Optimising Business-To-Business Collections With Order To Cash Solutions
Optimise Your B2B Collection Process
Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. Those responsible for managing this critical asset must ensure that their business-to-business (B2B) collection processes are efficient and effective, both on an operational and financial front. This can be achieved through the utilisation of modern, sophisticated order to cash automation solutions.
What is Order to Cash?
Order to cash (or O2C) is core business process in which customer will place an order for goods or services, and the order is then processed from order to fulfilment, then receipt of payment from the customer. collection process comprises the steps between the receiving payment from the customer and the depositing of the funds into the companies bank account. Automated order-to-cash solutions simplify the back-office operational process by automating the entire process and eliminating manual data entry, thereby decreasing costs, increasing efficiency and boosting cash flow.
Benefits of Order to Cash Solutions
The benefits of implementing an automated order to cash solution can be divided into two distinct categories operational efficiency and financial visibility.
Operational efficiency: Leveraging sophisticated automation solution reduces the cost of manual intervention by streamlining the entire process. Automating data entry and field validations eliminates potential errors and reduces the time required to process customer orders and payments. An automated solution can also help to improve customer relations by creating accurate invoices and sending them quickly, while also providing customers with information they need via portals or other customer-facing forms.
Financial visibility: Automation solutions provide real-time visibility into financials across the entire company. This visibility is invaluable as it enables financial professionals to identify opportunities for process improvement, as well as issues before they become major problems. Automated insight into customer and supplier payments can also help to identify any areas of concern within the collection process such as cash flow, bad debt, and long ageing receivables.
How to Implement an Automated Order to Cash Solution
Implementing an automated O2C solution involves the following five broad steps:
1. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and use these to assess the efficiency of the current collection process.
2. Identify functional requirements and use these as basis for comparing different O2C solutions.
3. Evaluate potential providers and make selection based on your requirements.
4. Design the solution based on your specific requirements, and carry out testing to ensure the solution meets your objectives and desired outcomes.
5. Implement the solution and ensure that it is fully operational. Companies should also review and revise their operational policies and procedures in order to maximise the efficiency of the solution.
Conclusion
In order to improve cash flow and streamline the collection process, order to cash automation solutions offer the ideal solution. Automating the process simplifies back-office operations, reduces costs and ensures accurate invoices and timely payments, while providing real-time visibility into financials. Implementing an automated O2C solution involves five-step process that involves identifying KPIs, running comparison between providers and evaluators, building the solution, testing it, and finally implementing it across the business.
