CorneaGen, a company committed to transforming how corneal surgeons treat and care for their patients, faced a crisis. Their Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) had ballooned to 73-78 days, and invoices older than 150 days old accounted for $1.5 million (USD) in revenue. It was an unsustainable situation, exacerbated by poor AR practices and the impact of the global pandemic.
That’s when Jaime Beadnell, Billing and Collections Manager at CorneaGen, turned to Quadient Accounts Receivable by YayPay.
Diagnosing the problem
According to Beadnell, inefficiencies littered her team’s accounts receivable process. During invoicing, old credit notes were applied to outstanding invoices, meaning that the AR team had to waste time reconciling the data whenever a customer took a credit note.
In addition, reporting was overly complicated. Specific conditions for customers were attached as comments in reports, rather than as their own actionable fields. As a consequence, every time a customer was contacted, the AR team was forced to spend time digging through notes to ensure that they were operating with all the necessary data.
At the time, the organization relied on a manual accounts receivable process, meaning they were forced to send out 150 invoices a day by hand. This took up a considerable amount of time, which increased exponentially when invoices went unpaid. The team had such a heavy workload that they were unable to build a collections strategy, leaving them to work accounts at random, further delaying the receipt of payments.
The issue became even worse when the global health crisis forced employees to work remotely. It also added a new complication. CorneaGen could not ensure data security for their customers, because they were forced to share payment information over email, leaving them vulnerable to a breach.
Prescribing a cure
Working with an AR specialist at Quadient Accounts Receivable by YayPay, CorneaGen was able to integrate their existing Netsuite ERP with Quadient’s AR automation software, centralizing all of their data on the cloud and making it available in easy-to-use dashboards. With that in place, they were able to access vital information in a fraction of the time it took before.
Analyzing and reconciling credit notes also became less labor intensive, as all of the data they needed was just a keystroke away. The software’s customizable workflows allowed them to operate more efficiently, automatically assessing invoices and directing them to the appropriate contact for resolution.
“Communications are customized and set on a cadence that works for the customer. This means we can maintain our tailored collection workflows and ensure our customers are looked after and incentivized to pay on time.” - Jaime Beadnell, Billing and Collections Manager, CorneaGen
By providing customers with a self-service payment portal, CorneaGen was able to circumvent the challenges presented by remote working. Customers can log in and make payments directly through a system that guarantees data privacy through full PCI-DSS compliance. In addition, the portal allows customers to ask questions and raise disputes, which are then routed to the appropriate AR team member for speedy resolution.
By automating routine tasks and making the collection process more streamlined, the receivables team was free to engage in activities like meeting and coordinating with their sales and distribution teams to discuss the challenges they faced. This has allowed all three departments to coordinate their efforts to achieve better results.
Achieving a clean bill of AR health
The impact was immediate and significant. Billing time was reduced from 20 hours a week to roughly 2.5, an 87% increase in efficiency that frees the AR team to engage in more high-value tasks. DSO was cut from 78 to 38 days and the value of invoices over 150 days old went from $1.5 million to $62K.
“YayPay has been a game changer for CorneaGen. When the global crisis struck, we faced significant financial challenges. YayPay enabled us to not only address these challenges, but also introduce more effective ways of working, which has led to remarkable cash flow improvements and an enhanced customer experience.” - Jamie Beadnell, Billing and Collections Manager, Corneagean
CorneaGen also reduced their past due invoices from $5.5 million to $2.1 million, a sixty % decrease. Because of this, write-offs due to customer non-response dropped by 70% within one financial quarter of implementation. The customer payment process also improved. Through a self-service portal, customers enjoy a B2C-esque experience that offers multiple payment channels and the flexibility to manage their business on their own time.
To learn more about how Quadient AR can elevate accounts receivable, download our newest resource, The Accounts Receivable Collections Playbook.
