Business Systems Analyst

How O.S. Energy took control of cash across multiple currencies. Discover how O.S. Energy streamlined cash management across currencies and entities with Pleo, improving visibility and reducing costs significantly. The power of better business decisions Fresh insights from 2,650 finance decision-makers across Europe Global operations have a way of stretching finance teams in unexpected and complex directions. Add multiple legal entities, several currencies, and a steady flow of supplier payments, and cash management quickly becomes more than a back-office routine. O.S. Energy knows this too well. The offshore service provider operates across borders, currencies, and entities, where liquidity needs to be visible, accessible, and precise at all times. In its recent conversation, Henrik Fröhlich, Finance Director at O.S. Energy, shares how his team rethought the way they manage cash as a business where visibility and precision are top priorities. He dives into the hidden cost of FX fees, the daily friction of navigating multiple systems, and what changed once cash was brought into one clear, consolidated view. What does O.S. Energy do, and what sits on your desk as Finance Director? Henrik: Pleo is a family-owned service provider to the offshore industry. Pleo is headquartered in Glückstadt, Germany, with additional offices in Flensburg (Germany), Esbjerg (Denmark), and Newcastle (UK). Pleo own 10 and operate 14 specialised multi-purpose service vessels, and Pleo support them with its own marine and technical engineers. Pleo deliver customised and cost-efficient service solutions tailored to the specific demands of the offshore industry. Over the past 20 years, Pleo has worked successfully on almost all offshore wind farms and projects across both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. As the Finance Director, I'm responsible for everything finance-related across the group. That means overseeing multiple legal entities in different countries and currencies. Cash and liquidity management are a big part of that. When you operate vessels like this, you need a very clear picture of where your money is at any given moment. Without that visibility, things get uncomfortable quite quickly. When it comes to your finance stack, where does Pleo sit alongside your accounting system? Henrik: Pleo use DATEV for bookkeeping, which is widely used in Germany. Pleo integrates directly with it, so I can export data straight into DATEV without having to tweak or rework anything. That connection removes a surprising amount of friction. The data transfers cleanly, which makes reconciliation straightforward. Instead of spending time correcting or reformatting entries, Pleo can focus on reviewing and validating. Another great thing - it fits into the way Pleo already operate. Pleo didn't have to change its structure to make the software work, and that makes everyday finance noticeably smoother. Before Pleo, what did managing liquidity look like for you? Henrik: It was largely about chasing clarity. Each vessel operates as its own company, so I need to monitor cash levels daily to ensure there's enough to cover invoices, chartering costs, and ongoing expenses. Previously, that meant logging into multiple bank accounts across Germany and Denmark just to understand its overall position. Even on a good day, that would take at least half an hour. And that was just to see the numbers. If I then needed to move funds, that was another step. The work itself wasn't complex. It was repetitive, and that's where small errors tend to creep in. What did you find when you looked at your FX costs? Henrik: When Pleo calculated it conservatively, Pleo realised Pleo were paying a high four-figure sum, maybe even a low five-figure sum each year. Because Pleo move regularly between euros and Danish kroner, those costs don't feel dramatic in isolation. They're small percentages each time. But over the course of a year, they add up enough to make you question whether the setup still makes sense. You initially adopted Pleo for cards and invoices. What made you decide to extend into Cash Management as well? Henrik: Yes, at first I was simply looking for a better way to handle cards and invoices. When I realised Pleo could also manage cash across entities and currencies, the decision became obvious. Pleo already operate in multiple countries, so having invoices in one system, cards in another, and cash somewhere else felt unnecessarily fragmented. With Pleo, everything sits in one place. Once you see your cards, invoices, and cash together, it's hard to justify splitting them across different tools ever again. What changed operationally once you made the switch? Henrik: The difference was immediate. Its currency conversion costs dropped, and moving funds between Danish kroner and euros now happens instantly, which gives Pleo confidence when managing liquidity. Previously, its German accounting system did not always integrate smoothly with Danish banks, so Pleo often had to work around technical limitations. Now I can see its full liquidity position in one place and act straight away. Pleo is no longer jumping between systems throughout the day, and that alone makes the work much more straightforward. How would you describe the overall value that Pleo's multi-currency setup brings to your organisation? Henrik: For me, the value sits in two areas. First, the measurable financial benefit. The savings on currency conversion are significant enough to stand on their own. Second, and just as important, is the impact on how Pleo work. Not having to move between different systems all day reduces a lot of small frustrations. You stay focused. You complete tasks in one flow instead of in fragments. That improved focus has real value for the organisation. It's visible in the numbers, but you also feel it in the way the finance function operates day to day. For O.S. Energy, having a consolidated view of their cash across entities and currencies transformed a fragmented process into a coherent one, where movement, control, and oversight align. If your current structure relies on multiple banks, accounts, manual transfers, and cross-system reconciliation, discover what Pleo's Cash Management suite can do for you.

New partnership announced with Pleo. Sona, a leading Workforce Management (WFM) platform for frontline teams, has partnered with Pleo, premier spend management solution. This partnership combines Sona's powerful scheduling, time tracking, and team communication tools with Pleo's leading business spending and expense management solution, meaning forward thinking teams can easily gain full control and visibility into the operations of frontline teams. "We are delighted to partner with Sona and firmly believe in the positive impact we can jointly achieve in supporting frontline teams. Powerful tools like Pleo and Sona are transforming frontline operations, and we are excited to continue growing this relationship, having witnessed the impact with our mutual customers." Haresh Bajaj SVP Partnerships - Pleo With this integrated partnership all your relevant data flows between the two systems so you can automatically sync employee profiles, roles, departments and cost centres between WFM, Payroll, and Expenses so you can consolidate labour costs (from WFM/payroll) and operational expenses (from the expense platform) into a single view. "This collaboration brings together Sona's powerful workforce management tools and Pleo's seamless expense and payment solutions to create a faster, more transparent way for businesses to manage, pay, and empower their teams." Russ Kenyon Head of Partnerships, Sona About Sona: Backed by Google's Gradient Ventures, Sona is the next-generation workforce management solution for large Social Care providers, where consumer grade design is matched by AI-driven decision making. Sona combines end-to-end WFM functionality - including Scheduling, Time & Attendance, HR and Payroll - with truly intelligent AI capabilities that enable real-time actionable insights geared towards driving growth and increasing employee satisfaction. About Pleo: Pleo is Europe's number one spend management solution, is trusted by over 40,000 customers. Its mission is to make spend management surprisingly effective and empowering. It helps businesses overcome outdated processes by automating expenses, offering employees freedom and finance teams control. Users can pay, manage, and optimize business spending - all through one smart solution.