlar. Reach out or request a demo.
