The order-to-cash cycle has a profound impact on all of us, on both business and personal levels. When you order your favorite product from the best online store, within seconds it’s processing and working its way through the order-to-cash cycle.
In the same way you would purchase your products on a website, the order-to-cash cycle functions similarly for your business, and it is vital to any business that sells products or services. It encompasses managing all parts of a sale, including the shipping of goods, collecting payments, generating invoices and tracking and reporting on the entire transaction, start to finish.
Without a streamlined order-to-cash cycle, you may be jeopardizing the ability to meet your customers’ needs and expectations. Not only that but failing to streamline your operations from beginning to end can lead to significant financial loss. Investing in automation can expand the opportunities for growth of your business and speed up securing your revenue.
So, how can you make your order-to-cash cycle an optimal piece of your business growth strategy? Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Automation empowers you to do and be your best. You can enjoy the benefits of processes being completed at a faster rate, giving you the opportunity to focus on other high-priority growth initiatives. This means that more personnel and resources are available to address challenging issues that call for human engagement and affect your business’ performance, such as customer complaints.2. Real-time data reduces guesswork involved. To better assess and enhance the performance of each business function in your order-to-cash cycle, you need to have the ability to extract value from the data involved in the process. You can learn where costs come from and where process improvements can be made in the future.
3. Personalized customer service is a must. Many businesses rely on chatbots to respond to small-scale inquiries, but for the most customer-centric experience, chatbots should be used in combination with personalized service. Businesses that embrace real-time customer service not only heighten their credibility but produce greater customer loyalty and help to secure faster receivables.
Advantages of Modernizing Your Order-to-Cash Process
1. Reduce your Day Sales Outstanding (DSO)DSO is a key metric in evaluating the efficiency in your order-to-cash cycle. And lowering your DSO will improve your cash flow and operational performance. Efforts to digitize your order-to-cash process such as adopting an automated tracking and monitoring system, can accomplish faster invoicing, streamlined collections and powerful data analytics.
2. Increased accuracy with automation
Optimizing automation to eliminate manual tasks will combat errors and omissions of information through human mistakes that can cause delays in customers receiving their product. Delays in processing translates to dissatisfied customers. Optimizing an automated platform to enhance your order-to-cash cycle will benefit your efficiency and simultaneously decrease detrimental errors.
3. Greater customer satisfaction and loyalty
Customers want to receive products and invoices quickly, and if this is not achieved, you will most likely have unhappy customers with lots of questions. Access to a self-service portal equipped with tracking and visibility, instantaneous invoices and delivery updates means your customers are happier, more knowledgeable and you get paid faster.
How Bectran Can Help
Bectran’s dedication to improving the efficiency of the order-to-cash cycle has helped companies cut down the time to process and approve credit by over 90% while significantly lowering the risk of default. If you are ready to transform your order-to-cash cycle to maximize the benefits of automation, click here for more information to see how Bectran can put you in the best position to get paid quickly.
