Companies
PayStand on how to digitize the enterprise cash cycle (part 1: invoicing)
By Scott Campbell
Co-Founder and Head of Solutions at PayStand
January 22, 2019 — Scotts Valley, CA
Digitizing the enterprise cash cycle is a complex undertaking. Some companies avoid it entirely for fear of losing customers or incurring operational expenses. Others attempt it in an effort to save time and reduce costs, but regularly miss the mark. To kick off 2019, we’ll be taking a look at the enterprise cash cycle and what it means to truly modernize your business relative to payments.
With respect to digitizing their cash cycle, one key reason companies regularly fall short is they often fail to look at the 360-degree view of their business’s unique workflows. Rather than evaluating the opportunity to optimize the whole process, they take one small part of it and try to “plug the hole”, so to speak.
Let’s take a look at one example.
PayStand customer BIIA Insurance formerly accepted the majority of payments for insurance premiums via mailed paper checks. In an effort to cut down on overhead and push customers to their website, BIIA began offering credit card payments online. They replaced one problem (high overhead associated with paper checks) with another one (drastically increased credit card processing fees).
Before implementing anything that looks like a quick fix, finance executives must evaluate the flow of cash within the business. It’s tempting to flip a switch that offers a fast solution, but it’s just not that simple.
There are so many disparate systems and processes involved that drive complexity in B2B payments. The sales order process, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, and reconciliation processes are just a few.
All these tools and processes will connect with the enterprise cash cycle in some way – have a look (image above).
Each step is important to understand as part of the whole. Today, we’ll start with invoicing.
Continue reading here: https://www.paystand.com/blog/how-to-digitize-the-enterprise-cash-cycle-part-1-invoicing
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