AND THE SAP-INTEGRATED SOLUTION TO RECTIFY THEM

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE 7 Worst Practices inThe

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Raise a hand if your accounts receivable (AR) process is bad. Like just-thinking-about-it-gives-you-a-headache kind of bad. Sound familiar?

Ok maybe it’s not all doom and gloom but take it from us, if your AR process is driven by manual methods there’s a good chance you’re in the throes of some pretty awful AR practices.

Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place. By examining seven of the worst practices in AR, you’ll learn about an SAP-integrated solution that can help turn things around by eliminating subpar policies.

This guidebook helps SAP users identify what’s going wrong in your AR process and how to make it right.

7 WORST PRACTICES IN ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLEAND THE SAP-INTEGRATED SOLUTION TO RECTIFY THEM

THE

The faster an invoice gets to the customer, the sooner you get paid. But here’s the thing: In manual business processes, there’s no way to ensure invoices are being delivered and seen by the right person. Without that insight, it means longer Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and less of what your company needs the most — money in the bank.

According to research from PayStream Advisors, 57% of organizations automate their AR processes in order to reduce DSO.1

No manual preparation = fewer errors and slowdownsInvoices sent in real time = faster internal payment processFull visibility = ensure invoices are received and viewed

HURRY UP AND WAIT?

WHY DSO IS SHORTERWITH AUTOMATION

#1 YOUR DSO AVERAGE IS IMPRESSIVE. IMPRESSIVELY POOR.

KIND OF A BIG DEAL ...

031 Building Strategic Accounts Receivable: Optimizing Accounts Receivable (AR) with Strategic AR Automation Software. (2017). PayStream Advisors. PDF file.

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No matter how fast you want invoices delivered for payment, data from the SAP® system still needs to be extracted and composed. That takes manpower in a conventional AR setting. And who would want their employees tied up in tasks that are unproductive, unpleasant and inaccurate? Nobody, that’s who.

In the U.S. and Europe, the average volume of paper invoices is 70% while the other 30% are e-invoices.2

Greater time dedicated to value-added tasks like contacting past-due customer accounts.

THE MALAISE OF MANUAL PROCESSING

CONSIDER THIS

TAKING THE BUSY WORKOUT OF AR

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By automating AR invoicing, your team benefits from:

#2 YOUR AR TEAM MEMBERS ARE EXPERTS AT PRINTING, ENTERING, SORTING, FOLDING ...

[OLD SCHOOL]

2 Trends & Developments in the E-Invoicing Market. (2017). Billentis, Esker. PDF file.

Easier dispute resolution via online, self-service tools.

Painless customer onboarding, facilitating greater movement to e-invoicing.

Ensured compliance with government and industry regulations.

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§ Labor § Hardware and maintenance § Staff time

§ Ink, paper, toner, etc.§ Folding/stamping machines§ Stuffing and collating

§ Stamping or metering§ Errors/exception handling § Archiving and storage

Millstone (n) [mil-stohn]3

: a heavy burden Ø See: operating an internal mailroom for AR processing

WHERE DOES YOUR TIME & MONEY GO WHEN

MAILING CUSTOMER INVOICES INTERNALLY?

WORD OF THE DAY:

QUICK INVOICE DELIVERYIN ANY FORMAT

An AR automation solution allows companies to submit invoices electronically from SAP to an on-demand facility where they are processed and handed off to local postal services within 24 hours of creation. Putting tons of time, money and equipment into invoice delivery? Naw, no more of that.

#3 THE MAILROOM IS YOUR AR DEPARTMENT’S MILLSTONE.

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Here’s the thing: When you can’t easily report on or track important data like collection calls made, total amount outstanding, reasons for lateness, etc., then you can’t know where improvement needs to be made. Even with an SAP system in place. Top-performing AR departments rely on automation software to provide these insights into their process to learn, evolve and grow.

AR automation allows team members to:

§ Base activities off custom task lists § Quickly access customer and account info. § Follow up on invoices early and often

... and allows managers to:

§ Easily assess team progress § Spot potential problems to address § Evaluate collections efficiency

#4 VISIBILITY INTO AR IS THE PILE OF DOCUMENTS ON YOUR DESK.

NO INSIGHT, NO IMPROVEMENT

Otherwise known as the dark, vacuous chasm of manual processing where teams perform the same tasks over and over hoping for different results.

AVOIDING THE AR ABYSS

FULL TRACKING ANDREPORTING CAPABILITIES

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If it’s difficult to do business with an organization, customers will not want to work with them. It’s that simple. You can’t afford to lose customers, so don’t - implement a solution that makes customers want to do business with you.

Customer’s use of digital channels to communicate with brands grew 65% between 2015 and 2017.3

An AR automation solution offers customers self-service options via a convenient web portal allowing them to:§ View and pay invoices online§ Contact support and resolve disputes§ Sign up for auto-pay

ONLINE WEBPORTAL

Seriously.

This makes AR so much

easier!

#5 THERE’S NOTHING THAT MAKES DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU EASY.

WHAT CUSTOMERS REALLY WANT

DID YOU KNOW?

3 The State of Customer Experience 2017. (2017). Conduent, Inc. PDF file.

SELF SERVICE THROUGHAN ONLINE PORTAL

Organizing collections activities with spreadsheets and sticky notes is inefficient, there’s no ifs ands or buts about it. In order to effectively manage AR operations, information needs to be centralized and easily accessible. Something an automation solution provides.

Sticky notes get lost. Spreadsheets quickly become big data dumps. Neither are an appropriate way to store and/or share important customer and account information.

Available in one central location with the click of a button, an automation solution gives AR team members and managers access to all the information they need:

§ Customer listings § Credit applications § Invoice disputes § ... and just about anything else you can imagine!

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#6 YOUR COLLECTIONS ARE MANAGED WITH SPREADSHEETS AND STICKY NOTES.

METHODS OF MADNESS

RISKY BUSINESS

PUTTING NEW TECHNIQUESIN PLACE

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This is a global economy. Understanding the restrictions on e-invoicing is a must for both the country of origin and the recipient country. If you’re using a decentralized AR operation with lots of moving parts, or have customers who lack the capacity to properly store e-invoices, it might be time for an update. Like now.

Some rules were meant to be broken. Just not international e-invoicing regulations.

A best-in-class solution offers compliance features such as:

§ Electronic signatures and certificates § Revalidation portal for tax auditing § Secured long-term archiving § Interoperability with multiple systems

#7 YOU THINK YOU’RE IN COMPLIANCE WITHINTERNATIONAL E-INVOICING REGULATIONS.

RULES ARE RULES

WORD TO THE WISE:

PEACE OF MIND WITHAUTOMATION

Esker is a leader in SAP-integrated document automation solutions for processes like AR, order processing, accounts payable and more. With over 30 years of experience under our belt, we’ve helped over 11,000 companies drive greater growth, profitability, and customer relationships.

We’ve tackled projects of pretty much every size and complexity, so whenever you’re ready to move forward with an automation project give us (the experts) a call. We’re here to help.

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WHO WE ARE

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