One of the main selling points of an ERP is that it should make it easier for businesses to collect cash with increased visibility over aged debtors. This is true, but quite often, businesses don’t see that due to a less-than-optimal system configuration after implementing NetSuite. Other times, changes to upstream systems or processes may negatively impact cashflow.

We work with lots of businesses to help them improve visibility over aged debt and cash collection. One thing we know is that once it goes wrong, it can go wrong quickly and be very difficult to reverse. This is especially true with SaaS businesses that have aggressive revenue growth targets and lots of automated processes.

Here are 5 tips when it comes to optimising NetSuite for cash collection.

1. Getting the correct data points – The point we want to get to is having great dashboards which will tell you credit controllers what they need to focus on and your managers how they are performing against KPIs. Dashboards are straightforward to setup but are worthless unless you have identified and pulled through the key data points you need to make them relevant.

The first step here is working out which data points you require. For example, are missing customer PO numbers causing issues? If so, is there a datapoint on customer records telling you if they require a PO or not? Are open customer cases resulting in nonpayment? If so, can you see if the customer has open customer cases on the customer record? Is there an issue with renewals v new customers? If so can you run reports focusing on aged debt on renewals only?

These are some of issues we have seen contribute to a spike in aged debt with high volume SaaS customers. A big part of the issue is that they were not able properly identify the causes as they did not have the correct datapoints in their ERP allowing the finance team to easily identify these points.

Once identified and defined it is then a case of figuring out if they are already captured and just need to be synced from another system or copied from another record. Does a custom field need to be created and is there data collection exercise required?

We help customers with identifying the optimal data points, setting them up and getting them populated on the correct records.

2. Dashboards and reminders – dashboards are a really useful tool in NetSuite and can be set for different role types. You can setup credit control dashboards and reminders in line with your debt collection process or credit control KPIs. Here are some useful dashboards that will help credit controllers:

• Customers 30 days overdue who haven’t been called.
• Customers requiring a final demand
• Customers who have been escalated
• Customers without cases who need chasing
• Large balances about to become overdue

Getting the correct datapoints onto customer and aged debt records are key to maximising the benefit gained from dashboards.

3. Credit Control workflows – NetSuite Suiteflows can work well within these processes for populating fields on records on back of actions, automating communications to suppliers or updating credit controllers on customer records.

One example of a workflow could a final demand workflow. A final demand template can be set up in NetSuite. Once a final demand needs to be sent to a customer the credit controller should send the email via NetSuite. A notification can be sent to customer success or sales.

The customer status can be updated on the customer record which will allow this debt to be highlight on dashboards for review before entering an escalation process.

Workflows and/or Dunning can also be used for sending automated reminders to customers.

4. Data Quality and Emails – One thing we find with high volume SaaS business is that they are not always sure the customers are receiving notifications and invoices. Perhaps they are being caught up by spam filters or junk emails. Here you need to make sure that NetSuite has been configured to send emails from the correct domain and DKIM records are set up etc..

Data quality is often an issue with businesses particularly if shortcuts have been taken to save time and money. Poor data can limit the extent of automation you can implement through workflows and other automated processes.  

5. Driving behaviour with KPIs – when was the last time you set out KPIs for your credit control team? Are they still fit for purpose? Does your credit control manager have visibility over performance against KPIs? Could they be improved?

We work with businesses to make sure they have optimal KPIs and that these are converted into systems requirements which give management properly and timely oversight into how their team are performing.

We hope we have provided some good examples about how you can drive cash collection and reduce aged debt. We have lots of experience working with high volume and other business to make sure their ERP is setup optimally to allow them to maximise their investment in credit control, improve cashflow and reduce aged debt. Reach out if you would like to learn more.