60% of Large Companies Unhappy with Receivables Processing, Study Finds

A survey conducted by Aite Group and commissioned by Wausau Financial Systems find 81% of corporations are interested in a receivables hub.

A survey of 80 U.S.-based companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenue has found that most process their receivables in-house, yet 59 percent of respondents are not fully satisfied with their receivables processing. The research, conducted by Aite Group and commissioned by Wausau Financial Systems, found that 81 percent of respondents see the perceived value to their companies of implementing an integrated receivables hub, a solution that integrates payments received from multiple sources and business applications to accelerate the application of cash and information through a uniform data stream.

“Faced with the large and growing number of channels by which payments are received, variety of payments types and the complexity and application of data, nearly 60 percent of respondents see room for improvement in their company’s receivables and cash application processes,” said Nancy Atkinson, senior analyst, Aite Group. “It doesn’t come as a surprise that a growing number of companies plan to implement an integrated receivables hub, with 42 percent citing their intent to do so in the next two years.”

On average, 55 percent of corporations’ receivables are processed straight through, which means for 45 percent, manual intervention is required to complete processing and payments do not automatically get posted to internal accounting systems. Three-quarters of companies have days sales outstanding greater than standard payment terms of 30 days, and an average days sales outstanding of nearly 45 days. More than one-third of companies experience unauthorized discounts/concessions of U.S. $500,000 or more annually.