1. Speed Up Invoice Processing
Automating your cash collection process begins with accelerating invoice processing. Using cutting-edge technology enables quick and accurate invoice creation, approval, and distribution. By reducing manual intervention, you can minimise errors and ensure that invoices reach your customers promptly, facilitating faster payment turnaround.

2. Enhance Payment Visibility
Visibility into your payment process is essential for effective cash collection. The ability to provide real-time tracking and reporting features, allowing you to monitor payment statuses and identify any bottlenecks is crucial. This transparency empowers your team to take proactive measures, improving overall cash flow management.

3. Implement Secure Payment Gateways
Security is paramount when it comes to financial transactions. Ensure secure payment gateways, safeguarding your organisation and customers from potential threats. With encrypted payment channels and compliance with industry standards, you can instill trust and confidence in your payment processes.

4. Minimise Manual Data Entry
Eliminate the time-consuming and error-prone task of manual data entry. Automation tools can seamlessly integrate with your existing systems, reducing the need for manual intervention. This not only increases accuracy but also frees up valuable resources, allowing your team to focus on more strategic tasks.

5. Personalise Customer Communication
Effective communication is key to successful cash collection. Esker empowers you to personalise and automate customer communication, sending tailored reminders and updates. This not only improves customer relationships but also encourages timely payments.

In conclusion, embracing automation in your cash collection process is a strategic move to consider for the new year. By focusing on these five key areas, you can enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and ultimately boost your organisation’s cash flow. Make 2024 the year of streamlined processes and increased success .

Ready to embark on this journey towards a more efficient cash collection process? Contact Esker today to learn more about our cutting-edge automation solutions, and how they can benefit your organisation.

Sam Townsend

Sam is Head of Marketing for Esker Northern Europe and has been part of the Esker family since 2003.

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The partnership is a big step towards improving automated credit solutions and recommending appropriate credit limits and terms based on each customer’s unique situation. This will help businesses manage risk and ensure revenue through Esker’s user-friendly digital platform.

“CoCredo is delighted to become a strategic partner with Esker bringing together a wealth of expertise to create pioneering solutions in assisting businesses to drive profitability, avoid adverse risk, and increase efficiency that meets the evolving needs of our customers.”

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

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Esker, a global cloud platform and leader in AI-driven process automation solutions for Finance, Procurement and Customer Service functions, today announced  that AAH Pharmaceuticals, the UK’s leading pharmaceutical wholesaler, is automating its Credit Management and Collections Management processes with Esker.

AAH Pharmaceuticals is responsible for delivering over 15 million items per week to more than 14,000 pharmacies and other organisations, operating from 14 distribution centres. Its current collections and credit management processes are manual, with data entry into several different ERP systems. A further manual process is required to check its customers’ registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Esker was chosen after a highly competitive and lengthy pitch process. Success was due to its uniqueness in offering the full Invoice-to-Cash solution suite and the only company to find a solution to run automatic licence checks with regulatory councils.

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

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A new beginning for Novuna Business Cash Flow was automating their collections process with Esker’s Collections Management solution. As a result they have successfully boosted employee morale and client relationships.

2023 is already in full swing with the weeks flying by, and small signs that Spring is on the way. I do enjoy the changing of the seasons, and that it brings a different mood and outlook to life. New Year and then Spring always feel like a new start, a clean page in life to make what you want of it. Like so many, I always start a new year with all good intentions. My New Year’s Resolutions (New Beginnings as I prefer to call them) were not so different to previous years, with the annual intent of consuming fewer sweet treats being the first on the list! After admitting to myself that my New Beginnings had not been successful so far, I’m now giving up sweet treats for Lent!

I always find it bizarre that in the working environment I’m constantly reviewing my progress against my targets, (can you tell I’m in Sales?), but in my personal life this is not something I prioritise. Each week at Esker we meet as a team to discuss how the previous week has progressed, what had worked well, and areas that need improving or need more attention in the future. We also have our monthly company meeting with reflection time, celebrating the wins in each team and as a company, then looking forward to how we can strengthen each area. So why do I not do this with my personal New Beginnings?

One of our customers, Novuna Business Cash Flow, found that the system they used for collections was challenging, difficult to navigate, and that the ability to run reports was particularly frustrating. Team morale was low due to how time consuming the way of working was and the potential for mistakes. And so Novuna Business Cash Flow set off on a journey to find a new way of working – a new beginning. After looking at several different systems they implemented Esker’s Collections solution. A great example of reviewing their processes, highlighting an area for improvement, and then finding the best resolution for the issue.

When embarking on a project like automation, it’s understandably a time of apprehension and trepidation. We so easily stick to the routines we know, building up daily habits, whether these be good or bad. In my case with my sweet treats, bad habits! It’s harder at times to implement a new beginning, but often once we have changed our routine and then embraced the change we know we want or need to make, the results speak for themselves.

Credit Manager at Novuna Business Cash Flow, said:
“We have seen benefits to our clients as well as ourselves. Strategically, we can liaise with them to help them make better business decisions by giving them detailed information about their supplier queries.”

Esker’s Collections Management solution can bring numerous benefits to your business including:

• Increased collections efficiency by automating low value tasks such as daily reminders, prioritisation and giving collectors one system to access all invoice related information and documents
• Improvements in collaboration and dispute resolution by easily assigning tasks to stakeholders, and sharing reports to make the dispute or invoice related issue easier to achieve and monitor.
• Better visibility on process and performance with customisable dashboards and reports displaying real-time KPI’s to monitor collections performance and therefore be able to adjust strategy accordingly for even greater efficiency.
• Improved customer relationships via a customer portal with 24/7 access enabling customers to retrieve all the information they need.
• Reduced DSO/optimised working capital with all the above contributing to accelerate the cash collections cycle.

When embarking upon their automation journey, Novuna Business Cash Flow had set out a number of objectives they wanted to achieve:

• Increase flexibility
• Facilitate reporting for clients
• Invest in market-leading AI technology
• Provide multiple access both internally and for clients

And since the implementation, they have seen the following highlights:

• Immense boost in team morale
• Control over the solution to create bespoke filters
• Excellent KPI analysis
• In system messaging – full audit trail of activity
• Controlling bounced emails via standard reports
• Ease of solution navigation, workload distribution & escalation

The team at Novuna Business Cash Flow have said that they feel they are at the start of a journey, and although the process is greatly improved they are still learning about functions within Esker’s Collections solution, reviewing the progress, and adjusting where they feel they can benefit with further opportunities.

“Motivation of my team is through the roof — Esker is very simple to understand. It also empowers them to make decisions based on each of their clients rather than a top-down approach. This is making them much more self-sufficient giving me the opportunity to look at a more strategic view of the business.”
Credit Manager, Novuna Business Cash Flow

And so, they have a new beginning, that is creating new routines and habits to improve in so many different areas. Results are being seen, which helps to make the transition from old routines and habits that much easier. The research that Novuna Business Cash Flow put in at the start of the journey has paid off, and for us here at Esker we are thrilled at the difference our solution has made to the whole team at Novuna Business Cash Flow. We will still reflect though to make sure we can learn from the process for our future clients.

And so finally for me, as we enter Spring and the new shoots of new beginnings are starting to appear in the garden, I need to set my personal objectives. Then research the best system to achieve my objectives, and then record the highlights to keep me on track. I’m sure each week there will be areas for improvement and old habits are going to be hard to break. But if I sow the seeds now, who knows what might grow over the summer – or in my case shrink with less sweet treats! Let’s just hope I don’t have a poor performing weekend in April with the temptation of Easter Eggs!

Johanne Musson

Johanne is an Internal Account Manager for Esker UK. She has been part of the Esker family since 2022.

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We are over half of the way thorough 2022. It’s nearly a year since I wrote my last blog which looked at new features in O2C. 2022 seems to be going faster than ever, and I feel that the world is getting back to some sort of normality. My diary has certainly been filled with web meetings but I have ventured out on the M40 motorway on a couple of occasions. I enjoy meeting people for real and taking a break from the web cam. It’s a shame however, that the traffic has returned to its terrible pre-Covid levels.

Cashing in with new automation features

2022 has been a busy, interesting, and sometimes challenging year. We continue to go-live with a number of projects but I have certainly found that the popularity of our cash solutions has increased across Credit Management, cash Collection Management and Cash Application processes. My last blog talked about the number of ‘under the hood’ features that I have found with our Order Management solution. The same is true for our ‘cash solutions’ which are now fully integrated, giving our customers an end-to-end O2C solution. The list below is certainly not exhaustive, but I have seen some key changes and improvements in the following areas;

Credit Management – Enhanced workflow rules and mobile approval capabilities for customer onboarding.
Collections Management – Salesforce integration, improved views of historical (and future) ageing information and a projected view of future collection activities.
Cash Application – Enhanced discount handling, seamless SAP connectivity and enhanced templates for more efficient customer communication.

The above features are certainly creating a buzz and I’m excited to see further changes. Customers can check out the ‘What’s New’ section in our product documentation.

On a personal note, I am delighted to be starting a new position within Esker. From the 1^st July 2022, I have taken up the position of Sales Manager and have responsibilities for our expanding UK team and a handful of key customers. I look forward to a new challenge after over 15-years of direct sales.

If you’d like to learn more about using Esker’s solutions to improve your O2C processes with automation, please contact me and my team – we’d love to help.

Paul Stevens

Paul is the Sales Manager for Esker UK. He has been part of the Esker family since 2006.

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Due to state regulatory requirements in Connecticut, Slocum & Sons’ customers are required to pay for spirits and wine within 30 days. If customers exceed these state-regulated credit terms, they are required to go on cash on delivery (COD), making collections the responsibility of sales representatives or drivers.

By implementing Esker’s cloud-based Accounts Receivable solution, Slocum & Sons is equipped to streamline its collections process, making collection activities more efficient for the customer and sales team through automation.

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

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