Ask any finance manager or business owner; invoice payment processing is among the most time-consuming tasks for companies of any size. While it's impossible to ignore (how else will you get paid), it’s very tedious, to say the least. If you’re sending a few invoices each month, it’s something you might put up with. But once you’re sending double-digit invoices each month, it’s a process you want to automate as much as possible. In this blog, we explore processing automated invoices and look at how, by implementing online payments, you unleash even more potential.
Processing invoice payments by hand, paper, and electronically requires clear focus and attention to amounts and descriptions. Additionally, your accounts receivable team spends more time tracking, collecting, and following up on invoice payments. If you don’t collect, your company could risk failing. So, it’s no surprise that automated invoices combined with online payment options are the dream of every finance team.
Receive and make payments in a smarter way
Automated invoices with integrated options for online payments will drastically improve your collection time. Think of smart invoices with clickable payment links or QR codes: offer your customers the convenience they expect. It eliminates repetitive manual tasks prone to human errors for both your organization and your customer. Simultaneously, it updates the information in your accounting software, processes payments, and reconciles the books. The ultimate goal is to reduce the loss of time and resources while getting paid faster. Something that both small and large businesses benefit from.
The real power is unleashed when you combine digital invoicing with online payments.
Get paid faster with online payments
Integrating with an online payment method like Sentoo lets you collect online payments directly from automated invoices. This way, customers have an easy option to make a payment no matter where they are. For instance, your customer Dianne is picking up her kid from ballet, and she has a thousand other things on her mind to get done that day. She can access her invoice on her phone and pay before her kid hops in the car. Not only can you collect the payment quicker, but because the customer does not manually input any payment information, there is always a 100% match when reconciling the books. So, the real power is unleashed when you combine digital invoicing with online payments.
5 Key benefits of automated invoices and online payments
1. Facilitate easy payments
Research has shown that customers with more online payment options will pay 3x faster. Payment options on your invoice are the fastest way to get paid for your unpaid invoices. Offering online payments helps you improve cash flow and increase business liquidity. Also, complementing your digital invoices with online payments means handling and protecting your customer's payment information appropriately.
2. Automate 100% payment matching
Online payments through Sentoo show up on your bank statement with the correct invoice information and exact invoice amount. As a result, payments with Sentoo are automatically matched 100% in your accounting software.
3. Reduced manual data entry
The more you reduce the need for manual data entry, the more accurate your incoming payments become. Because let’s be honest; we humans are prone to error due to lack of concentration or fatigue. Eliminating manual data entry improves data consistency and accuracy, leading to fewer bill disputes and happier customers.
4. Improved automated invoicing workflows
When you automate your invoicing workflow, you reduce the time spent tracking and collecting invoice payments. Making the entire process more efficient helps the accounts receivable team achieve deadlines. Furthermore, customers can receive instant updates on their payments and open invoices.
5. Reduced time and effort
The average small-to-mid-sized company takes about 10.9 days to process a single invoice manually from receipt to payment. That means more late fees and high processing costs. With automation, you reduce the time and effort usually spent on repetitive tasks such as manual reconciliation. Now your accounts receivable team can focus on value-added tasks in your business.
Accounting teams will often be pressed for time and deal with heavy workloads. Processing automated invoices combined with integrated online payments such as Sentoo helps do the heavy lifting for you. Want to know more about how our payment method can improve your collections? Start today.
