B2B payments company PayStand is turning its attention to the accounts receivable (AR) side of business transactions with a new solution announced today (April 10).
In a press release sent to PYMNTS, PayStand revealed its PayStand Automated Receivables tool, designed to automate key processes for AR departments, including invoice collections and customizable workflows. The company likened its collection offering to a “Venmo-like B2B payment and collections process” for corporates and their financial professionals, to support healthier cash flow and improve the customer experience.
The solution embeds payments functionality into communications between buyers and suppliers, while supporting customizable collections plans, depending on a customer’s risk profile. PayStand also links vendors to custom or out-of-the-box email workflows connected to the AR process, automated email payment reminders and holistic views of key AR data, including outstanding invoices sorted by Days Sales Outstanding (DSO).
The solution integrates with PayStand’s existing ERP integrations, including the PayStand for NetSuite SuiteApp.
While accelerated cash flow is a key benefit of AR automation, PayStand said, organizations have an opportunity to gain deeper visibility into company financials through the adoption of intelligence and automated technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics process automation (RPA). However, manual and paper-based AR processes can hold organizations back from obtaining that visibility, the company noted.
One of the largest points of friction in accounts receivable is the receipt of paper checks.
“Too often, accounts receivable or collections teams are forced to manually track down customer payments via phone and email, but without an actual payment action tied to their work,” the company said. “Contact is made, [but] payments are missed,” PayStand added, noting that this process forces AR professionals to juggle cash flow management and invoicing without clear, predictable insight into when money is coming in.
In a statement, PayStand CEO Jeremy Almond said an accounts receivable automation solution has been the number-one demand from current corporate customers in the last year.
“Rather than cobbling together a patchwork system, we built a robust, automated receivables solution from the group up that is native to our entire digital payments platform,” Almond stated. “In keeping with our core principle of removing friction from commercial payments, PayStand Automated Receivables creates a seamless, intuitive, automated collections and payment experience for corporate finance and for customers.”