By Jeremy Parker, Chief Operating Officer
Understanding the role and value of order to cash automation, with tips on how to get started.
Today’s unpredictable business landscape demands exceptional efficiency.
In fact, data shows process inefficiencies can cost companies 30% of their annual revenue and waste 26% of an employee’s workday. Talk about tough losses.
But there’s good news –with integration and workflow automation technology, businesses can yield rapid efficiency improvements by syncing data between applications and accelerating time-consuming processes.
With order to cash automation, you can improve experiences for both customers and employees alike by enabling a frictionless journey from the moment an order is placed, to invoice delivery, to the time the payment is realized.
But first, what is order to cash?
The order to cash process begins with a customer order and ends when the organization successfully receives and records the payment for that order. Beyond its role as a standard back-office procedure, O2C is integral for operations, finance, and procurement teams, playing a vital role in delivering an exceptional customer experience.
👉 Take a deeper dive into order to cash process automation
Challenges with traditional order to cash methods
Manual data entry and a lack of automation in the O2C cycle can hinder a company’s ability to serve its customers efficiently. Many businesses still rely on manual billing, invoicing, and payment processes, leading to errors and inefficiencies. Inaccurately processing or fulfilling orders subsequently results in subpar customer experiences, directly impacting your growth and customer retention.
The importance of order to cash automation
Automating order to cash is a strategic move that benefits both the back-office and front-office experiences. An efficient O2C cycle not only streamlines the purchasing process for customers, but also enhances the organization’s cash flow.
By eliminating manual or paper-based processes, businesses can process and fulfill orders accurately, minimizing defects and errors. Data synchronization across various back-office functions, including invoices, purchase orders, and payments, enables organizations to improve their financial metrics, leading to higher efficiency.
How to automate the order to cash process
Automating the O2C process across teams often looks something like this:
Order Fulfillment:
After a customer places an order, that data can be automatically transferred between your ERP, CRM, ecommerce marketplace, or inventory management system to keep all teams on the same page. This ensures that the right order is delivered to the right customer at the right time.
Invoicing:
Once the order details are seamlessly integrated, the next step in the O2C automation journey involves streamlining the invoicing process. Automated invoicing ensures accurate and timely generation of invoices based on the order information, reducing the risk of manual errors and accelerating the overall billing cycle.
Payment Collection:
Efficient order to cash automation goes beyond invoicing and extends to payment processing. With payment automation, businesses can enable secure and prompt transactions. This enhances customer satisfaction and minimizes delays in receiving payments, supporting better financial stability for your organization.
Benefits of order to cash automation
By automating processes across the order to cash lifecycle, your organization will be able to:
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Access a single view of your customers
Achieve a comprehensive understanding of customer interactions and transactions, facilitating personalized service and relationship-building.
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Improve customer experiences
Streamline order processing and fulfillment to meet customer demand with fewer errors, eliminating manual data entry and enhancing overall customer satisfaction.
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Realize revenue faster
Improve Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) by removing bottlenecks in the O2C cycle, resulting in better cash flow and optimized working capital levels.
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Increase visibility
Empower customers and employees with access to real-time data. Customers can track order statuses, while employees can easily monitor the status of receivables, enhancing transparency and communication.
Harness the power of order to cash automation with Jitterbit
Long story short: the order to cash process is not just a series of transactions, but a critical component that significantly impacts customer experience and overall business efficiency.
Embracing automation in the O2C cycle is a strategic imperative that helps improve customer satisfaction, financial success, and market scalability.
One of the fastest, easiest ways to achieve order to cash automation is via a low-code integration platform. With a single, intuitive interface, you can map data integrations and connect key systems to automate O2C workflows between sales, finance, operations, fulfillment – and all key stakeholders along the way.
P.S. – Want to know how automating order to cash helped me achieve a 10x bump in employee satisfaction, a 75% decrease in invoicing time, and an 18 day improvement in DSOs? I explain it all in our new webinar; click here to access and watch it on-demand.
