How to Automate Your Accounts Receivable Process
Nov 7, 2023 by Kelsey Banerjee
Accounts receivable (AR) teams are often overwhelmed with tedious and costly manual processes. Performing the receivable process manually wastes time and money, causes errors, and results in lost documents and compliance breaches. At the same time, there has been a prominent fear that automation could cost accounts receivable (AR) teams their jobs. But that anxiety is becoming unfounded. Instead, it has significantly reduced the need to waste hours on data entry and invoice corrections. AR departments worldwide also struggle with time. There's never enough of it when you must send, follow up on, and reconcile invoices by hand. It's common for CFOs and their teams to spend 90% of their time on financial close. Manual processes –from mailing invoices to correcting billing mistakes– mean less time to analyze data and design competitive workflow strategies. To make matters worse, spending time on these repetitive processes doesn't guarantee results. Across industries, organizations of all sizes struggle to get paid on time. AR teams in 26 industries reported that over 10% of their payments are over 90 days past due. AR management can't longer be a purely manual process. It's unsustainable. But automation can turn the tide. Automating AR processes can address these problems and enhance the efficiency of the AR team. AR automation benefits include reduced DSO and saved time for financial close, freeing up teams for more high-value tasks. One study found that 80% of businesses that used automated AR software said this approach made their accounting process more efficient and successful. Keep reading to learn how to turn the manual AR process into an automated, well-oiled machine.
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