Embracing RPA in Accounts Receivable: A Strategic Approach

A recent survey from Intelligent Automation reports that while 42% of organizations have embraced robotic process automation (RPA), the remaining 58% plan to implement it in the upcoming year. Many of these organizations focus on implementing RPA in the financial and accounts receivable department, where employees are burdened with repetitive manual tasks. Focusing on automating these tasks can quickly deliver benefits not only to the Finance Department and its employees but to the entire organization as well.

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Accounts Receivable?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) involves programming robots or “bots” to complete tasks related to accounts receivable so that A/R teams can focus on business growth. For example, RPA in accounts receivable can  automate invoice distribution, payments, collections, payment matching and reconciliation. It can also automatically generate accounts receivable reports used to  share results and increase visibility across the A/R and financial departments in addition to internal stakeholders.

Why RPA is Indispensable in Modern Accounts Receivable

The widespread adoption of robotic process automation in organizations, and finance and accounts receivable in particular, delivers many advantages. This also means that organizations that are slower to adopt will find it harder to compete. RPA use cases in finance include invoice processing, bank reconciliation, accounts payable and receivable, payroll processing and credit and risk management. For example, IBM was able to adopt RPA to assist transactional pricers in determining the pricing of high-volume IBM software subscriptions, renewals and upgrades to sellers, saving them over 4,800 manual hours annually. After succeeding in implementing RPA in one region, they were able to duplicate it in other locations, creating a standardized process throughout the company.

Benefits of accounts receivable automation include:

• It’s more efficient. It saves time and reduces human error, freeing up employees to focus on high-value tasks that contribute to business growth. Organizations can use the time and resources for other areas of their business. In addition, more accurate bookkeeping and cash application  free of errors delivers a better customer experience.
• It’s scalable. As organizations grow, a streamlined A/R process helps to manage the increased number of customers and invoices. This can be challenging for organizations to handle manually and leads to many errors, resulting in difficulty in predicting and managing cash flow.
• It accelerates cash flow. With RPA invoice processing, A/R processes are streamlined and invoices get paid faster. A streamlined process also helps to better predict when invoices will be  paid, helping businesses to have a more accurate picture of their finances.
• It improves the customer experience. Automating processes allows businesses to more easily offer different options to customers. For example, it can offer different payment options (ACH and options for receiving invoices (email, online portals, etc). This helps to speed up the entire invoice-to-cash cycle, reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and improving cash flow.
• It costs less. RPA technology costs far less than scaling your A/R team or outsourcing to a third party. It is also much cheaper compared to other types of sophisticated commercial software. RPA implementation not only increases A/R team efficiency but can also reduce  costs anywhere from 30-50%.

The Future of RPA in Accounts Receivable

The robotic processing automation market is expected to reach $66 million by 2032, putting increasing pressure on organizations to adopt it to maintain a competitive advantage. However, it’s not only RPA that organizations and finance departments must embrace, but also technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

The difference is significant. While RPA is based on the automation of tasks, artificial intelligence (AI) replaces tasks that would otherwise be performed by human intelligence. For example, while RPA facilitates automated credit reports by gathering credit information from different credit bureaus, AI goes a step further to predict which customers might be uncreditworthy in the future. The business can respond proactively during the onboarding process with a customized payment plan, improving its cash flow management.

How Gaviti Automates the Account Receivables Process

By automating the A/R process with Gaviti, businesses have been able to reduce their DSO by 30% – 50% in less than 6 months. Gaviti’s accounts receivable automated solution streamlines the A/R process, eliminating manual processes and delivering the many benefits of RPA to A/R teams and organizations.

These include:

• Invoice distribution. Enhance the customer experience and facilitate timely payment with the automated distribution of email in multiple channels, including email, online portals, SMS or even traditional mail.
• A/R management and automation. Automate the collections process, including dunning workflows, reminders, escalations and prioritization of collections efforts according to predetermined criteria such as payment history, customer risk or amount outstanding.
• Collections analytics. Centralize your A/R data in one place, ensuring greater visibility of productivity throughout the A/R team as well as the entire organization. The dashboard includes both traditional KPIs such as DSO, customer risk, and total A/R in addition to unique KPIs and advanced analytics.
• Dispute resolution. Track, code, route and resolve customer disputes and deductions with a centralized hub that manages all of the data together. Route disputes automatically to the appropriate stakeholder to improve efficiency and shorten the time to resolution.
• Cash application. Automated invoice matching with nearly 100% accuracy using Gaviti’s payment gateway. This automated payment reconciliation is available both for primary bank accounts and multiple bank sources. Semi-automated is also available with the help of Gaviti’s AI statistical model that offers improved matching in addition to a manual matching option.
• Credit management. Streamline your credit monitoring and management by automatically sending credit application forms to both customers and prospects. Automatically monitor credit utilization levels and get alerts when customers exceed a predetermined threshold.
• Self-Service payment gateway. Offer customers a seamless payment experience with a range of options that includes ACH, debit cards, credit cards, electronic transfer and more, enhancing the customer experience and encouraging timely payments. In addition, it replaces manual reconciliation of payments with automated payment reconciliation for greater accuracy and greater visibility into your cash position.

Want to learn more about how Gaviti can automate your accounts receivable process? Contact us and book a demo today.

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