Choosing the right receivables solution

Having the right process and efficiencies for executing your company’s invoicing and payments is integral to its financial wellbeing.

Discrepancies, delays and all things associated with human error can leave your company with greater sales outstanding, unnecessary overhead costs, and potentially customer discontent.

In the infographic (PDF) below, Bluehill research walks us through how VersaPay helped Metroland Media Group, a Toronto based media properties company, improve their invoicing and payments operations.

Although the infographic is a case study, you can use it as a handy map to help your company pick the right partner to improve accounts receivable operations.

The infographic identifies several leadership personas that you would typically see in any company, identifies what they “care about” and highlights a process from Versapay’s solution that satisfies each of the personas needs.

For example, the CFO cares about late payments and processes that will create payment efficiencies. These directly involve credit, collection management, and finally being able to make payments on using VersaPay’s system.By taking a holistic view of process improvement, VersaPay was able to identify all of the related parts and functions and understand how to make everything work together to maintain customer happiness, improve cash flow and reduce overall costs.

VersaPay kicked off the project by defining the scope of Metroland’s needs, which were focused on invoicing and payments.

Metroland needed to save time, keep track of invoices, make it easier for customers to pay their invoices. Versapay was able to do all of this while reducing overhead by removing the need for employees to take payments via phone.

The initial implementation was a leaner deployment of their solution where they took an iterative approach of applying feedback to improve the solution until it was developed to its optimal form.

Although VersaPay’s solution worked for Metroland, there are many providers available that can help your businesses accounts receivable.

So, how do we choose a good AR solution provider? There are three criteria that any business should consider.

‍Breath of solutions, BlueHill suggests ensuring that your provider servers many functional areas. Not all solutions cover invoicing, dispute resolution, payments, credit and collections all at once. Identifying which one is needed most will be necessary for finding a provider.

‍Integration, A must have. Ensure your provider is certified for the ERP or accounting system your company uses. This will help tie things together and reduce data discrepancies. Ask for references and review the integration they have made.

‍User Experience, Finally, how easy is their solution to use? Will your staff and customers enjoy using this solution or will it be a headache? How easy will it be for IT to configure this solution? Make sure that this solution improves staff efficiencies. There is no point in adding more work for your team!

By using the below infographic as a guide and considering the three above criteria we are confident that your business can improve employee satisfaction and customer experience. Learning how to make invoicing easier to send and track, and creating a better screen process will help your business minimize bad debt and help improve cashflow.

Click here to view the Bluehill-Infographic