ELIMINATING THE 5

That Keep Accounts Receivable Staff From Optimizing Cash Flow



 
 
Your accounts receivable staff is the special-forces team when it comes to your company's cash flow. Inefficient and costly processes can limit their ability to fulfill their mission of getting your cash faster. Are you weighing them down with needless and time-consuming tasks?

Here are five to-dos AR people typically have that should be eliminated today.
 
 
 

TASK 1: SENDING SNAIL‑MAIL INVOICES

From printing invoices to stuffing envelopes, this time-consuming activity is costing your company both time and resources. Streamline your billing process with electronic invoicing capabilities — and save a tree or two while you're at it.

  That's up from last year, when just about 41%2 of businesses were billing their customers via email.

1. 2016 B2B Billing & Collections Guide
2. 2015 B2B Billing & Collections Guide

 
 
 

TASK 2: SENDING ONE‑OFF PAYMENT REMINDER EMAILS

Depending on how many customers you have, determining who owes you money, how much they owe and then sending individual email reminders can take days or even weeks.  

It can also improve customer relations. Sending a friendly reminder early in the process can help to address questions before they become problems. Since almost half of companies — about 45%3 — don't follow up with customers until they are at least 20 days past due, odds are your attentiveness can be a competitive advantage.

3. 2016 B2B Billing & Collections Guide

 
 
 

TASK 3: PRIORITIZING COLLECTION CALLS MANUALLY

Do you call the most overdue customers first — or the ones who owe the most? Just figuring out the order of your call list can take time and may not be correct. Automated solutions can populate this call listing for you based on your company's follow-up rules, so your staff can immediately get to work collecting the money that's owed.

Here's something to think about:    Imagine how much more effective they could be if that time was spent on the phone.

4. AR Automation: Taking Control of Collections & Recovery. Q4 2014. PayStream Advisors.

 
 
 

TASK 4: FIELDING EVERY LITTLE CUSTOMER INQUIRY/ISSUE/REQUEST

If you've ever engaged in a long round of "phone tag" to resolve a simple issue, you know what a time-waster it can be. Instead, offer your customers a self-service portal and more options for communication beyond phone support, giving customers the ability to solve their issues themselves or send you a message at their own convenience. Gone are the days of withheld payments due to issues that could be resolved with a simple click of a button.

Chances are, your customers will give you a big virtual hug if you offer them an online portal. According to a survey by Nuance Communications,5

5. "The Tide Has Turned: Nuance RESEARCH FINDS Most Consumers Would Rather Self-Serve Over Speaking with A Live Agent," (2012, May 10).

 
 
 

TASK 5: COMPILING DATA TO CREATE AND SEND REPORTS

You're probably expected to send reports to various groups or individuals throughout any given week/month/quarter — maybe even on-demand. As a result, your accounts receivable team is probably spending way too much time crunching numbers to create the reports. 

 
 
 

Interested in learning more about accounts receivable automation? Here's a great white paper that provides     Building a Business Case for AR Automation.