How can AR automation bring more value to suppliers?

As the digital era has progressed, the way we do business has progressed too. E-invoicing has proven itself to be a driver of change and improvement on the buyer and supplier side. However, the interlinked nature of the invoicing process means we also have a new challenge to contend with – an underserved market of suppliers who are also adopting e-invoicing, but not receiving the maximum benefits available from it.

The world of AR, in my opinion, needs more attention from solution providers. On top of that, I think there actually is a simple fix here. One where we build a solution that makes adopting e-invoicing a real, direct benefit and enhancement to suppliers, rather than being a purely enforced choice or pressured decision to maintain customer relationships.

Manage your customers

Improving manual or complex integrations includes ensuring your customers receive your invoices in the most effective ways. The need to manage these customer relationships is an inevitability – and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for suppliers to do so. Growing numbers of network requests, complex integrations, and government mandating make for an uncertain future unless suppliers are smart about how they adapt. We see our solutions as effective enhancements today, but invaluable advantages in the coming years. Future-proofing suppliers from whatever new invoicing obstacles they face. That’s why solutions need to be able to deal with the full range of access points from government portals, network-to-network set-ups and even those working with paper/pdf’s is the sort of flexibility needed to give suppliers a more intelligent form of distribution – effective today, and scalable for the future.

Compliance

Government mandates for e-invoicing are increasing in number every day – many are beginning to normalise its use and legislate in part. Multi-national suppliers are becoming increasingly worried about how to manage these requirements efficiently – and rightly so. We view this change as a perfect opportunity to offer our expertise and apply our technology. By operating with a comprehensive and scalable compliant network, spanning hundreds of countries, the likely prospect of further mandating doesn’t have to be a concern for those we work with.

Equally, there’s no indication of consistency amongst governments in how they mandate. The future is one in which operating around various electronic connections & formats is difficult to avoid.
The alternative to working with global specialists like Tungsten would be for multinationals to have to find, negotiate, and maintain local relationships and connections instead – resulting in less efficiency, time pressure, and demand on resources. As such, the focus for us is on handling all those obligations, so those we work with don’t have to.

Visibility

Finance teams will benefit from enhanced visibility through monitoring of the invoice data and statuses through a single portal – dashboards show crucial data like delivery status, the amount owed, payment due dates, and missed payment alerts meaning less time spent chasing customers and more time focused on strategic activity. On top of that, leveraging AR invoicing data would give suppliers more than their fair share of insight into where they can build greater efficiencies. In essence, you can turn a back-office function into an enhancement of your front office decision-making.

In short…

We know all too well that, historically, invoice automation has benefitted buyers and offered minimal additional benefit to suppliers. The central mission for us, therefore, was to create something that could elevate invoicing from pure cost-focus to value-focus. It’s through this shift that we reach world-class performance. I see the future as one of opportunity, but also one that will demand adaptability. We believe our solutions bring those advantages – the ultimate result will lead us to better buyer/supplier relationships and, crucially, create a more efficient and harmonious ecosystem for everyone.

If you’d like to learn more about Tungsten Network’s Total AR solution, visit our website or get in touch with me via email at [email protected].