Why You Should Make Accounts Receivable Automation a Priority

July 18th 2023 11:00:00 AM

Your company’s cash flow is its driving force. The sales team can get customers to place plenty of orders, but your company’s lifeblood will dry up quickly if they don’t pay for them as agreed.

Accounts receivable management must be a priority to ensure that cash flow doesn’t become an issue for the company. Let’s consider why automating accounts receivable makes sense for your business.

Why You Should Automate Accounts Receivable

Automating your company’s accounts receivable functions is crucial to dealing with invoicing, outstanding payments, and dispute resolutions efficiently. The following are other reasons why accounts receivable automation makes sense:

1. Ensure a more predictable cash flow.

Automating your accounts receivable helps you forecast the amount of income the company will receive. If you don’t automate, your estimate of the amount of cash flow you will have to work with could be completely incorrect.

Payment notifications, reminders, and emails can be automated to ensure customers pay on time. Automation will help you take control of your collections procedure, provide a consistent cash flow, and lower the alarming debt rate.

2. Automation saves time and effort.

Accounts receivable automation takes your accounts receivable process and builds some logic around it, which includes:

• Which customers to invoice
• How to invoice
• When to invoice
• What to invoice for

With accounts receivable automation, your accounting department will spend less time preparing customer invoices. There is no mystery about which customers to invoice during any billing period or what products and services should appear on an invoice.

3. Make better decisions with informative AR insights.

Most accounts receivable automation solutions include interactive analytical dashboards. They provide users with accurate information on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as:

• Aging Reports
• Cash Flow Reports
• Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI)
• Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

These KPIs allow managers to make fact-based financial decisions.

Accounts Receivable Automation Best Practices

These tips will help streamline your accounts receivable automation.

1. Ensure the AR software will integrate seamlessly with your existing technology.

When you decide to adopt AR software, the first thing to consider is whether it can integrate seamlessly with your existing software. You may be better off considering another AR software option if it can’t. Making two software options that can’t integrate work is expensive and time-consuming.

Once the AR software is uploaded and starts running, it allows your team to:

• Automatically sync invoices, credit notes, payments, etc.
• Have real-time visibility into expected revenue
• Automate payment reminders
• Get insights into recovering failed payments

2. Automate the invoicing process.

Preparing invoices for each customer manually is a very time-consuming process. Once your team creates an e-invoicing system, they can optimize the time spent on this vital task. The automated billing process allows them to do the following:

• Create email templates
• Customize billing frequencies for each customer
• Send electronic invoices to customers more quickly than by regular mail
• Generate account statements with a few mouse clicks
• Generate customer information, such as email communications, payment history, etc., quickly
• Provide an accurate A//R Aging Report

3. Maintain accurate customer contact information.

It’s crucial to have current customer information for AR purposes. Often, customer information is stored in too many places, making it hard to find when needed. Your AR software should allow your team to enter and access this data using any device. The details relating to the customer should be accessible with a few clicks, such as:

• Account Manager Name
• Contact Information: Main person in AR department to contact; Person who approves invoices
• Communication: A person who sends out general emails to customers
• Transactions: All details about open/paid invoices, payments, deposits

Any other details about payment frequencies, currency, conversion rates, discounts, and notes.

4. Offer incentives to customers who pay early.

Set up a customer portal on your website. Customers can pay their invoice anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Choose a software option that allows customers to benefit from a discount if they pay their invoice before the due date. Customers can still pay the invoice on the due date; however, they won’t receive the discount on their invoice.

Customers who wish to make a payment arrangement can do so without speaking to one of your team members. They can indicate they promise to pay on a specific date and show the amount they will pay. This option allows the customer to make their arrangement privately without discussing their company’s financial status.

5. Make paying invoices easy for customers.

Give customers multiple options for paying their invoices. The customer portal is one option. Let your customers know they can pay with credit cards, through PayPal, check, and bank accounts.

6. Follow up on disputes to resolve them quickly.

Reach out to customers who still need to pay their invoices to discover why. The customer may have yet to pay because they have an issue with the product or service they received. These are issues your team needs to investigate.

Your team can discuss a payment arrangement if the customer has cash flow issues. This step will avoid having the invoice sent to collections or being written off as a bad debt.

Scanco Payments Automation is Your Solution to Getting Paid Faster

Scanco Payments Automation offers Merchant Account Services for Sage 100. Its impressive list of features includes the following:

• Cloud-based Click2Pay Portal

Your customers can access their orders and pay their invoices 24/7. Customers can use a stored card to make payments. They don’t have to input any additional information.

• Integrated with Scanco Mobile Sales

Sales representatives can take payments in the field by using the Click2Pay Portal or BOLT credit card terminals. You get full EMV credit card capabilities and ACH funding. Choose Merchant Account Services, and you will receive free installation and support.

• Secure Transactions

Customers are kept informed with emailed receipts that include their invoices and sales order numbers. The risk of fraud is reduced through EMV card transactions—100% PCI compliant. You stay up to date with advanced settlement reporting.

Are you as excited about our accounts receivable automation solution as we are? Contact us online or call (330) 645-9959 to make an appointment with a Scanco Solutions Expert today.