The Hidden Risk Of Not Automating The Order To Cash Process
BUSINESS PROCESS ORDER TO CASH
Automation of the order to cash process has long been highlighted as essential for businessesuccess, yet the potential effectiveness of such strategy is often underestimated. Without automating the order to cash process, businesses quickly become stuck in the quagmire of manual data entry mistakes and mismanagement of accounts receivable. This can be extremely damaging to businesses capacity to optimize efficiency and profits, thereby increasing its liabilities and decreasing cash flow.
Order to cash software offers businesses the opportunity to manage and track their invoices, accounts receivable and other related data in secure, centralized and organized manner. Automating this process can also greatly reduce the time and cost of invoicing and payment collection. Studies have demonstrated significant advantages for businesses that transition to automated processes, with an average 45% reduction in manual order-creation costs associated with manual processes.
Despite these obvious advantages, surprisingly large number of businesses are still running their order to cash processes manually, leading to number of related issues. The most common of these include errors in data entry which can cause costly delays in payments and inadequate visibility into customer data that can lead to poor customer service.
A key risk of not automating the order to cash process is that these errors and inadequate visibility can limit the businesses ability to make sound decisions. Automation and cloud-based technology offers reliable, real-time access to data, thereby increasing visibility and creating opportunities for businesses to generate more meaningful insights. Such visibility can further be extended to customers, creating greater customer trust and loyalty, while improved insights can help businesses manage and proactively monitor customer relationships.
Collection of debt, meanwhile is an essential requirement for businesses dependent on accounts receivable to remain efficient. Automating the order to cash process further simplifies debt collection and minimizes loss due to overdue payments. Automated collection processes such as reminders, notifications and automated document delivery attempt to limit late payments, thereby easing the pressure on businesses and making them more attractive to lenders and investors.
These advantages have positive ripple effect across the business, impacting not just financial liabilities and profits, but also customer relationships, cash flow and sales. Automating this process therefore immediately unlocks potential efficiencies and cost savings, permits better tracking and oversight of customer data, and more importantly, allows businesses to better optimize their services, costs and resources.
In conclusion, automating the order to cash process is vital to ensuring seamless financial flow, and should be priority for any Finance Executive looking to maximize efficiency and profitability. Even the smallest of companies can benefit from the greater visibility, improved accuracy and reduced costs of an automated process, all of which ultimately increase the bottom line.
