Century Yuasa Batteries

Reduces provisioned debt by over $150k in under a month with CreditorWatch Collect

In less than four weeks, Century Yuasa Batteries significantly reduced provisioned accounts and cut provisioned debt by over $150k all while significantly reducing manual collections effort.

THE BUSINESS

About Century Yuasa

Century Yuasa is Australia’s only major battery manufacturer, producing over one million batteries annually across automotive, motive power, and power systems divisions. The business services thousands of active customer accounts across Australia and New Zealand, spanning enterprise customers and long‑tail SME accounts.

The credit team manages between 4,000–5,000 active accounts per month across multiple ledgers and regions.

INDUSTRY: MANUFACTURING (ENERGY STORAGE / BATTERIES)
BUSINESS SIZE: LARGE

THE CHALLENGE

Manual processes and long‑tail risk

Before CreditorWatch Collect, Century Yuasa’s collections process was highly manual. The team relied on spreadsheets, emails, and phone calls, with each collector managing their own regional accounts.

This created several challenges

- Smaller overdue balances were often deprioritised, despite adding up to material risk
- Limited visibility into who had been contacted and when
- Inconsistent follow‑up across thousands of accounts
- Escalation typically occurred late, once accounts were already 60+ days overdue

“The smaller debts were frustrating. It’s surprising how much small accounts add up” – Paul Lister, Credit Manager, Century Yuasa Batteries

THE SOLUTION

Why CreditorWatch Collect

Century Yuasa evaluated other receivables automation tools but selected CreditorWatch Collect for its simplicity and fit with existing workflows.

Key factors included:

- - Invoice‑level workflows rather than trial‑balance uploads
  - Clear activity tracking and audit history
  - Automation that supported, rather than replaced, human collections
  - A long‑standing relationship with CreditorWatch

“The simplicity of it really appealed to me” – Paul Lister, Credit Manager, Century Yuasa Batteries

With Collect in place, Century Yuasa now uses automated workflows to consistently follow up overdue invoices, particularly smaller balances that were previously deprioritised while keeping human focus on high‑value and strategic accounts.

Real‑time dashboards and activity feeds give leadership immediate visibility into collections activity and workflow automation allows the team to operate at scale without increasing headcount.

“My first day turning Collect on, I sent 365 emails while standing in a meeting.” – Paul Lister, Credit Manager, Century Yuasa Batteries

THE RESULTS

Significantly reduced debt and a more efficient AR process

Within less than one month of using CreditorWatch Collect, Century Yuasa achieved:

📉 Provision risk reduction

- - Provisioned debt reduced by over $150k
  - Significantly reduced provisioned accounts

⏱️ Operational efficiency

- - Hundreds of reminders sent automatically in minutes
  - Significant reduction in manual email and follow‑up work
  - Improved visibility and control across the collections team

In one case, a debtor that had been outstanding for over two years paid in full shortly after being placed into a Collect workflow.

“I’d been chasing this debtor for two years — I put them into Collect and the money was in the bank.” – Paul Lister, Credit Manager, Century Yuasa Batteries

Try CreditorWatch Collect for free

Register now for a free 14-day trial. Get full access to CreditorWatch Collect’s AR automation software and see the difference putting your AR on autopilot can make to your business. No credit card required.

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Have a no strings chat

Book a call and see how putting your AR on autopilot with CreditorWatch Collect can save you time, get you paid faster and free up your mind to focus on high-value work.

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Century Yuasa Batteries was last modified: March 27th, 2026 by Erick Tomaliwan