Accounts receivable management platforms can be amazing tools for managing AR if they’re used correctly. They help improve efficiency, streamline the payment process, and save you time. But, as helpful as they are to improving your accounts receivable processes, they also have their shortcomings.
Here are six ways many accounts receivable management platforms don’t perform the way you need them to, inevitably causing accounts receivable problems.
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Your AR Solution Doesn’t Send Payment Reminders Early Enough
Sending a reminder the day a payment is due is like a teacher reminding you that a research paper is due when you walk into class. The reminder comes too late and only leads to frustration and anger.
Through your accounts receivable management platform, you should be able to automatically schedule payment reminders to help ensure that your clients are well informed and have ample time to prepare before payments are due.
Your AR Solution Sends Invoices to the Wrong Person
Marketing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and sales are different parts of an organization. While you may have to deal with multiple people and have a handful of contacts on record, sending the wrong person the invoice will only delay payments and lead to increased tension between you and them.
To get the fastest return between an invoice being sent and receiving payment, you need to send the invoice to the correct person in the organization.
Your AR Solution Has Difficulty Dealing with Delinquent Accounts
No matter how prepared and proactive you are with invoicing, some clients will not pay on time. This can be for various reasons, ranging from being busy and forgetting to post the payment in time to not having the necessary cash flow management.
Some platforms have difficulty accepting late payments, sending prompt and appropriate reminders of late payments, or establishing consequences for any delinquent accounts. Your AR platform should have an automatic process to manage delinquent accounts so you don’t have to handle each late payment manually.
Your AR Solution Doesn’t Include Necessary Information on Invoices
While some common pieces of information should appear on every invoice, some companies require additional specifics for any invoices they receive.
If your accounts receivable management platform does not include those necessary additional details, there’s a chance the invoice won’t be processed on time and will require you to manually follow up. Your platform should be flexible enough to include new fields for any additional necessity and automatically populate those fields.
Your AR Solution Is Not User-Friendly
An AR management platform should be the backbone of your AR team. It should be the go-to resource and tool, but unfortunately, too many are difficult to use and aren’t user-friendly.
Some platforms have mixed functionality: creating a new client account is simple, but dealing with a complex payment management system or customization may as well require a computer science degree to be done right. Your platform should be easy to understand and use for all aspects of AR, not just a handful of them.
Your AR Solution Doesn’t Offer Digital Payment Options
With the growing popularity of digital options, not having an AR management platform that accepts digital payment options is like going grocery shopping and being told they only accept personal checks.
Real-time and digital payments are taking over the B2B space. It’s estimated that by 2025 at least half of all B2B payments will be made in real-time. Some AR platforms provide great management options for cash, checks, and cards, yet they offer no digital solutions.
Paystand Does It Better
If you’re looking for accounts receivable improvement ideas, choose Paystand. We go beyond the basic functionality of other platforms and make it easy to solve these common issues. Our straightforward design makes it easy to manage your resources and see at a glance the status of your entire department—and open your eyes to more ways to improve accounts receivable.
We understand that AR doesn’t live in a vacuum, and the best companies can leverage transaction data to make better business decisions. That’s why Paystand provides robust integrations for every ERP so you can get end-to-end payment functionality all in one place.
Our goal is to help you get your money faster, more efficiently, and at a lower cost. Check out our ebook to see how Paystand’s advanced features can help you get the most from your accounts receivable management platform.