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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Are You In The Dark Ages of Credit? Part Two

In my last post, I talked about the financial and productivity risks of manual processes in your accounts receivable department. Did you know that in all of our surveys of corporate credit departments over the years, we have learned that roughly one-third of all staff time is dedicated just to organizing their day? Each person typically has a different system for prioritizing daily tasks as well as tracking progress on each account. This organizing time happens day after day after day.

How can your company fix this seeming inefficiency? One of the obvious challenges is cost. I realize that few companies have extra money to invest in systems and processes that may or may not lead to increased efficiency, productivity and cash flow. A lot of time, money and server space is at stake when converting to new software. Also, software won’t necessarily solve the inefficient processes already present in your receivables management area.

What if you could avoid the time and expense of implementing a software-based workflow system? What if you could utilize best practice processes and even “test out” a consistent workflow system with your staff for minimal investment and training time? This is the advantage that proponents of web-based applications are bringing to the small and mid-market business community.

With a web-based accounts receivable workflow system, your staff simply logs on to the Internet, calls up the workflow site, enters a personal user name and password and gets to work. This workflow application exists in what is called “the cloud,” a web within the Web that provides redundant back-ups of data to your server back-ups. Within the cloud, many applications exist that users can subscribe to for a low monthly or annual fee (often much lower than the cost of purchasing or leasing customized software). These applications allow users to input data and receive outputs that are organized in a variety of ways.

An automated workflow system will prioritize staff duties based on the most pressing AR issues. It will show your staff which customers need an immediate response as well as the details of each open item in question. Over a very short time, this system will create a consistent order and payment history for each customer that can be easily compared to other customer accounts. Staff will spend less time organizing and more time getting you paid.

Because we at The Credit Department believe so strongly in an efficient and consistent accounts receivable process, we will soon be offering our own subscriber-based workflow application within the cloud. We invite you to talk to us about the advantages this application may bring to you: efficiency, stronger cash flow, reduced costs, a stronger customer base and higher business value. Don’t let your staff continue to feel the burden of tracking hundreds or thousands of customer balances without support.

In my next post, I’ll share the success of a medical products company that automated its workflow process. It was an amazing change that fueled its future growth.

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