At Chemgas, Frans Mandersloot, Information Manager, and Richard Blok, Manager Finance & Administration, are responsible, among other things, for the digitalisation of HR and financial processes. Together, they led the transition to a new HR and payroll system: AFAS. The reason? Outdated software, a great deal of manual work and complex payroll administration for their international fleet. Thanks to the collaboration with Salure and the use of the integration platform BrynQ, this challenge has been transformed into a well-functioning and sustainable solution.
Maritime gas transport
365 employees in the Netherlands
Rotterdam
January 2024
HRM/Payroll
Interview with:
Frans Mandersloot (Information Manager)
Richard Blok (Manager Finance & Administration)
When it became clear that Chemgas’s existing payroll software was no longer supported, Frans Mandersloot and Richard Blok immediately knew something had to change. Not only because the old system had reached the end of its technical lifespan, but also because it no longer aligned with the way the company wanted to operate.
“Our payroll administration was still running on a system from the 1980s, full of customisation that once perfectly matched our processes but had since become completely outdated,” Richard explains.
Frans had also recognised the need for a new system for some time: “The manual processing of payroll data for our inland shipping employees, who sail under the Luxembourg flag, was particularly error-prone and time-consuming. Every month, we sent data to Luxembourg, where it was then re-entered manually. That could obviously be much more efficient. On top of that, the Luxembourg software was even older than ours. In 2022, we took the first steps towards acquiring a new software package.”
AFAS was selected as the central system for HR and payroll. The go-live date was 1 January 2024. Frans: “Dion Zeck, Sales Manager at AFAS, is someone I know, and he said: ‘Oh, international payroll? Then you should speak to our partner Salure.’ Shortly afterwards, Dion arranged an introduction with Salure’s Managing Director, Jaco van Hengel. After carefully reviewing our requirements and challenges, Jaco was confident he could take it on.”
Richard adds: “We also spoke to other parties, but they were hesitant because they did not have the right partner network.”
Chemgas required a technical setup that was anything but standard. “We were looking for a system in which we could process our employees’ standard HR data and run the full Dutch payroll,” Richard explains. “At the same time, we are dealing with a unique situation: our inland shipping crew members pay income tax in the Netherlands, but their social security contributions must be paid in Luxembourg. We wanted to perform the necessary calculations in our own system, but for the actual filings with the tax authorities or pension funds, you need a local partner. Thanks to Salure, we are now connected to RSM, our payroll partner in Luxembourg.”
Richard continues: “We first had a customised solution built for our crew registration through the software company in which Frans is a partner. This allows us to know exactly who is working on which vessel, in which rank, and how many hours have been worked. The crew can enter these hours themselves in the system. This is essential for our planning and payroll.
Salure’s consultants worked closely with us to determine how to connect this system to AFAS. Using BrynQ, developed by Salure, the data is now transferred directly into AFAS. We can then link various payroll mutations to it. After that, we send the data to RSM in Luxembourg. From there, we receive the payslips, which we import again via BrynQ so that they are automatically stored in each employee’s AFAS file. We have really made significant progress. As recently as midway through last year, payslips were still sent by post.”
Marad Crewing — the software used to manage our crew’s certificates — is now also linked to the core HR registration in AFAS. Our HR colleagues now save a great deal of time updating these certificates.”
Since the implementation of AFAS and the integration of various systems, HR and payroll processes at Chemgas have changed drastically. Where much was previously handled on paper and manual data entry was common practice, almost everything is now digital and automated.
Richard: “Our original plan was to develop ‘Mijn Chemgas’ ourselves, but when Jaco showed us the possibilities of AFAS InSite and AFAS Pocket, we were immediately convinced: we’re going to do this with AFAS.
Leave requests and expense claims used to be entirely paper-based. On board the vessels, many expenses even went through the ship’s cash register. Money would be withdrawn using the ship’s credit card, added to the onboard cash fund, and employees would be paid in cash. We really needed to move away from that.
Now employees can view their leave balances digitally, and HR has much better oversight.
In the past, leave balances were listed on a paper payslip, and employees had to keep track of them themselves. Expense claims can now also be submitted digitally.”
Frans adds: “It’s simply much more efficient, less error-prone and more sustainable.”
Richard continues: “I also see the year-end transition as a major advantage in AFAS. In our old system, the entire payroll administration had to be rebuilt every year. Our payroll administrator would spend one or even two weeks on it. Now it’s done within an hour. Recently, I trained a new colleague in payroll administration, and it was incredibly easy. We completed the entire payroll process in an hour. Everything is in the system, checks are straightforward, and I’m confident that this colleague will soon be able to handle it independently.”
Looking back on the project, Frans and Richard mainly feel proud. “We are most proud of the fact that the first payroll run went virtually flawlessly,” Richard says. “Employees’ salaries simply have to be correct. There can be no mistakes. And we achieved that. I’m also proud of going live with AFAS InSite.”
Frans adds: “And everything was delivered on time by Salure, which was essential because our old software was being discontinued. What we envisioned a few years ago has now become reality with Salure and AFAS. We are very pleased with that.”
Chemgas is the market leader in the transportation of liquefied gases under pressure across inland and coastal waterways in Northwest and Southern Europe. It is a true family business with a down-to-earth Rotterdam mentality. With approximately 365 employees — including around 200 in inland shipping, 120 in maritime shipping and 45 at the head office in Rotterdam - Chemgas delivers tailored logistics solutions with a strong focus on safety, environment and engineering.
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