Products
Invoicing
Payments: Surcharging
Cash Application
Collections
Challenge: Growth Demands Efficiency
When business grows, there’s a lot more to manage – and with it the expectation to manage everything more efficiently. The finance team at Werner, a $500M full-service distributor and solutions partner, knows this all too well, which is why leaders tapped Billtrust nearly 20 years ago to keep their accounts receivable (AR) operations ready for whatever comes next.
Originally an electrical distributor, the company has evolved over the years, solving challenges across construction, industrial, manufacturing, technology, and IT sectors. Through those changes, Billtrust has helped transform their AR process with every new chapter. Today, AR is a lean team of three people.
Solution: Invoicing Win Spurs Full Digital Transformation
It all started with invoicing. Werner’s customer base ranges from those who prefer paper-based invoices and checks to those who run fully digital operations. Cutting down on print volume was the first goal, and two Billtrust-driven campaigns helped Werner achieve an electronic delivery rate of 97% without creating customer friction. This initial win sparked wider AR transformation.
From there, Werner called on Billtrust to scale its cash application work, reduce the fees associated with virtual card acceptance, and optimize collections – all of which helped accelerate cash flow and unlock more working capital. Here’s a look at Werner’s long-term partnership with Billtrust and how the finance organization is building a fully automated AR ecosystem.
Results: Automation Reduces Costs by $332K
Previously, matching payments to invoices consumed too much time. Today, Werner is auto-matching payments to line items with a match rate of 91% across 348,000 invoices annually. B2B payments are no longer a problem thanks to machine learning and straight-through processing. Work that used to take 8 hours every week now takes just 4 hours.
Those 50% productivity gains have created space to restructure and broaden team responsibilities, including the creation of a backup AR supervisor position. Today, the team spends more time addressing the needs of customers. In addition to elevating their customer experience, efficiency gains deliver $82K annually in operational cost savings.
Here’s one key strategy behind their success: Finance leaders knew cash application automation wasn’t a magic button. They knew they would face issues that would get smaller and easier to manage over time. There were kinks to work through, which they did internally, pulling in Billtrust experts as needed. Leaders kept the AR team focused on training the AI model, even handing out bonuses to those who could increase hit rates.
Those savings are expected to grow as more B2B payments need to be applied. The company’s AR balance (and subsequent workload) increased 40% over the last 3 years alone.
“We can see how upfront investment is driving long-term efficiency. There are always new ways to increase the match rate, and the team is actively encouraged to bring new ideas forward. As the system improves, the return becomes more obvious. It’s continuously getting better, and that’s how we saved $82,000 in operational costs.”
Director of Financial Services, Werner
Those savings are expected to grow as more B2B payments need to be applied. The company’s AR balance (and subsequent workload) increased 40% over the last 3 years alone.
Playing their (Virtual) Cards Right and Saving $250K
With many of their customers embracing the perks of paying via virtual card, Werner saw card usage nearly triple from 2024 to 2026. But more card payments meant more fees. Billtrust’s Digital Lockbox helped Werner reduce their card interchange rates, generating $250K+ in cost savings in the first year.
Finance leaders didn’t stop there. While the sales team was hesitant about implementing a surcharging program, no negative impacts were identified after the program rollout.
“We’ve only had one customer request a surcharging exception. Everyone else either moved to ACH or agreed to pay the fee. It’s been a massive win in protecting our profit margins,” stated the Director of Financial Services, adding that a big part of their success involved customer communications. “Billtrust helped us craft an effective announcement message to get ahead of the change, so everyone was informed beforehand.”
“You hear all the time how worried companies are about surcharging – that they’re going to lose customers. But then you do it yourself, and you realize you don’t lose customers. In fact, you save a lot of money.”
Director of Financial Services, Werner
Customers are Now Paying 3-7 Days Before the Due Date
Werner sells to large enterprises. Purchases come with 90-day payment terms, which naturally puts pressure on cash flow and Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) measurements. While some external factors can’t be controlled, internal visibility and management can.
With Billtrust, the AR team gained something they never had before: insight into customer payment behavior, which research shows is a leading way to optimize AR collections activities. That transparency was groundbreaking. Suddenly, Werner was able to:
- Identify which customers are most likely to pay late based on historical patterns, helping them manage those accounts preemptively
- Understand which outreach actions drive faster payments, pinpointing those who pay only after receiving a phone call or those who ignore emails vs. open email and don’t respond
- Get data-driven advice on how to adjust outreach timing for more responsiveness, for example calling on day 15 instead of day 22
- See and automatically track new metrics like Average Days Delinquent (ADD)
“Not everything is in our control, but we can now identify when customers are starting to slip and take action early to minimize that impact. We clearly see that some clients don’t pay unless you call and ask. We’re seeing the indicators and catching the risk.”
Director of Financial Services, Werner
Communication was another area of improvement. Insight into customer behavior revealed that the AR team needed to make it easier for recipients to initiate a dispute, so AR leaders pulled that verbiage to the top of their payment reminders. Plus, the team needed to standardize their outreach messaging.
“Now, multiple people aren’t writing different kinds of messages,” explained the Director of Financial Services. “Our communications are consistent from a brand perspective.”
As a result, Werner is now getting ahead of risk and actively influencing payment behavior in ways that reshape cash flow and prevent bad debt. For the first time, customers are consistently paying 3-7 days before their due dates, putting ADD metrics in the negative. When AR performance is strong, so is productivity — and it shows. After a recent acquisition added hundreds of new accounts, the collections team hasn’t needed extra manpower.
Cash Flow Forecasting Improves Financial Clarity
Werner’s ERP system wasn’t built to provide the predictive intelligence needed to forecast cash flow at scale – a problem cited by over 80% of finance leaders. No matter how elaborate their spreadsheets were, the team still struggled with disconnected data.
“Before Billtrust, cash flow management was like putting together a puzzle where some of the pieces have gone missing.”
Director of Financial Services, Werner
With Billtrust’s cash flow forecasting tools, data challenges are dissolving:
- Forecasting liquidity has gone from a multi-step, manual process to one-click visibility
- Leaders can use generative AI tools to ask questions and get immediate answers summarizing their AR data
- There’s no more “You’ll have to wait on a custom report for that”
Generating new reports from Werner’s existing business intelligence system requires submitting an IT ticket and waiting in queue, but much of that is no longer necessary.
“When I look at what I can do with the Billtrust platform, it’s unreal. We have so much information at our fingertips. I can’t do this with any of our other tools.”
Director of Financial Services, Werner
From moving phone calls earlier in the process to uncovering issues faster, and resolving them sooner, the finance operation is acting proactively more than ever before. Automation is transforming the way they operate. As the Director of Financial Services put it, “We’re recognizing the power of AI cash forecasting, and we’re working to implement it as a part of our everyday operational excellence.”
