Automated Accounts Receivable (AR) solutions optimize cash flow and represent a game-changing shift in efficiency, accuracy, productivity, and faster-realized profits. As you investigate automating your AR and collections, it’s important to address companywide concerns to ensure you’re prepared to invest.
Here are seven critical considerations while you’re evaluating your company’s readiness for purchase and implementation of AR automation.
1. Cost
The first question from stakeholders considering an investment in automation of any type is “How much does it cost?” Don’t forget that productivity gains realized by shedding time-consuming manual processes offset the cost of automation. With AR automation, you’ll see accelerated cash flow that should lower utilization of credit lines. That represents hard dollar savings to counteract cost.
2. Easy Integration
When evaluating AR automation options, ideally, you want an application with pre-built integrations that seamlessly integrate with the business system(s) you already use today. Open application programming interfaces (APIs) are also desirable to allow flexibility for custom integrations.
3. Length of Implementation
After cost, “How fast can we get it?” is a top concern when browsing AR automation solutions. The solution provider and internal IT, accounting, AR, and other affected teams all influence the implementation timeline. You need to know how long the downtime will be (if any), as well as whether you’ll need to stop processing transactions during implementation—and if so, for how long. Cloud based solutions typically offer quicker implementations with always up-to-date analytics.
4. External Impact
When evaluating how to best manage your AR, you’ll consider outcomes such as accelerated cash receipts from sales, and the positive affect it will have on your customers. Transitioning to an automated AR solution can help your AR department turn their focus back onto customer service, instead of being debt collectors. Understanding the ripple effects and preparing customers can ensure seamless implementation and buy-in from their side to improve customer satisfaction and AR results.
5. Support and Maintenance
Even with the best app and seamless transition to a new system, there will be issues. There may be technical or training concerns or unavoidable glitches. Find out what’s included versus what’s charged on a break-fix basis. Will you pay monthly for maintenance, or is ongoing wall-to-wall support included? Discover what support and maintenance fees might crop up with each solution you evaluate.
Benefits of AR Automation
For businesses of all sizes, an AR automation solution usually brings benefits that far outweigh the cost. By investing in AR automation, you’re not breaking existing processes and relationships—you’re evolving. Manual AR tasks are prone to mistakes and are time-consuming. Choosing automation eliminates the propensity for mistakes, accelerates productivity, and leads to an enhanced customer experience.
Within 30-60 days of implementing a quality AR automation solution, you should realize accelerated cash flows and enhanced AR employee satisfaction as you free them up for more meaningful tasks. The benefits of investing in AR automation flow throughout the enterprise, from sales to customer service to accounting to management and leadership and outward to customers.
When you’re ready to escalate cash flow and eliminate manual processing and human error from the AR pipeline, consider YayPay. Call us to discuss the benefits of AR automation and schedule a demo.
