From transportation and healthcare, all the way to how we communicate with one another, technology has come to dominate and saturate every aspect of our lives. It’s even changed the world, including the financial industry.
Tech has altered the way we conduct business, and the way we perform financial tasks has inevitably evolved along with it. Traditional paper-based, manual billing and 20th-century invoicing methods can no longer facilitate a modern, efficient invoicing process. Those old, slow procedures simply cannot operate at scale to support tech-driven, explosive business growth.
What the finance industry needs is a more advanced system to rejuvenate the process. A digitized billing and invoicing system like the solution Bectran offers, including real-time tracking of data from point of sale to collection, can speed up and even revolutionize your AR process.
By leveraging an automated platform, your company will benefit from:
- Greater process visibility
- Information accuracy
- Fewer inconsistencies
- Faster invoice delivery
- Configurability to better serve your customers
- Scalability
- Cost and time savings
Here, we break down just how traditional billing and invoicing may be hindering performance, and how embracing intelligent technology can benefit your team.
Manual Billing and Invoicing Processes May Be Slowing You Down
Relying on clunky, obsolete, paper-based billing and invoicing systems results in transaction processes that are cumbersome and prone to error. After all, when any system relies on massive amounts of human data entry, the probability for error skyrockets. Generating handwritten or printed invoices, collecting and reconciling payments and managing dispute settlements — among other tedious tasks — all cause inconsistencies and delays.
5 Downsides to Traditional Invoice Processing
- 1. No capacity for tracking and transparency
When it comes to the traditional process for billing and invoicing, AR teams are left with little oversight – if they get any at all! Did an invoice make it to the correct address? Did the right contact at the company receive it? Did it even get delivered? Finding answers to these questions leaves AR professionals in the dark until a payment is either made or missed. A digitized AR system provides both clear oversight and additional touchpoints for teams to track and manage invoices.
- 2. Time-consuming
After a wrist-breaking full day of hand-preparing paper invoices, including signing, dating, securing, addressing and sealing all those documents, your team is probably ready for carpal tunnel therapy. But instead of relief, they are faced with the reality of more monotony with dispute resolutions and claims management. With an automated system like Bectran offers, your team can spend less time in paper and more time focusing on what’s really important: growing your business.
- 3. Longer order-to-cash cycle
Tedious tasks involved in the manual billing and invoicing process slow down your order-to-cash cycle. The longer it takes for you to deliver invoices to your customers, the longer your order-to-cash cycle will be, significantly delaying collections. A digitized system for billing and invoice processing automates time-intensive and manual tasks for you, shortening your order-to-cash cycle so collections can be made more quickly.
- 4. Prone to error
Manual invoicing is often prone to errors due to manual data entry mistakes, miscommunication and misunderstandings. Since the process can involve multiple people, the accuracy of information can become compromised as tasks are passed on from one person to the next. In general, manual invoicing systems can’t detect and rectify errors. Fortunately, digitizing the billing and invoicing process helps reduce the risk of errors, and provides the checks and balances that you need to rest assured that your invoicing is processed accurately.
- 5. Increased cost for your business
The typical cost of processing just a single invoice by hand is approximately $25. And that price does not include add-ons or invoices that constitute special conditions. In addition to the manual labor involved, there are indirect costs, such as the multiple human resources required to process and prepare invoices. Add into the mix any other inconsistencies and the math can quickly become frightening. To offset costs and to get you focused on what matters most to your business, automated invoicing does all the work for you, saving a whole lot of time and money, and allowing you to prioritize more urgent tasks.
How Bectran Can Help
Bectran’s powerful accounts receivable platform provides a robust framework for streamlining and leveraging automation to transform your AR process into an efficient, accurate machine. The Bectran Invoicing, Billing and Payments solution empowers customers with full visibility and access to documentation around the clock. This means a 24/7 ability to view, approve or send or track the entirety of invoicing transactions and history.
Take AR to the next level with our accounts receivable software and watch your invoice processing times decrease exponentially without worrying about decreases in accuracy.
