How CFOs can take the leap into accounts receivable automation

Digitizing accounts receivable (AR) processes is an important milestone for large organizations, but it is only the beginning. Finance leaders need to continue the sophistication of their operations through end-to-end automation efforts – ultimately, improving data visibility, transaction efficiency and cost control. Fully automating payment acceptance, reconciliation and disbursement will likely be a multi-year, cross-functional effort for most organizations, progressing through three key phases – adopting digital invoicing, integrating AR with ERP systems and achieving order-to-cash automation.

Digitize all invoicing and transactional customer communications

Eliminating paper invoices and snail mail is a critical step in reducing manual processes in AR administration. Instead, migrating all vendor and customer transactions to an invoicing portal can speed up transaction times and create new opportunities for data analytics and data-driven decision-making. Further, this enables better communication with customers, from time of payment notification through reminders, acceptance, and reconciliation. Many large organizations have already implemented digital invoicing but may be stuck in this phase* due to lack of overall strategy or coordination between stakeholders. Though they may experience the benefits of digital processes, they are also incurring opportunity costs for not pursuing a full ERP integration.

Invest in cross-functional efforts to integrate financial operations with ERP systems

As organizations grow, they must coordinate finance and data strategies across all departments. Picking the right ERP system and integrating accounts receivable solutions can take companies to new heights in data visibility, real-time decision-making, cash flow management, and much more. However, this is not the end of the accounts receivable automation journey – ERP integrations* that involve manual data entry and decentralized workflows still need lots of staff hours and extra operational costs. That’s why it is critical to fully digitize all invoicing and payments activities prior to kicking off an ERP transformation effort.

Transform accounts receivable process to automate order-to-cash workflows

The final phase of this transformation is complete order-to-cash automation of all workflows and communications. Organizations will reach “accounts receivable nirvana” when they adopt end-to-end automation of every process step from a customer order through payment receipt and reconciliation. This is no small feat – requiring seamless coordination between collections, credit, invoicing, payments and cash application. Achieving this level of transformation not only involves the right integrations and tools, but also the people and processes to keep it running smoothly. Your payments provider can help with this journey – explore solutions like U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables, powered by BillTrust, to see what’s possible.

CFOs have a lot of obstacles to overcome as accounts receivable needs continue to evolve; investing in the right solutions and processes can help achieve true end-to-end automation.  

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