Originally published in the "Payments at the Edge" eBook, a 2016 PYMNTS.com Report.
The time-tested routine of invoice and check within traditional B2B accounts receivables (AR) processes has officially been disrupted as the world races towards electronic payments.
Disrupted, yes. Dying, perhaps. But not dead. In fact, 93 percent of checks deposited as images in 2014 came from business customers.1 The ability to efficiently and cost-effectively manage check payments is still—and will continue to be—the foundation of a successful B2B AR organization.As businesses have been pressed by customers to support a growing number of payment types (Check, ACH, Credit Card, Debit Card, Cash, etc.) and payment channels (mailed-in, called-in, in-person, online, mobile), they’ve been forced to adopt multiple payments solutions and platforms to keep up with customer demands.
The resulting mash-up of different systems and legacy software has resulted in increased complexity, minimal or no integration, a lack of consolidated reporting, too many reconciliation points, and escalating costs for maintenance, training and support. And the problem is only growing—the estimated cost of U.S. companies using siloed receivables and payment processing systems exceeds $1B each year.2
As companies work to transition B2B payments from paper checks to electronic payments, a major challenge remains as two out of three companies acknowledge a lack of integration between electronic payments and back-office accounting systems.3 What benefit is accepting electronic payments if you still have to manually post those payments to your back-office systems? What could be streamlined, still remains siloed for many organizations.
No longer. Financial Transmission Network, Inc. (FTNI) is helping corporates and banking institutions alike eliminate siloed receivables systems and platforms by accepting any payment type, from any payment channel and automatically posting remittance information into back-office systems (i.e. straight through processing). All on a single, secure, fully-compliant, cloud-based integrated receivables hub. Unlike a dashboard that just brings together transactions from disparate systems, FTNI supports the initiation, acceptance, processing and posting of all transactions from a single, unified platform.
FTNI’s award winning integrated receivables platform, ETran, gives you the ability to tailor the solution to your unique business needs and automate AR processes and workflows, unlocking new levels of efficiencies and cost savings. ETran works with existing bank, merchant processor and back-office relationships and is configurable at all levels so it can be quickly and easily personalized to your needs, evolving with you as your business needs change.
And because of ETran’s modular design, you can quickly and easily add new payment methods, channels, locations and users as necessary. No need to eat the proverbial elephant in one bite, no “all or nothing” decision to be made. Just the ease and flexibility of adding new functionality as needed.
Essentially a ‘plug-n-play’ platform, ETran enables efficient integration (batch or real-time) with any back-office accounting system. It unlocks enterprise-wide AR oversight from a unified interface to improve business insights and deliver real-time visibility into the entire receivables stream.
Easily and affordably deployed, configured and supported, ETran has been proven to reduce payment processing times and increase AR efficiencies by up to 80 percent4 for customers across numerous industries.
True integrated receivables solutions are no longer just a vision, they’re a reality with ETran by FTNI.
Sources: 1 – Remotedepositcapture.com 2014 Special Report: “Remote Deposit Capture: A Decade in the Making”; 2 – 2014 “Identify & Eliminate Hidden Expenses” Study by ACI Worldwide and Wiese Research Associates; 3 – 2013 AFP “Electronic Payments Survey”; 4 – 2015 FTNI Success Stories – “Parks and Sons” and “Leading Health and Life Insurance Provider”