Email has become one of the most prominent forms of communications between businesses. It’s instant and allows for work to get done much more quickly. Despite this being our number one form of communication, for some reason accounts receivable departments aren’t using email addresses to send customers invoices or payment reminders. They still only have a physical address for their contacts, meaning they have to send these invoices through the mail.Not using email addresses really slows down the accounts receivable process and we’re going to explain 4 reasons why.
1. Limits What Method You Can Send
If you don’t have an email address for your AP contact, that means your only methods for sending invoices and payment reminders is via snail mail or fax. Sending through the old mail methods takes a long time and runs the risk of losing the invoice in the mail. Fax machines are not always reliable and can’t always guarantee the right contact will get it. Your contact will have a specific email address, guaranteeing that they will receive the email.
2. Address Changes
Sometimes a company moves and you aren’t notified before they do. If you haven’t spoken with your AP contact in a while, you may end up sending an invoice to an empty building. Even if a company makes a physical move, if you have email addresses for your contacts they will still receive your invoices.
3. Sending More for Less
For every invoice, payment reminder, collection letter or late notice letter you send out through the mail, you’re spending a lot of money on office costs. You have to buy the paper, ink, envelopes and stamps. For every email you send, your costs are minimal or even nothing at all.
4. Automation
It is practically impossible to automate your accounts receivable process if you are sending invoices still through the mail or via fax. You still need someone to stuff envelopes or put the invoice in the fax tray. The only way you can truly automate invoicing is by gathering your AP contact’s email addresses and allowing an automated accounts receivable software to send out emails for you.
Customers are already in their email inbox every day. They are talking to coworkers and colleagues, so why not reach them in the place they are most active? By sending your AP contact their invoice and payment reminders via email you can reach them faster, which means they can pay on their account faster.
