Top Accounts Receivable Strategies for 2025

The world of Accounts Receivable (AR) is evolving rapidly. With increased interest rates and inflation,  businesses are facing increasing pressure to collect cash faster. This becomes tricky when businesses also need to maintain excellent customer relationships. For many businesses 2025 calls for leveraging cutting-edge tools and strategies for staying competitive. A lot of A/R technologies have made considerable strides in the last two years and are now commonplace. Companies who don’t keep up will fall behind.

Here are the top five A/R strategies your business should adopt to thrive in the new year.

1. Embrace AI for Smarter AR Processes

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming AR management by automating repetitive tasks and providing actionable insights. With AI, businesses can:

• Predict payment delays and identify at-risk accounts.
• Optimize dunning strategies by analyzing historical payment behaviors.
• Automate communications, ensuring timely follow-ups and personalized messaging.
• Flag problems before they become inflated and be pro-active.
• Receive pro-active suggestions about how to prioritize your time to have the biggest impact.
• Benefit from fast and accurate cash application that requires also no human intervention.

By incorporating AI into your A/R processes, you can improve cash flow predictability and significantly reduce manual efforts, allowing your team to focus on strategic initiatives.

2. Leverage Internal Data for Decision-Making

Your A/R data is a goldmine of insights. In 2025, successful businesses will:

• Analyze payment trends to refine credit terms and collection strategies.
• Use data-driven insights to improve customer segmentation and prioritize high-risk accounts.
• Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and collection effectiveness to track progress.
• Reassess what data you are using to measure success. Many traditional KPIs, like DSO, are not always a good indicator of collection success. Many companies use ADD (Average Days Delinquent) or look at the ratio of open invoices to overdue invoices.

Harnessing internal data empowers your team to make informed decisions that improve efficiency and drive faster collections.

3. Run a Consistent and Robust Credit Process

Credit management is the foundation of effective AR. A standardized and scalable credit process ensures you balance risk with reward. Best practices include:

• Conducting thorough credit checks and your own internal review before onboarding new customers.
• Regularly reassessing existing customers’ creditworthiness.
• Setting clear payment terms and ensuring customers are aware of them.
• Ensure you have alerts set up so that you are aware when a customer is near their credit limit or to know if a customer’s credit score has changed.

Consistency in credit processes reduces bad debt and fosters healthier customer relationships.

4. Streamline Cash Application Across All Payment Sources

Managing payments from multiple sources—such as bank transfers, checks, ACH, and credit cards—can be time-consuming. Automating cash application ensures:

• Faster reconciliation by automatically matching payments to invoices.
• Improved accuracy, reducing the risk of errors, disputes and write-offs.
• Greater visibility into cash flow, enabling better decision-making.

Investing in tools that integrate with your ERP and payment systems can significantly enhance efficiency and accuracy.

5. Offer Online Payment Options to Accelerate the Invoice-to-Cash Cycle

In today’s digital-first economy, providing flexible payment options is non-negotiable. Offering online payment capabilities, including ACH, credit cards, and digital wallets, benefits both you and your customers by:

• Reducing payment friction, making it easier for customers to pay on time.
• Shortening the payment cycle, improving cash flow.
• Enhancing the customer experience with user-friendly self-service portals.

Online payments are no longer a luxury—they’re a necessity for businesses looking to streamline collections and boost customer satisfaction.

6. Utilize Electronic Invoicing and Automated Reminders

Electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) not only saves time and money but also reduces errors and speeds up the payment process. Coupled with automated reminders, it creates a seamless and efficient accounts receivable process.

7. Maintain Good Customer Relationships

Positive customer relationships can greatly improve your AR experience. Clear communication, a helpful attitude, and a focus on resolving issues promptly can lead to faster payments and fewer disputes.

8. Invest in A/R Technology

There are numerous software and technology solutions available to streamline and automate various AR tasks. Investing in the right tools can lead to significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and cash flow.

9. Continuously Monitor and Adjust Your Strategy

The AR landscape is constantly changing. Regularly review your AR metrics and processes, and be prepared to adjust your strategy as needed to stay ahead of the curve.

How Gaviti Can Help Refine and Carry Out Your A/R Strategy in 2025

Gaviti is a leading provider of Autonomous Invoice to Cash solutions that can help you optimize your A/R process and improve cash flow. Gaviti’s platform makes accounts receivable controllable, predictable and saleable. Their platform offers a range of features to streamline and automate key AR tasks, such as. The key features of Gaviti include:

• Credit Management: Automation of credit applications and reviews, enforce credit limits, and monitor credit utilization.
• Collections: Personalized workflows, automated emails, prioritized tasks, and centralized visibility with proactive data insights.
• Payment Portal: Offer multiple payment options, maintain complete invoice and payment histories, and provide auto-pay features. Connect to multiple backs adn offer payments in multiple currencies.
• Cash Application: Achieve accurate invoice matching through AI-powered remittance capture and automated payer portal integration.
• Dispute Management: Facilitate customer dispute tracking with customizable workflows and instant alerts to relevant team members.

Each product includes customizable workflows, support for multiple entities, and unlimited users and permission profiles.  Gaviti is suitable for both medium-sized companies and large enterprises.

If you’re serious about improving your company’s A/R strategy in 2025, schedule a demo with Gaviti.

Frequently asked questions about Accounts Receivable Strategy

What is the future of accounts receivable?

The future of accounts receivable lies moving from manual processes to automation and eventually to autonomous systems. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 90% of descriptive and diagnostic analytics in finance will be fully automated. Gartner also believes that autonomous finance will play a key role in helping businesses to meet the rapidly evolving and changing expectations of customers, vendors, investors and employees.

What benefits does accounts receivable automation offer to businesses?

Accounts receivable automation offers a multitude of benefits to businesses, streamlining operations and significantly impacting financial health. By automating tasks like invoicing, payment processing, and collections, businesses can:

• Improve Efficiency and Productivity
• Accelerate Payments and Improve Cash Flow
• Reduce Costs

What accounts receivable strategies can optimize the billing cycle?

Here are some Accounts Receivable strategies that can optimize the billing cycle:

• Proactive Collections Strategy: This involves taking a proactive approach to collections, rather than waiting for payments to become overdue. This might include sending reminders before invoices are due, following up with customers who have not paid on time ASAP, and offering early payment discounts. By being proactive, businesses can reduce the number of late payments and improve their overall cash flow.
• Customer Segmentation: Not all customers are the same, and they should not be treated as such. By segmenting customers based on their risk and payment behavior, businesses can tailor their collections strategies accordingly. For example, high-risk customers might require more frequent follow-ups, while low-risk customers might be offered more flexible payment terms.
• Early Payment Discounts: Offering discounts to customers who pay their invoices early can incentivize prompt payment and improve cash flow. This strategy can be particularly effective for businesses that have a large number of small invoices.
• Automate What You Can: By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, you free up valuable time for your team to focus on more strategic and value-added activities. This leads to increased productivity, improved employee satisfaction, and better overall business outcomes.

See why Gaviti is ranked as the #1 Credit & Collections Software on G2: