A frictionless accounts payable and receivable strategy enables easy access, hassle-free management, and effortless payment information interpretation. Nevertheless, complicated processes and obsolete technologies can be a significant stumbling block.
Businesses accepting payments must be ready to pair all received funds with the various invoices. A slight mistake like claiming an invoice that has already been paid can ruin the customer experience. Such hiccups explain why most companies are searching for user-friendly account payable and account receivable solutions that ease payment data processing and management.
Jason Hagan, an expert at the First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO), feels that the coronavirus has further fueled the need to digitize AR and PR operations. Companies are now integrating their back-end with banking solutions to streamline these vital organizational processes.
Switching to a New Approach
In most organizations, accountants must shift between different software and manually tackle several tasks, resulting in worker burnout and further costs. But as we pace the shift towards new technologies, we realize it’s possible to automate most of these processes.
Groundbreaking automation and integrated tech eliminate the need to switch between different software and hardware. For instance, combining AI with machine learning and technologies like optical character recognition is a much faster way to access invoice data, free employees of such duties, and ensure timely account receivables.
According to Hagan, most companies that automated AR duties never laid off the employees who tackled those tasks. Most were redesignated to other vital responsibilities such as maintaining relations with slow-paying business partners.
Companies might also make the most digital advancements that enable better analysis of account receivable data for valuable clues like spotting customers that are likely to heed reminders and pay on time.
Integrating with banks
But implementing such complex automation AR & AP upgrades call for help from your banking partners.
Banks can easily tie payments to specific invoices and combine payment data in multiple ways easing the access and processing of payment data.
Merchants must seize these opportunities and allow banks to handle the back-end to speed up workplace processes.
Final Words
Late payments due to a poor AR/AP strategy can threaten to slow down your business’s money flow. A fast and straightforward AR and AP process is essential in helping companies maintain a healthy cash flow.