Optimizing an Accounts Receivable (AR) process can substantially improve an organization’s bottom line. This is particularly important for local governments who face increasingly tight budgets. Manual AR processes waste vital time and resources; this can be hugely consequential for cash-strapped municipalities relying on fee collection and processing. Luckily, Ricoh’s ECM solutions can maximize the efficiency, accuracy, and transparency of these processes. 

AR processes can waste valuable time and resources. When a local government relies on paper-based AR processes, these unnecessary costs involve the following problems:

  • Error-prone data entry. Manually entering data can be exhausting and repetitive, negatively impacting employee morale and, subsequently, productivity. This tedious task is susceptible to errors which can significantly impact cash flow.
  • Time spent reviewing invoices and records. Complicated and laborious, manually reviewing invoices is an unnecessary waste of employee time. As physical records can become damaged from use or otherwise difficult to read, a manual review remains extremely vulnerable to errors, costing yet more resources.
  • Storage and maintenance fees. AR processes generate a large amount of paper records, which often require expensive off-site storage spaces.
  • Lost files. Physical records can easily be misplaced or lost; aside from the obvious problems associated with losing documents; this can lead to costly compliance violations.
  • Uncollectable invoices. Invoices become less collectible the longer the AR process takes, resulting in a significant loss of revenue. After 3 months, 26% of invoices are uncollectable; at 6 months that number rises to 70%, while 90% of invoices that are 12 or more months old are uncollectable.
  • Communicating with other departments. Often a cross-departmental process, AR employees can waste significant amounts of time struggling to collaborate with different departments when they must physically deliver records or information.
  • Time spent on cheque transfers.Time is wasted when mailed or faxed cheques must be physically taken to the finance department, raising the possibility of loss or misplacement.
  • Creating bridges between information silos. Data transferred between departments is often managed differently; to share it requires the involvement of an IT department, wasting valuable employee time. 

These issues may seem inherent to AR processes, but Ricoh can help you to implement processes to minimize, if not eliminate, these and other costs. We have deployed automated AR systems for hundreds of local governments across Canada and leverage our vast experience with solutions that are:

  • Cost effective. Reducing the costs of producing, distributing, and managing invoices; our solutions digitize and automate the AR process from start to finish. While saving valuable employee time and resources, an automated process accelerates payments and deposits, directly benefiting cash flow and productivity.
  • With centralized access to data, Ricoh’s system empowers employees to better manage important processes. Using an enterprise content management (ECM) system allows information to be stored in an intuitive, organized structure. Activity logs help ensure accountability and transparency on all parts.
  • Invoices can be verified with just a click and the system automatically notifies pertinent team members.
  • Most AR departments are using a computerized accounting system to help deal with cash flow management. However, these systems don’t do much else and can make data difficult to access. Ricoh’s solutions are fully integrative. Our comprehensive ECM solutions integrate with existing software and hardware to facilitate information sharing within and across departments. Related documents are stored together, making it easy for an employee to view all of the information about a particular invoice or file.
  • Environmentally friendly. Ricoh has earned numerous awards for our ethical and environmentally friendly solutions. Our ECM system significantly reduces the need for paper and can help your government to become “greener” and thus more favorable to constituents.
  • Accurate. Electronically stored documents suffer from fewer errors than their paper counterparts, as the digitized data is kept in a consistent, legible format securely stored for easy retrieval by authorized personnel. Employees are able to respond to disputes with immediate access to relevant documentation. As forms are processed, the system sends automatic notifications to relevant team members’, ensuring no information is missing or signature forgotten.
  • Personnel will be able to contribute remotely, working from anywhere using their mobile device. Ricoh’s mobile-friendly solution can be hosted on the cloud, empowering workers to complete tasks regardless of their location.
  • Automated business processes quickly and easily store, categorize, and retrieve information for a significantly faster AR process. Over time, data from activity logs can be used to further optimize the process for maximum efficiency.

By implementing Ricoh’s solutions, AR departments across Canada have profited from the greatly enhanced accuracy, transparency, and efficiency of automated business processes.

Talk to a Ricoh representative about how you can optimize your AR processes today!

Finally, please do keep in mind that Ricoh is not providing legal advice or ensuring legal compliance with any law, regulation, by-law or any other legislative requirement with respect to the content of this communication. It is the municipality’s responsibility to obtain advice of competent legal counsel to ensure its compliance with such requirements.