ClearDox Helps Automate 95% of Settlement Processing for StoneX Commodity Solutions

SUMMARY

  • U.S. grain brokerage firm StoneX Commodity Solutions needed a scalable solution to automate settlements.

  • Using the ClearDox solution, StoneX Commodity Solutions can ingest, normalize, and rekey relevant data points from settlement statements to its ETRM system with 90-95% success within their agriculture business line. 

  • ClearDox eliminated the need for manual entry, saving countless hours and improving the speed at which StoneX Commodity Solutions pays its suppliers, improving overall farmer and grain elevator relationships.
StoneX

Want to read this later?

DOWNLOAD PDF

THE CHALLENGE

Facilitating the buying and movement of grain and oilseed

As one of the largest commodity brokerage firms in the United States, StoneX Commodity Solutions facilitates the buying and movement of grain and oilseed across five continents. To ensure the most efficient operations, the digitization and automation of key processes has been a cornerstone of their strategy.  

Before engaging with ClearDox, StoneX Commodity Solutions employees were manually entering critical details of each elevator statement of receipt into its ETRM system. These statements included key data elements required for payment to the farmer. 

The process was time-consuming, error-prone, and required extensive industry knowledge to understand the details, including quality measurements related to wheat, corn and soy products being traded. During peak seasons, it was easy for a backlog to occur, causing payment delays and farmer dissatisfaction. Compounding this issue was that the grain elevators were often slow in sending the receipts to StoneX Commodity Solutions. 

The company recognized it needed a digital solution that would simplify statement processing and allow for faster automated settlement. Additionally, they wanted to drive process efficiencies, including the ability to reallocate their skilled resources to other initiatives. Ultimately, StoneX Commodity Solutions was looking for more effective ways to scale the business as it grew, while better servicing their critical farmer ecosystem.

THE SOLUTION

StoneX Commodity Solutions chose ClearDox for its flexibility in handling a wide array of commodities and intelligent machine-trained processes. This commodity focused approach ensured StoneX Commodity Solutions executives and team members were not wasting time educating staff on what is unique in each commodity. Instead, they could focus on the business issues at hand.

The team also benefited from the intuitive user interface and a business dashboard built around processing orders, easily seeing which statements needed personal attention while the others were automatically processed.

ClearDox-Reconcile

With ClearDox, StoneX Commodity Solutions could track metrics related to:

  • Operational costs per invoice to identify opportunities for gaining scale as the business grows.
  • Resource optimization, where their highest skilled employees focused on business objectives instead of manual data entry.
  • Digitization, which allowed StoneX to process and settle high volumes of invoices more quickly than any manual process could.
  • Data accuracy of all line-item detail to prevent over- or underpayments.
  • Visibility that displays line items as “green” or automatically reconciled, “yellow” or needing validation, and “red” or rejected. This reduces the level of staff intervention and involvement.
  • Transparency, and knowing the value, location, and status of each settlement.

“I can say with confidence that ClearDox is improving our scalability and our ability to be competitive in certain business lines.”


THE RESULTS

Almost immediately, ClearDox delivered. StoneX Commodity Solutions leadership had a comprehensive view of all invoices and settlements in real time.

And although leadership anticipated automating 50% of its settlements – which would have been a triumph on its own – the actual results exceeded all expectations: StoneX Commodity Solutions automatically processes 90-95% of all statements, which has saved the company considerable time and money.

StoneX Commodity Solutions automatically processes
90–95%
of all statements

StoneX Commodity Solutions also highlights ClearDox’s industry knowledge as a significant benefit. The ClearDox team stepped in and added value right away because of their industry best practice expertise. StoneX Commodity Solutions employees were able to continue business as usual while the ClearDox team managed implementation.

This success has inspired StoneX Commodity Solutions leadership to look at future expansion into other products within the industry, such as biodiesel feedstocks.


“Having a capability like ClearDox is going to make that more efficient and hopefully people are spending less time doing that settlement and more time making sure that we're running the business effectively and have good controls in place and not so distracted by just simply the volume.”