Gett rides towards success with SafeCharge Reconciliation Manager

For any business to be successful, the ability to reconcile all payments and account for all revenue is crucial. Unlike other merchants transacting on a 1-1 basis with the customer – such as walking into a store to purchase a book –, Gett, a global on-demand mobility company, relies on a complex network of partners and acquiring banks to operate on a global scale, making the reconciliation process a challenging task.

Working with 14 different acquiring partners globally and employing a team of dedicated staff responsible for manually reconciling transactions, Gett was finding it difficult to track payment flows in a timely and efficient manner. With tens of millions worth of transactions flowing through the business, Gett needed to dramatically increase the speed and accuracy at which payment transactions were reconciled, in order not to lose potential revenue due to mismatches.

From winding roads to a smooth way: the ride towards easy reconciliation

Gett’s matching and reconciliation challenges were not dissimilar to those encountered in the travel and transportation industry. Payment flows were manually tracked into huge spreadsheets. The process was generally slow, causing inefficiencies in terms of human resources and IT teams, and the spreadsheets could not cope with the sheer amount of information, often crashing unexpectedly. Very little time could be spent on investigating potential faults in the system and in the case of a mismatch, resource had to be allocated to trace where the problem originated.

With an intricate mix of acquiring banks, corporate banks, gateway providers having to be reconciled against passengers and internal document systems at any given time, the chances of human errors were at the highest. It became clear that Gett needed a reliable and flexible system that would not only simplify the process of automatically reconciling the payment processes, but would also reduce operational inefficiencies, enabling the teams to focus on improving business processes.

‘Our reconciliation processes were incredibly clunky and inefficient due to usage of systems which are not fit for purpose,’ said Guy Douek, Global Head of Payments at Gett. ‘Matching all the information across four different sources to see if we were effectively getting paid for our services was a nightmare. In the case of an error in the transaction flow, we had to spend valuable time manually searching where – in the long sequence of events – the problem occurred. With ambitious expansion plans in place, we realised that something had to change for this to be sustainable.’

Automated matching and reconciliation to simplify the most complex payment flows

Following a competitive RFP, SafeCharge Reconciliation Manager came to the fore as the most suitable and qualified product to address some of the most mission-critical components of Gett’s business strategy. The solution has been rolled out internationally across the business and it is allowing Gett to address a unique set of challenges pertaining to the taxi business.

Since it is not uncommon for a single taxi journey to result in multiple customers sharing their fare, Reconciliation Manager is streamlining the complexities of accounting for a fare split, whether it comes from a mix of cards from separate banks, coupons or other alternative payment methods. But more importantly, it is allowing Gett to automatically process the final amount due at the end of a ride, no matter how convoluted the process can be.

‘We decided to partner with SafeCharge for their experience in the payments industry, and their knowledge of the difficulties we were facing with reconciling complex payment flows,’ continued Douek. ‘Our business model demands an accurate reconciliation against banks and internal systems, to then pay the drivers. Without an automated solution, this would have been unsustainable in the long run. With a small team we can now cope with the highest degree of payment processing, without worrying about losing revenues due to mismatches.’

The true story of millions of transactions completing successfully reconciled

With SafeCharge Reconciliation Manager, Gett is now able to automatically reconcile millions of transactions across the business, obtaining a constant snapshot of account balances for all payment methods in a single, integrated report, giving more control over their revenues. Mismatches are immediately dealt with and issues are promptly addressed. The business has gained substantial efficiencies and it is now able to invest time to proactively investigate and promptly resolve issues, rather than simply logging them.

By reconciling Gett’s settlements automatically – rather than weekly –, SafeCharge Reconciliation Manager is ensuring that correct amounts are received without delay. By taking away the hurdle of reconciling payments manually, Gett is currently investing in research and development in order to improve its offering for customers, without second-guessing its financial settlements. The solution has provided Gett with a reliable infrastructure, which is enabling the business to expand internationally.

‘Payments technology remains a crucial component of our strategy and we are aiming to expand our relationship with SafeCharge to support our business going forward,’ stated Douek. ‘From the ability to support alternative payment methods to their acquiring capabilities, there are a number of ways we are discussing regarding our future and we’re excited about what lies on the horizon.’

Benefits:

ability to reconcile all payments and increased revenue from matching missed payments;

opportunity to spend more time on R&D and less on operational headaches;

unified management capabilities under a single pane of glass.

About Yuval Ziv

Yuval Ziv is Chief Commercial Officer at SafeCharge and has over fifteen years of financial and IT industry experience spanning online payment processing for highly demanding businesses, regulatory compliance, technology advancement, payment culture, and risk management.

About Gett

Gett is a global on-demand transportation and delivery company built on a simple idea: ‘if you treat drivers better, they will treat riders better’. Fuelled by the very best drivers, Gett sets the standard for quality. Available in more than 120 cities worldwide, including London, Moscow and New York, Gett is the global leader in the corporate on-demand transportation market. Gett Business Solutions is the only global corporate transport solution, enabling companies and riders to book rides and track expenses worldwide through a single platform. It is already used by more than 20,000 companies worldwide, which book and track transportation services in over 1,000 cities and 56 countries. Gett sells over USD 1 billion of mobility services per year, half of which is generated in NYC and London. Gett is already contribution-margin profitable across all of its markets, and is on track to become operationally profitable globally in H1, 2019. The company raised more than USD 700 million in total funding, with over USD 300 million coming from the Volkswagen Group. In 2018, Gett officially became a Unicorn, valued at USD 1.4 billion.

About SafeCharge

SafeCharge is the payment service partner for the world’s most demanding businesses providing global omnichannel payments services from card acquiring and issuing to payment processing and checkout, all underpinned by advanced risk management solutions. With direct connections to all major payment card schemes as well as over 150 local payment methods, SafeCharge serves a diversified, blue chip client base and is a trusted payment partner for customers across a range of vertical markets.