The Definitive Guide to NetSuite Integrated Payments

The way our customers pay for things is changing. But that is good news.

From B2C to B2B clients, the desire for more payment options, including bank-to-bank transfers, demand for convenience, and concern for data security have caused significant shifts in how CFOs and AR departments function.

Automation is part of the equation, but it’s not enough.

For NetSuite users, automated payment integrations for accounts receivable (AR) can provide a comprehensive boost to your payment options, analytics, and other essential features to reduce your DSO and costs.

What does a NetSuite integration for AR look like?

If you want to optimize your NetSuite operations, integration with AR automation is the fastest way to success.

These third-party integrations are critical for adding more functionality to your ERP and quickly scaling your processes.

Integrations for AR come in many forms. The best ones merge so completely with your NetSuite account that you don’t need a second website login and dashboard to send payments. In other words, you should just be able to automate your AR processes or send individual invoices from the NetSuite program itself.

In addition to convenience, AR integrations for NetSuite can help you do several things beyond basic automation, including the following:

• Offer various payment methods
• Manage fees to promote specific payment methods
• Manage fees to promote specific payment methods
• Send custom invoices, billing reminders, and sales orders
• Create custom collection plans and add notes to receivables for improved AR management
• Send branded checkout interfaces and toggle which payment options are presented
• Add subsidiaries and multiple entities

Key benefits of NetSuite integrated payments

There are many reasons why CFOs have chosen to invest in integrated payment options, especially when it comes to critical AR functions. The fact of the matter is that the savings in time, resources, and funds are simply unparalleled.

1. It speeds up processing – 87% of companies that have automated their AR departments report faster processing capabilities, and 79% say it boosts team efficiency. A user-friendly AR integration will automate tedious manual processes on your team’s side while making the payment process convenient for end-users. This means faster and more accurate payments.

2. It improves DSO rates – Businesses handling high volumes of invoicing benefit the most, with 23 days shorter DSO times. But even smaller firms dealing with 500 to 10,000 invoices per month can still shave days or weeks off their wait for payment.

3. It frees up time and resources – Ultimately, your AR and accounting teams shouldn’t be spending their time on data entry. As the company’s lifeblood, AR professionals should have the time and resources to play a more strategic role. NetSuite AR automation helps you free up time for your team to focus on what matters: strategically managing your company’s financial resources.

5 steps for a successful integration

While the benefits are clear, going from knowing you need a NetSuite integration to actually implementing a successful one is often less clear. Often, there can appear to be so many choices, that it can take months to shift through all the options.

To help you get started, we devised a 5-step process to help you find your perfect integration ASAP:

1. Define what you need

When you define what you need, it’s so much easier to cut through the clutter.  Extra bells and whistles are great, but whatever solution you end up investing in should have your essentials.

While these core features can feel a bit broad – such as listing automation and analytics – it’s essential to refine these concepts into small subfeatures. For example, with AR, you’ll want to automate recurring billing and follow-ups. But you’ll also allow vendors to save their payment details for quick and easy payments.

Some other often overlooked features include:

• • Accepting partial payments
  • Allowing customers to pay multiple invoices at a time
  • Using sandbox mode to test customizations, plugins, and workflows in a safe environment
  • Automating cash application, revenue recognition, reporting, and payment reconciliation
  • Accessing lower transaction fees with wholesale credit card processing rates
  • Take keyed-in payments securely by phone using our virtual terminal
  • Accepting multi-currency invoices and presentations
  • Support for eCommerce

2. Determine usability for employees and customers

Next, you’ll want to review product usability on the employee side and the customer side. In both scenarios, the process should feel close to the initiative, with a low learning curve. A user-friendly interface and process, such as incorporating a “pay now” function for quick payments, can help streamline the process for your customers.

It’s usually easier to understand the usability of a specific integration in a demo. Of course, asking the right questions can make all the difference.

3. Train your team and the IT department

While your NetSuite AR integration should be simple, you still want to brief your IT team and employees about the changes. Digital transformation is critical, but you’ll struggle with successful implementation if the mindset isn’t there.

As you begin to add the integration to your system, you can highlight the benefits for employees and help them to understand the program’s value. At the same time, you can provide directives for new and strategic tasks as your team gets used to the new workflow.

4. Let users know about your new invoicing system

Your customers might be used to responding to invoices in a certain way, so you’ll need to let them know about the changes and showcase how it will benefit them. If you plan to include a convenience fee for card swipes, be sure to let them know beforehand about the change. Likewise, you can promote “zero-fee” ACH or bank-to-bank transfers to encourage less credit card usage.

But no matter how you structure your new automated invoicing system, your customers should know about the changes.

5. Test and optimize

Finally, you’ll want to test your integration to ensure that everything is working properly. Customizations usually are debugged and tested in the sandbox environment, but you’ll still want to try out a live test to ensure the process works smoothly.

And, of course, you’ll want to monitor the data as it grows so you can optimize your automation further.

Compliance Considerations

Another key factor to consider when it comes to NetSuite integrated payment platforms is compliance. Payment processing requires significant upfront investments to comply with various regulations, including PCI-DSS and AML/KYC. MTL Rules, Fraud Monitoring, Bank KYC Underwriting requirements, 1099K's – all of these items can quickly become a headache. And getting them wrong is expensive.

Your AR automation solution should be able to comply with these regulations and safeguard your customers’ data. Each platform will have its own security measures. At Paystand, we use tokenization and blockchain technology through our Fund on File token. When users make payments through Paystand, they can save their information through a Fund on File token, which lets them securely authorize, charge, and re-use their payment method without directly accessing the customer’s private information. This significantly reduces compliance scope while at the same time keeps your customers’ data safe.

After integration

If you’ve chosen the right platform, it’s likely you won’t have to do much outside of optimization after you integrate. In an age of automation, CFOs and AR teams should be doing as little repetitive work as possible and focus instead on being the strategic arms of their organizations.

If you still aren’t sure what platform is right for you, that’s totally fine. We’ve got an in-depth whitepaper to help you find the perfect payment app integration for Netsuite. Check it out here.