If you’re like most other accounting firm partners, three things are probably true:
Right off the bat, I can tell you there’s an easier way for you to manage your AR and become a work-to-cash cycle wizard— your process could be simple with Aiwyn.
But first, let’s take a step back and consider what a typical month in Accounts Receivable looks like.
Clients come first.
It’s the first of the month and your calendar is full of client commitments. You dive right, blitzing through conference calls, reports, and spreadsheets, delighting clients along the way (and accruing plenty of yet-to-be-billed WIP in your practice management system). But converting that into a bill for your client can wait, because their needs come first. But as you near the end of the month, you know that just around the corner, the bills will be back at the top of your to-do list. It's your version of the “Sunday scaries.”
Bill prep marathon.
It’s 3 days before month-end. It just so happens to be quarter-end, too. No choice but to lock the office door, and settle in for a bill prep marathon. It wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t have to do everything manually—exporting WIP into spreadsheets for custom analysis, comparing this year’s bill to last, deciding what work to write-off… maybe you end just printing everything off on a few hundred pieces of paper and grab a few firm admins to help you convert it into bills. Meanwhile, your CFO is sending out aged WIP reports and asking you to make collections calls on last quarter’s bills. All the while, neither of you have insight on what is truly happening because you have to move quickly through a tedious process. All in, this juggling act of bill prep and collections calls can take 2-3 days every month (that’s valuable time you can’t otherwise spend on client work, or maybe just on getting home early for dinner one night).
Hurry up to finish your bills… and then wait.
You didn’t get your CPA license to become an AR bill prepper—but business is business, you need to get paid for your work, so you gut it out. You finish your bills, but now you’re stuck waiting for internal approval so you can get the bill out the door keep your AT process going in a timely manner. Not only is this a dreadful experience for you, this is a terrible experience for the client—they may wait 3-6 months between when you delivered services, and when you sent your bill (not an optimal scenario, as we explore in our recent whitepaper).
Play banker to your client.
Finally, your bills get approved to go out the door... and you wait some more. You hope your client turns around payment quickly but, let’s be honest, they’ll likely delay your process because they have their own to-do list. Also, your firm may not make it very easy to pay (we explore this in our blog, "Top 6 Online Payment Mistakes that Slow Down Your Cash Flow"). You better get your running shoes on, because now you’re left with nothing else to do except chase them down for a payment.
And we’re not done yet - while all this is happening, financial health metrics like days-in-AR and days-in-WIP are growing and the firm continues working. You’re officially in fire drill mode.
Finally, the client pays one invoice and you take a sigh of relief. Then you realize they are still past-due on four other invoices. At this point, you’ve lost time and money. You’re frustrated, and your client is dissatisfied with the process and disorganization.
Do you really want to go through this every month?
That’s why Aiwyn pioneered Intelligence-Based Billing™. the profession’s first artificial intelligence solution for accounting firms. It automates invoicing and collections to allow you to have one-click payments and deliver actionable data, with the ability to integrate with legacy systems you might already be using.
This solution simplifies each step in invoicing, collections and payments so that you don’t have to dread the work-to-cash cycle in accounts receivable. Don’t just take it from us, hear from your peers on how this solution gave Windham Brannon over 41% increase in overall collections.
Simplify your process. Stop allowing the work-to-cash cycle to take your valuable time.