International services coordinated and delivered through Senta

Pramex provides vital outsourced accounting and incorporation services to companies setting up in different countries. Stéphanie Gutierrez and Anne-Sophie Gauvin describe how Senta helps deliver these crucial services.

An international services provider that provides vital support for businesses

 Anne-Sophie Gauvin (AS) – “I’m based in the Shanghai Pramex office and have worked for the firm for four years. We support our clients with payroll, accounting, tax and other back-office tasks on a daily basis. In China, the incorporation of a new business is important and a long process. I’m involved in helping companies set up – I then hand over to our corporate management team for clients’ ongoing back-office support.”

Stéphanie Gutierrez (SG) – “I am a multi-tasker at Pramex since I have been with the company for 17 years – a long time! Like Anne-Sophie I help companies start up in different jurisdictions. I help our clients with their tax and social registrations. Besides that, I also support them on a daily basis with administrative, accounting, tax and HR related tasks (payroll, hiring, etc.). I’m based in Germany.

“Pramex is a subsidiary of Groupe BPCE, the second-biggest banking group in France. And we’re number one for managing foreign subsidiaries of both small and medium-sized companies with operations in around 15 countries.”

AS – A big part of our offering is the daily management and daily outsourced services of our clients’ subsidiaries. For some this daily management will be more or less involved, but for most we’re considered as their outsourced financial and HR director.

 

Senta as the platform for Pramex’s clients

AS – Our objective is to pass 100% of our clients through the platform and to use Senta for our daily operations. For example, with our corporate management team that would mean all the payroll, tax declarations, bookkeeping and HR tasks.

Because most of these tasks need to be completed on a monthly basis, we set up a detailed monthly process; everything is planned and organised for each client. As there are still some differences between clients as well as between our different offices, we adapt the platform to our needs.

SG – We can add tasks where required, but we try and keep everything as uniform as possible. This helps us from a process point of view – so we know what is required for each client and don’t forget any step of a process. For example, at the end of year period, we have to close clients’ accounts – it’s all there in Senta. You click to start the process and each task appears in the order in which we have to do it. It’s a real security for us not to forget anything. Otherwise, it would be difficult to remember since this job is done only once a year.

AS – There are two goals for us. Firstly, control the process – to be sure we don’t miss something and that our missions are fully completed every month for each of our clients. Second is client visibility; clients can follow and participate when needed in the process, as well as have all their relevant documents at hand.

SG – On Senta you tick boxes that align with the services each client is signed up for. For example, sometimes I get a new client and they have an entity in Germany that only needs accountancy from us, so I just tick the accountancy box in the system. The service will start on the date I entered in the process! It tells us what to do by date – and if not done the task will come up as overdue.

 

Security and workflow that keeps Pramex’s clients happy

SG – New clients that come on board with us really like Senta, it’s an essential and stable platform. Where we work with clients across several countries they can access information across borders with a single click.

We’re progressing a lot because of Senta – when our clients they see how organised we are they’re very reassured. We stand out from the competition because of it. We don’t think that our competitors are as organised as we are.

AS – In terms of our global direction, we want Pramex to be more agile by using it, and even more competitive.

 SG – Yes, we want to go further with Senta. Our management in France likes the way the processes are managed and the data is secured and we agree. On top of that, we’re more efficient with Senta.

We have seen in the US that they have very different rules and requirements (federal vs state), so we needed to create a brand-new workflow/process platform due to their specific environment. I think we’ll be obliged to do this for Brazil also due to its local context, and Senta is helping us in that journey.

AS – The Senta team is very supportive and willing to hear feedbacks to work on improvements. Since we start using the platform, the technology has adapted to our needs, and we continue moving along in that direction together.