You signed the contract. You celebrated the projected ROI. But six months later, is your accounts receivable (AR) automation software actually driving results, or is it just another tool your team is learning to tolerate?
The truth is, selecting the technology is only half the battle. Industry data shows that while every organization sees the value in AR automation, that value often stalls because of poor execution. The difference between a project that sits on a shelf and a high-speed engine isn’t the code. It’s the partner standing behind it.
Here is what it takes to move beyond a simple software purchase and reach true operational velocity.
Getting Implementation Right: Overcoming Data Challenges
While the value of AR automation is undeniable, unlocking its full potential can be tricky. The hurdle holding many companies back? Integration with existing systems.
The Reality Check: 55% of finance organizations can’t automate AR due to integration challenges.
AR software is not an island. It’s the heart of a financial ecosystem. If it isn’t communicating seamlessly with your ERP, CRM, payment issuers, and your buyers’ various accounts payable (AP) portals, you’re left with disconnected systems.
With around 4 in 10 organizations voicing concerns about data accuracy (39%), complicated workflows (38%), and data quality (38%), it’s clear these problems demand a strong integration strategy from day one. By enhancing your ERP with purpose-built AR tools, you create a single source of truth and a seamless data flow, eliminating the manual workarounds that often drain resources.
36% of executives believe the current traditional ERP model will soon become obsolete, according to a recent Rimini Street report.
Clean Data: The Foundation for AI
A deep integration strategy plays critical role: It ensures the clean, trusted data necessary for AI to function effectively. Without reliable data from all your systems, AI tools are powerless and even unreliable. Learn why ERPs alone are not enough.
By ensuring your data is accurate and unified from the start, you set the stage for advanced capabilities like AI-powered cash flow forecasting and confidence-based matching in cash application — using machine learning to achieve accuracy rates that rigid rule-based systems simply cannot match.
Accounts Receivable Automation Software: The Service Partnership Model
Unlocking the full potential of your investment requires more than just a login; it requires a partnership. A true partner guides you through every stage of the process, ensuring the platform is not only installed and integrated but also optimized, adopted, and evolving with your business.
4 Pillars of a Strong Partnership:
- Integrated solutions built to work across your entire AR tech ecosystem
- Proactive training and team enablement for employees at every level
- Strategic performance measurement for continuous optimization
- Ongoing consultative support to overcome any unique business challenges
Solutions Designed for Your Business
If you are a mid-enterprise, you want flexible tools focused on best practices and rapid deployment. If you are a large enterprise, you need highly customizable workflows. The best partners cater to both.
Here is what that looks like in practice:
- Modular, Fast-Start Solutions: You shouldn’t have to wait a year to see value. Modular solutions let you start where you need the biggest efficiency gains — whether it’s credit management, invoicing, payments, cash application, or collections. These typically go live in 90 days (sometimes even 45 days). You can plug in additional modules later, scaling at a pace that fits your business.
- Enforce Precision Payment Policies: A highly tailored AR platform creates a system of incentives for each customer segment. You can dictate which payment methods are available to specific groups or establish fee exemptions for early payers. This level of control — rarely found in native ERPs — accelerates cash flow and reduces credit card fees by guiding buyers toward more efficient channels.
- Customized Collections Workflows: Instead of a blanket approach, tailored solutions design unique approaches for high-value vs. high-risk accounts. Agentic procedures, powered by Agentic AI, take this further, learning from every interaction to recommend the most effective outreach strategy.
Rapid Implementation: Quick start solutions should allow you to hit the ground running with pre-built ERP connectors and pre-optimized configurations that were thoughtfully put together with industry best practices in mind.
Whether you choose a fast-start solution or a highly customized one, integration should be built-in. Connectors should cover ERPs, banking systems, payment platforms, financial institutions, as well as your clients’ AP portals. When it comes to building, partners shouldn’t put the burden of coding on the client. For example, when clients need to connect with AP portals custom built by their buyers, Billtrust steps in to support special integrations too.
AR Performance Measurement
Tracking performance shouldn’t be secondary. A dedicated analytics workspace should allow you to monitor KPIs, benchmark against peers, and drill down into granular data to identify “bad payors” and other financial risks.
The best partners help you move beyond basic metrics like Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) to more insightful analytics, such as the Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI) and touchless payments.
Perhaps most importantly, metrics should be available for each functional area of AR operations; distinct KPIs should cater to the specific activities of invoicing, payments, cash application, credit, and collections. Additionally, performance measurement strategies should be aligned to client business goals and the maturity of the AR operation overall. Need a guide for this? We’ve got you covered. Get the guide to the best AR performance metrics.
How the Right Metrics Unlock Productivity: For a leading materials distributor, data-driven metrics unleashed new levels of efficiency. By implementing a cash application solution and shifting to more granular line-item metrics, the company increased their match rates by 42%. The result? Productivity gains equivalent to adding 9 full-time employees. Get the full story.
Enabling Your Team to Succeed
The success of any new technology ultimately lies with the people who surround it. That’s why partnering with experts who provide structured support is not negotiable.
Training offerings to look for include:
- Self-paced learning: Access to online videos, peer-to-peer community forums, and simulation practice courses that allow your team to learn at their own pace.
- Instructor-led sessions: Live public classes or private workshops that provide hands-on guidance.
- Comprehensive Support: Access to phone support, online ticket entry, and dedicated support contacts for when questions inevitably arise.
Never a One-Sided Relationship
“It’s important to note the partnership that we have with Billtrust. It’s not a one-sided relationship. In our monthly meetings with the Billtrust team, it’s never us bringing problems or bringing issues. It’s Billtrust asking ‘what can we help you with? What are your troubles? What are your pain points? What can we do about them?’ The collaboration from both sides has been tremendous.”
Scott Hess, Director of Treasury, Cintas
Evolving from Support to Operational Velocity
The partnership shouldn’t end at go-live, nor should it end at regular check-ins. You need access to financial domain experts who can help you interpret KPIs and optimize long-term performance.
True velocity support includes:
- Expert-led marketing campaigns to boost electronic invoice and payment adoption among buyers
- Consultative reviews to fine tuning payment policies or collections procedures
- Assistance with crafting effective dunning schedules and payment reminder email templates
- Change management to help employees overcome fears around AI-based automation
- Paper invoice mailing services that remove more of the manual work off your team
A Closing Note: Velocity to Scale
Software gives you the ability to automate, but a true partner gives you the velocity to scale. At the end of the day, you aren’t just looking for a new tool — you’re looking for a more efficient business.
Look for a provider that stays in the trenches with you long after the initial sale. Because when you bridge the gap between “having the data” and “mastering the data,” that’s when software value turns into measurable business results.
The tools are ready, and our experts are standing by. When you’re ready to lead the charge with a partner who cares as much about your KPIs and ROI as you do, let’s talk.
