Managing cash flow is top of mind for business owners who serve as vendors to companies throughout different industries. Streamlined accounts receivable processes and well-managed cash flow can help sustain business operations. Yet it’s not always an easy task to master.
If you’re looking to get paid faster, save time and money, gain deeper insights into your business and build stronger relationships with your customers, follow these three steps to streamline your entire end-to-end accounts receivable process.
1. Move to electronic invoicing
Streamlining accounts receivables all starts with the invoice. If you’re still dealing with paper, your time and money could be better spent.
Eliminating paper invoices (and the envelopes, stamps and postal service that accompanies them) by moving to e-invoicing sent via email or through your accounting system gets you paid faster.
Read more: 7 Misconceptions about Switching to Paperless Processes
Your customers may be adopting accounts payable (AP) automation tools to help them manage, and streamline the way they process payments to their vendors. That means sending them your invoices electronically works as well for them as it does for you.
2. Consider your payments options
Many companies are struggling to process paper checks either because they’re working remotely with limited access to supplies and people.
To help, many are moving to electronic payment methods, for instance, setting up a merchant account to accept virtual card for quick and easy payment receipt. In fact, an estimated 55 percent of B2B payments are made electronically. It’s for good reason. Funds are delivered quicker to your bank account after approval by your customers. It’s more efficient and your money appears as quickly as one day after approval.
Read more: Electronic Payment Systems — Everything You Need to Know
This way, you streamline the accounts receivable process, avoid waiting for checks to arrive in the mail, an estimated 7 to 10 days from the time payment is approved, you can avoid a trip to the bank to deposit the check and avoid the check clearing delays that further delay cash flow.
What’s more, e-payment options provide richer remittance data so you can easily reconcile payments and close out your receivables once payment is made, instead of spending time and energy trying to match invoices to checks.
3. Leave the follow-up to an expert
Keeping customers happy is incredibly important, as you can’t afford to lose them. Yet, with some companies working from home and others heading back to the office, your customers may be struggling to adapt their AP processes and they may be feeling their own cash flow constraints.
So how do you follow up on payment issues? Leave the work to a third-party.
When you work with a third-party payment provider, you have access to a team of payment specialists working on your behalf to get you paid sooner for work you’ve already done. They are dedicated to facilitating your payment as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
They’ll reach out to your customers when payments require attention, monitor for any irregularities, including suspicious fraudulent attempts.
The good news? You’re already working with AvidXchange to accept payments from some of your customers and reaping these benefits.
Streamlining Accounts Receivable is Key to Managing Cash Flow
Streamlining your accounts receivable by going electronic with a cloud-based software solution provides you with e-invoicing and e-payment options, access to a team of payment specialists to facilitate payments and offers real-time visibility into important financial data so you can monitor cash flow and make more informed decisions about your business.
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