The conventional approach to accounts receivable has been to manually generate invoices from accounting software or even Microsoft Excel spreadsheets in batches, sometimes daily. These invoices would then be printed and posted or, in more recent times, may have been emailed or sent via other electronic means. This approach typically relied on a manual process to verify payments and determine outstanding invoices for follow-up.
Manual Processing
Manual processing most often requires manual follow-up and collections. This process predictably involved print and post, often supported by phone call follow-up or electronic reminders. Generally speaking, this time-consuming manual processing presented challenges to managing expedient notification and collection cycles.
Modern-Day Methods
Today’s approach to receivables involves output from an accounting software invoicing platform or ERP to automate invoice delivery. More modern automation platforms have the capacity to send invoices by surface mail, email, and a variety of other means of electronic distribution such as EDI or XML.
Electronic invoices make B2B payment processing easier. It gives AR staff real-time visibility of the customer payment status and can include links to online payment options like credit cards, electronic checks and other electronic payment methods.
Real-time visibility of invoice receipt and payment status provides actionable insights enabling users to create, coordinate and manage invoices in a more efficient and expedient manner. Real-time also presents opportunities to further automate AR department workflow – helping the AR team to readily follow up on outstanding invoices, increase collections and cash flow and reduce the time spent on tedious manual invoice processing.
By working with an intelligent B2B platform like eTreem your organization can minimize the cost of processing credit cards and realize savings in your bottom line. Contact us to find out how