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3 min read

Benefits of AR automation

CFOs continue to balance the team resources with tactical and strategic tasks for the finance team. A common question brought up is: how many employees do I need for the credits and collection team? Depending on the size of the company, it can range from a single part-time AR clerk to dozens of analysts and credit managers. Very few middle-market companies have established credit policies, access to automated systems, and well-staffed AR teams with advanced credit and collections experience. 

The AR team usually gets involved as soon as the order is fulfilled, where they are manually managing the entire accounts receivable, credit, and collections processes using excel, google sheets, and emails as primary tools. They have no automation to help them prioritize their tasks and collaborate with team members, nor do they provide any automation or actionable insights. They are accountable for delivering invoices, billing clients in a timely manner, handling payments, and ensuring a steady cash flow. Failing to efficiently manage AR processes will eventually have a negative impact on the business’s overall financial success, including forecasting the budget, attaining profit goals, and the long-term viability of the company. This failure is not uncommon as AR calls for an unexpectedly large amount of paperwork, not limited to organizing documents, drawing data from multiple sources, collecting payments, and increased communication. The overall stress on the team caused by the manual process creates issues such as data errors and failed communication that not only lowers company productivity but also can become a disadvantage to the client. Let’s explore how automating the accounts receivable procedure can provide significant benefits to a business.

The lags caused by manual handling are avoided as invoices can be automatically created and sent properly to customers. Automated reminders and follow-ups based on the risk profile of the customers can also eliminate unnecessary delays. Making a seamless collection process for customers faster and with fewer errors, ultimately leads to a more positive customer experience. Not only will customers be more satisfied with the digital experience, but the AR team will now have more time on their hands to pay attention to higher-value tasks and focus on other accounts, allowing the company to surpass more objectives. An automated collection system will be able to resolve most issues in a short period of time and let the credit and collection team manage more complex tasks and difficult accounts that could require personalized outreach. AR automation can reduce workload by prioritizing tasks, creating automated collection workflows, presenting invoices, and enabling payment through customer self-service portals. Reinvesting that time into more relevant work can not only boost the company’s performance but also individual employees’ morale and capabilities. 

A business is not only a service provider but should also see itself as a partner to its customers since one’s gain translates to the others. A streamlined collection and payment process not only helps the business but also helps the customers manage their cash flow better. Automation allows a greater sense of confidence in a company’s efforts to improve its customer interactions, increasing retention and initiating growth. Learn how Payference is helping customers reduce DSO, cut back on bad debt, and third party collection costs and operational costs reduction. 

Would you like to discover how businesses like yourselves can achieve a decreased DSO and accelerated payments, generating over 10x ROI using Payference?

Book a meeting to schedule your free consultation today.

For more information write to us at: contact@payference.com