Reaping Rewards with Integrated Receivables

Challenges

• Cash Application
  • Completely Manual Processing: The cash application process,from remittance data capturing and aggregation to invoice matching and processing, was done entirely manually. This led to a slow workflow overall, and an increased risk of manual errors in their operations. Manual workloads also meant that teams working on aggregation and processing were stretched thin and were wasting effort on tasks that could be automated. Incorrect and incomplete remittance information was also a problem that had to be taken care of manually. Invoice numbers were also frequently truncated and had to be manually filled out.
  • High Lockbox Fees: The company was paying a lot of money unnecessarily into lockbox fees, which was an issue, and they wanted a way to cut down on these expenditures.
  • No Straight-Through Processing: A lack of automation meant a lack of straight-through processing for payments coming in; the team spent most of their time on this task alone. Collectors had to find and enter missing remittance data into the ERP manually, wasting time on transactional activities instead of spending time in collecting dollars.
• Collections
  • No Standardized Strategy for Work list Prioritization: Teams did not use any form of work list prioritization for segregating customers into different aging brackets. Since they did not follow any order for follow-ups, the entire operation slowed down.
  • No Central Location for Customer Communications: A lack of centralized data meant that teams wasted time acquiring the same information over and over again. That also led to decreased visibility and a lack of accountability among employees regarding customer correspondence. A lack of standardization was also present across business units, leading to stale operations.
  • Lack of Multilingual Support: The system that they used did not cater to their customers’ needs and did not support multiple languages. This led to a disconnect between them and their customers.
• Deductions
  • No Visibility into Dispute Volume and Patterns: With over 1600+ deductions processed per month, no streamlining, and the way data was shared and saved meant a complete lack of transparency into operations . Because of this there were discrepancies in the metrics and data they used. That was a problem because incorrect information meant faulty deductions, which led to their inability to focus and prioritize the process and a poor customer experience
  • Deduction Backup and Approvals Housed In Emails: Data was saved via email, an essential complication for correspondence, and the resolution of said claim was prolonged when searching for a piece of information.
  • Lags in ERP Migration: A backlog of data had to be updated to the recent ERP that they were migrating to.