At Billtrust, we pride ourselves on providing top notch customer service, which often means going above and beyond the evolving needs and expectations of our customers. For us, it’s not just about finding ways to get you paid easier and faster, but also making sure we provide you with timely and relevant information that may impact your business.
On January 27, 2019, the United States Postal Service raised postage costs for metered mail by six percent — from 47 cents to 50 cents. While this might not seem like a substantial increase, when you’re a business that deals with thousands of invoices a month, it adds up quickly.
For example, consider this: If you mail 10,000 paper invoices in one month that currently costs your business $4,700 dollars. With the postage increase of six percent, that tacks on an additional $300 bringing the total to $5,000 a month, or $3,600 in additional spending annually.
How can companies overcome the increase in postage?
We recognize that this postage increase causes challenges for both our customers and other businesses. One way that companies can tackle this is through an electronic adoption program where customers can move from paper invoicing to electronic billing and payments. The benefits will also be absorbed by your clients as well.
“We have seen customers dramatically decrease postage costs while increasing customer satisfaction,” said Billtrust’s Director of Marketing, electronic adoption, Colleen Ciak. “Our electronic adoption campaigns deliver immediate savings for our customers on both postage and paper costs. When our customers’ customers switch to electronic delivery and payments, they receive their invoices 3 – 5 days faster allowing them to invoice their customers faster. Making electronic payments also ensures making discount dates, which is an incentive for paying early.”
What can a company save when going electronic?
On average, companies can achieve an electronic invoice presentment (ePresentment) rate of 58 percent. If you’re sending 10,000 invoices per month, with an ePresentment rate of 58 percent, your invoicing costs would come down $2,100 a month, or $25,200 in savings annually. Another benefit of this transition is not only that your company will save money, but will often get paid faster by reducing DSO (days sales outstanding).
Your company won’t only save dollars when you switch to electronic invoicing; you’ll also be saving the planet. Based on a calculator by the Environmental Paper Network, those 10,000 paper invoices are responsible for the cutting down of 1.2 trees, wasting 1,070 gallons of water, producing 58.9 pounds of solid waste, and using the same amount of energy it takes to run 1.5 refrigerators for a year.
As we look to find ways to improve our businesses heading into the new year, changes like electronic adoption that can not only improve our bottom line but also positively impact the environment are certainly good resolutions to consider.
Want to learn more about an electronic adoption solution? For example, one of our customers who has saved 25 percent on postal fees while increasing their electronic adoption rate by 56 percent. You can email us at [email protected] for more information on electronic adoption for your business.
About the author:
Ryan Mitchell is the Social Media Coordinator at Billtrust. He can be reached on LinkedIn and Twitter.