Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 70% of ERP initiatives will fail to fully meet their business goals. Nowhere is this more evident than accounts receivable (AR), where 74% of finance leaders report their ERP systems lack the automation their AR organizations need. A new study of 500 financial leaders shows ERPs are insufficient in meeting the needs of an increasingly complex and high-volume environment where CFOs are under more pressure to defend and grow their cash flow.
Augmenting ERP with a purpose-built AR process automation software has become the default response for filling ERP gaps:
- 95% say AR software delivers greater ROI when compared to native ERP tools for AR
- 98% believe augmentation can save their teams a significant amount of time each week
- On average, those who layer AR software on top of their ERP system speed B2B payments by 25% or more
So, how does third-party AR software unlock the kind of speed, automation, and AI intelligence that today’s digital era demands? What kind of bottom-line impact can you expect to see? What does augmentation actually look like in practice? Vanson Bourne’s latest research report, ERPs Alone Aren’t Enough: AR Software Required for Predictable Cash Flow, reveals key insights from hundreds of finance leaders about their ERP experiences, challenges, and future plans.
This new study is a must-read to better understand how augmenting your ERP with the best AR solutions can transform financial performance and working capital. Here are the top findings and highlights from the survey.
How ERPs Fall Short for Modern AR Operations
Roughly 70% of finance leaders state their current ERP system does not fully support their AR processes, citing limited AI automation, insufficient reporting and analytics, and limited visibility. This data visualization says it all.
As we unpack Vanson Bourne’s research, we’ll focus on how AR software bridges ERP gaps by delivering three top benefits: speed, automation, and predictive AI intelligence.
AR Software Benefit #1: Cash Flow Acceleration
Productivity is the key influencer of time-to-cash, and 98% of finance leaders agree that purpose-built AR software delivers significant productivity gains on a weekly basis. This explains precisely how respondents, on average, achieve a 23-25% improvement in their AR performance metrics like days sales outstanding (DSO) and days to pay (DTP). All those hours spent correcting invoice errors, tracking payment status, manually matching payments, and chasing down customers results in faster cash availability.
This is something one of our customers, Peak Industrial, felt to the core. Between copying invoices, writing messages, and chasing down payments, their ERP had turned into a major time suck. They wanted to transform their operation and their ERP system to drive demonstratable speed and savings.
“AR went from being a pain point to a shining star — one of the most impactful areas of transformation in the company. I can’t imagine going back to spreadsheets, manual outreach, and the stress of needing to hire more people.”
Ryan Oaks, Finance Director at Peak Industrial
After augmenting their system with Billtrust, Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) dropped from 38 to 20 days, unlocking 47% faster access to cash. What’s more? They doubled productivity without adding headcount. Read their full story here.
AR Software Benefit #2: Automation across Every AR Function
“Current cash applications are inefficient, practically burning money.”
“ERPs are built for recordkeeping — not for customer workflows…”
“Whenever we need a simple custom report, it feels like a congressional hearing with IT.”
Sound familiar? These are just a few of the verbatim quotes from the survey respondents. They shed light on the reasons why 96% of finance leaders see AR automation as critical and why 50% say they’re augmenting their ERP with AR software over the next 12 months.
The key is finding deep integration capabilities paired with an end-to-end AR software platform that spans every order-to-cash function: invoicing, payments, cash application, collections, and credit management. When AR software is ERP-agnostic, reaching wide and deep, it can create that much-needed connective tissue. This bridge is essential considering (on average) companies are wrestling with three ERP systems. The right architecture means software will work across your ecosystem to bring the AR performance gains your ERP can’t deliver alone. The impact of that can be summarized in one survey finding:
57% of those using an ERP + AR software strategy see greater visibility into their receivables and cash flow.
A third-party AR platform like Billtrust builds this connective tissue, delivering real-time transparency across every AR function – and thus, full cash flow transparency that makes it easy to scale and grow no matter how complex your ERP environment gets. See what Billtrust’s customers have to say after augmenting their ERP with AR automation software.
Visibility: The Key to Strategic Transformation in Finance
The findings from this study serve as a further endorsement of what we’ve already seen in other ROI research proving the benefits of AR process automation. Investment always happens where the impact is easiest to see, and this other study from Vanson Bourne blew the lid off the measurable impact recognized from third-party AR automation:
- 92% believe AR automation leads to faster cash flow and improved liquidity
- 90%+ enhanced their customers’ experience while increasing team efficiency
- 42% optimized their payment processing fees
- 39% improved their management of governance and compliance
AR Software Benefit #3: AI Intelligence that Makes Finance Predictive and Preventative
What comes after basic automation and visibility? Predictive AI and decision automation – that is, automation that helps determine what should happen next. Vanson Bourne’s data shows a clear shift in this direction with 98% confidence in AI’s ability to manage AR processes.
Over the next two years, an overwhelming majority of finance leaders 94% feel it’s very or extremely important to have AI automation for forecasting and financial prediction. So it’s no surprise that 33% of finance leaders are already using agentic AI and autonomous AI for cash flow management. Virtual assistants and other forward-leaning capabilities pave the way for the future of AR – where organizations aren’t just number-keepers but proactive protectors of cash reserves.
Since augmenting their ERP with AR software, 61% of finance leaders have improved forecast accuracy with AI-driven insights.
AI intelligence that can predict and prevent financial risk is no longer fringe. The data shows it’s moving from being experimental to mainstream. Purpose-built AR platforms now have an embedded layer of AI decisioning to improve what matters most in day-to-day AR operations – prioritizing collections outreach based on real-time risk data, monitoring buyer behaviors and alerting to payment risks, and optimizing credit allocations based on vast internal and external data sources. This focus on next-gen AI is what makes AR software valuable for finance executives.
But what are those next-gen features, exactly? Let’s take a look.
Conversational Insights: GenAI’s Ability to Foresee
There’s Generative AI (GenAI), which acts as a conversational layer on top of all the automation. Instead of pulling reports or stitching together spreadsheets, you can ask questions and get answers in seconds – from customer insights to cash flow predictions – just like how you’d interact with a tool like ChatGPT or Gemini. Explore Billtrust’s Autopilot.
AI Decisioning for Smarter Collections Outreach
There’s AI decisioning that powers smarter collections outreach. Billtrust’s Agentic Procedures brings AI decisioning to collections by replacing rigid, one-size-fits-all playbooks with dynamic, buyer behavior-driven strategies. Agents segment customers into financial risk categories and use behavioral analytics to continuously optimize the timing, channel, and tone of every communication or touchpoint. Collectors stay in control with the ability to accept or deny AI’s recommendations. The result? Higher engagement rates enabling faster cash recovery.
Agentic AI for Faster Customer Responses
There’s also AI agents to help collectors manage email.Billtrust’s Agentic Email uses AI to automatically sort, summarize, and extract key information from high-volume inboxes. It then drafts contextually relevant email responses, helping collectors respond to customers faster while retaining full control with the ability to review, edit, and coach the AI model on how to draft communications to match their finance practices or personal voice and tone.
Like it or not, this is what the future of accounts receivable looks like. A secure and trusted AI platform can help you step into this next era with complete confidence.
Trusting AI’s Decision-Making
As we look at the advanced capabilities decision automation makes possible, we’d be remiss to overlook the elephant in the room. AI comes with its fair share of concerns, especially in the world of B2B payments. Nearly 70% of finance professionals believe AI use should be restricted. You might, too. Many vendors are pushing decision automation capabilities in their products without the explainability, visibility, or transparency users need to feel confident and in control.
There must be open conversation around this AI trust gap to move the needle.
If you’re hesitant but curious, we recommend reading this two-part article series on the emotional reality of trusting AI and what it takes to control it with confidence. You can also reach out to our AI experts anytime if you have questions about how to evaluate the trustworthiness of AI.
Start with Augmentation — But What Does That Mean?
Augmentation is the first step, but it’s important to define what this means exactly. Augmenting ERPs with third-party AR software means layering a purpose-built AR platform on top of your existing ERP to close automation and AI intelligence gaps without disrupting core financial processes. After all, very few want to rip and replace this central operating system. ERP-agnostic software connects to your ERP system(s) through built-in, secure integrations that let it both read and update AR-related data without duplicating records.
A simple example of this is invoicing.
Invoicing Automation with AR Software
The AR platform reads sales, purchasing, and customer data to automate invoice generation and delivery, sending it through the right channels based on customer preferences and flagging any errors before it goes out. The AR platform can achieve this at scale, flexing for high-volume seasons and continuous growth without manual intervention.
Vanson Bourne found that teams using this approach are 18% more likely to deliver invoices accurately and on time compared with those that rely on ERP systems alone.
You can take this example further. The AR platform can track each invoice in real-time, confirming whether it was received or paid – even if it was delivered to the client’s AP portal. The best AR software can also manage customer self-service for invoices and disputes, proactively flagging late-payment risks, and matching incoming payments using cash application software. Advanced platforms like Billtrust’s use machine learning to maximize straight-through processing, even in the most complicated scenarios. Unlike alternatives that rely on rigid, rule-based systems, the solution intelligently adapts to unstructured data and new changes in data formats.
Your ERP remains the system of record for financial data while the AR software elevates it with AI-driven automation and insights purpose-built for finance teams looking to make their cash flow more reliable and predictable. This augmentation is what enables AR to shift from an operation focused purely on processing transactions to a strategic enabler using data to drive working capital faster – a lever every finance leader can easily pull.
Enhancing ERP Investments
The biggest takeaway is this: ERPs are not designed to keep up with the AR environment teams navigate today, and that’s okay. ERPs aren’t broken. They simply serve as a base layer on which you can and should expand. Vanson Bourne’s research quantitatively proves that augmenting ERP with a purpose-built AR platform is one of the most practical ways to modernize AR, protect cash flow, and stay ahead in financially challenging times.
Explore Vanson Bourne’s new research in full. Or, read some stories from our customers who augmented their ERP with Billtrust AR automation.
