The Problem: New Types of Customers Bring Changes to A/R
WebPT provides a comprehensive software system for running physical therapy practices. Originally focused on small and medium sized practices, the company later began moving upmarket and now works with many enterprise level customers.
In pursuing the enterprise market segment, there was a belief that many aspects of running the business would become easier, since there would be fewer customers. But WebPT and their corporate controller, Kevin Jackson, soon realized that the invoicing and collections requirements for their rapidly accumulating enterprise customers far exceeded the capabilities of their existing invoice-to-cash process and overall A/R function–a function which had been built exclusively around the needs of their historic focus on the SMB segment.
Making the challenge even more difficult was the fact that WebPT had recently taken on a Salesforce modernization project, boiling down hundreds of thousands of lines of custom code to a couple of thousand; while the company had taken a big step forward with its overall Salesforce capabilities, they also took a step backward with certain integrations–creating numerous surprises, breakages and new resource burdens.
As a result, Jackson and his team found themselves overwhelmed by a 97% surge in outstanding A/R and grappling with a rapidly ballooning backlog of manual A/R tasks and activities.
The Solution: Stop the Bleeding and Prevent It in the Future
With getting A/R caught up–and keeping it caught up–now an urgent priority, Jackson and WebPT needed a specialized solution that could close the A/R functionality gap while creating minimal friction for customers. WebPT also needed a powerful and affordable solution that could work seamlessly with their ERP, Sage Intacct. Furthermore, the ideal solution would need to work not only for WebPT’s booming enterprise business, but also for the “long tail” of SMB customers. This requirement dictated that something more than a traditional subscription management solution would be needed.
While WebPT and Jackson had done some initial software research on their own, they also decided to consult with their American Express merchant advisor. In doing so, Jackson learned that American Express had already conducted an exhaustive evaluation of the accounts receivable software market and had formally selected Invoiced as the preferred solution and A/R software partner for businesses like WebPT. WebPT needed a solution that could not only stop the bleeding with A/R, but also prevent it for new customers and invoices going forward. While Jackson and his team were originally focused on finding a simple dunning solution, they found with Invoiced a vast array of additional invoice-to-cash functionality that would be useful immediately as well as ample growing room for even further A/R advancement.
Solution Highlights
- Automated dunning notices to get past due customers caught up
- Collectors dashboard to keep team organized and on task
- Invoiced Advanced Reporting to track A/R progress against goals and build custom reports for further optimizing collections
The Results: Smarter Collections & Rapid Receivable Reductions
Jackson and WebPT were able to get up and running with Invoiced in 60 days and achieved even more than they had hoped for. In just the first two months after implementation, WebPT was able to shrink its outstanding receivables by 11%. DSO dropped by 2 days and has continued to decline. And the finance team’s A/R workload has been heavily automated, simplified and organized.
According to Jackson, Invoiced has brought a night-vs-day change to how the company approaches and experiences accounts receivable. “Invoiced lets us focus on our highest priorities and shows us what we need to do the most to shrink our total A/R,” he said. “All of our collectors’ work is now highly organized. No more spreadsheets, no more guessing what to do and crystal clear visibility into what collectors should be doing and are doing,” he added.
Using Invoiced has been so successful, that Jackson and his team are planning to make even more use of it by opening the platform’s self- service customer portal capability as well as Invoiced’s payment plan capabilities.
For WebPT and Jackson, Invoiced was the right solution at the right moment. “Without Invoiced, we would not have been able to materially reduce our A/R. We needed to bring cash in the door and couldn’t do that with our current resources. We needed to be ‘collecting while we sleep’, and Invoiced made it possible for us to do just that,” said Jackson.