Overview
Covetrus was founded in 2010 with the dual goals of providing greater visibility into veterinary patient care and proactive prescription management services. Over the next eight years, the company acquired five subsidiaries, went through a merger, and held an initial public offering, creating complexity in their finance organization.
Complexity And Growth Quickly Overwhelmed Existing Infrastructure
Imagine transitioning from an 800-employee, U.S.-based business, to a 5,000-employee multinational corporation with 5 subsidiaries. That’s exactly what Covetrus experienced in 2018 during their merger with the animal health division of Henry Schein Inc., and their subsequent initial public offering.
Originally founded in 2010, Covetrus is a leading provider of technology-enabled healthcare services for companion and equine veterinary practitioners. During their recent metamorphosis from domestic company to global organization, employees at Covetrus worked tirelessly to scale internal processes, adhere to international regulations, and continue to deliver exceptional services to customers.
As the Reporting and Accounting Manager for Covetrus, Kristen Parisien has first-hand experience with the complexities associated with going public and global at the same time.
“Most of our transactions are handled automatically through storefronts,” said Kristen. “But prior to the changeover, there was still a large number of veterinary practices that used mailed invoices and paper checks to remit payment. With the explosive growth in transactions, our accounts receivable department was becoming completely overwhelmed with inbound inquiries.”
Paper Checks And Phone Payments Increase Manual Overhead
Prior to launching Paystand, customers routinely called in to make payments over the phone. The accounts receivable (A/R) team had to process those payments using a Verifone terminal and manually post them to the customer’s account in NetSuite. Customers could only make phone payments when they could reach Covetrus during business hours.
Faced with continuing upward momentum in accounts receivable, Covetrus had to find an automated A/R workflow that they could replicate for every customer across all of their subsidiaries. The workflow also needed to accept all payment methods available to Covetrus customers with a superior online user experience. And, it had to integrate seamlessly with their existing NetSuite Oneworld platform so staff wouldn’t have to toggle between two systems.
Covetrus vetted a handful of payment platforms during their search, but most didn’t meet their requirements. Some didn’t have all the necessary payment methods or stringent enough security protocols. Others focused more on collections and less on payments.
“Paystand met all of our major requirements upfront. And as we moved further into the discovery process, they evolved with us as our needs changed.”
Paystand's SuiteApp Integrations Provides Flexibility, Security, And Choice
During the course of the 2-month implementation, Paystand ensured the required accounting functionality was available in the Paystand for NetSuite SuiteApp. With the SuiteApp, Covetrus can take advantage of all the features Paystand has to offer inside the existing NetSuite OneWorld application. With Paystand’s SuiteApp, Covetrus has the ability to:
- Automate invoicing and reconciliation workflows
- Accept multiple payment methods, including eCheck, ACH, debit, and credit cards
- Send individual invoices and invoice summaries upon request
- Tokenize customer payment data for secure storage
- Make virtual terminal payments (via phone or in-person)
- Receive payments in any currency
Creating A More Seamless Payment Experience
When an order is triggered in NetSuite, Paystand automatically sends out an email to the Covetrus customer with the appropriate invoice. The customer can then pay the invoice using a link embedded in the email with no username and password setup. And, customers can pay at any time online with zero involvement from the A/R team.
Once the customer pays the invoice, that payment is reconciled in Paystand and NetSuite simultaneously. The customer immediately receives a payment confirmation for record-keeping purposes. Kristen and her staff can view a real-time dashboard of payments inside NetSuite as payments arrive.
- Days sales outstanding (DSO) dropped by 80%
- Per-transaction fees fell by 98%
- Phone calls to make payments were reduced by 25%
- New customers increased by 11% with zero new AR staff
"We’ve launched Paystand’s SuiteApp to our three main subsidiaries that represent the core of our business. We’re thrilled with the ease of the entire process and we look forward to launching it across all of our business lines.”
