Receivables automation: Unlock efficiency with an end-to-end view

In a webinar co-hosted by industry analysts Strategic Treasurer, Deluxe’s Director of Advisory Services Rick Scholz breaks down the reasons why adopting a true end-to-end comprehensive receivables view can help organizations enhance their existing payment processes and streamline efficiency. Strategic Treasurer’s Craig Jeffery helped Scholz outline three major opportunity areas to consider when automating your accounts receivable processing. 

Opportunity #1: Understand the implications of adding payment complexity in receivables.

Nearly a decade ago, initiatives began to motivate businesses to pay and receive digital payments for their benefits over traditional payment methods. However, with an influx in different payment methods available, the posting of those transactions can take longer to get all the remittance data matched with the payment when it arrives disassociated or in separated sends.

“Treasury likes to say, ‘Cash is king.’ Sometimes we say it’s the whole royal family but, if you focus on just moving the money and you don’t include the information that’s necessary, now you’re creating this ripple effect,” says Jeffery. “Cash many be king, but there’s a lot of other people in the kingdom that need information. They need data, they need to be able to operate effectively, or you can’t relate well.”

Scholz now says companies are focusing on how they receive information, how they view information and how they can incorporate AI and other automation tools to get those transactions posted automatically to the highlight level to achieve straight-through processing. 

Opportunity #2: Prioritize customer inclusion in your automation strategies.

“It’s so important to include the customer in the dialogue. If you make a mistake, it impacts them the most,” says Scholz. “So, working with your customers to figure out a way that they can help you [automate] because they’re ultimately helping themselves. I think that’s the biggest value including the customer in any automation dialogue.”

In one use case, Scholz says a receivables client chose to actively engage with their customers whenever they made changes to their processes. “That focus was more on the billing side to find out from their customers and salespeople. They asked, ‘What is wrong with our billing and how could we make our bills and our invoices easier for you to understand and to process?’” he said. 

By including their customer along the journey, this business avoided neglecting the next step in the process and the people who post the payments. As a result of this inclusion, the business saw a decrease in the number of exceptions they have to process or the number of disputes that the client comes back with. “There are examples of success for those companies that do include their customers in that conversation,” says Scholz. According to a live poll during the presentation, 25% of webinar attendees cited their external steps with customers have an end-to-end view of receivables. Businesses are making customer communication within automation strategies a priority. 

Opportunity #3: Optimize processes through internal engagement and external partnerships.

When it comes to enhancing organizational processes, Jeffery suggest collaboration and pulling from outside payment partnerships for their expertise. Many organizations don’t have the resources to make all those changes on their own and by only optimizing part of their existing processes, they often create problems further down the funnel by not looking at their entire process from end to end.

Communicating across departments and pulling your internal resources, like your customers and your colleagues, can help give your AR team a comprehensive view and help intercept down-funnel problems and improve your treasury performance.

By combining the right technology to identify the remittance data and insights reporting through automation, companies can be much more collaborative with their payment vendor to make informed business decisions. Watch the full webinar replay to get all the details on improving your receivables process and achieving a true end-to-end view.