As consumers, when we think of billing, we home in on the moment the money changes hands. We authorize autopay, hand over cash, swipe a card, or type in the number (does anybody else have theirs memorized as a result of increased online shopping these last few months, or is that just us?), and that’s all there is to it. But for businesses, the transaction itself is just one small part of the broader quote-to-cash process, which encompasses everything between the presales discussions with potential customers all the way to the moment the finance department records the revenue inside the ERP.

Let’s take a look at the full quote-to-cash process and how automating every step can dramatically improve the customer journey — whether you’re focused on one-time, subscription, usage, or a combination of sales.

Pre-Sales Conversations

It all starts with your connect to your CRM. If your billing system is out of sync with your CRM, you’re liable to end up with redundant or incomplete data, causing communication and marketing mishaps that make that would-be frictionless customer experience a little bumpy from the get-go. But when the CRM and the billing model are in sync, then so are the sales, marketing, and finance teams.

Quote

The next step in the quote-to-cash process is the quote, itself. When a customer is ready to see their options, it should be easy for the sales team to show them a variety of individual and bundled products and services — as well as their cost and any discounts or deals that come with your consumption-based billing models. The more paper-shuffling and back-and-forth this entails, the more confusing the customer journey becomes. But with the sleek, integrated Configure Price Quote (CPQ) tools that come with sophisticated billing platforms like Gotransverse, it’s easy to show the customer all of their options so they can make an informed decision.

Order

Once the customer places an order, that sets off a variety of workflows to ensure the order is processed and fulfilled correctly and efficiently. As we’ve all experienced, when multiple individuals or teams are working on disparate parts of the same project, it can be a challenge to make sure everyone’s on the same page and everything’s moving forward as it should. But when your billing platform automates these workflows — and all the notifications and progress updates that go with them — it’s easy to see who’s doing what at any given moment to ensure efficient, accurate delivery of products and services.

Invoice

Here comes the part consumers are most used to: the invoice. In today’s digital, customer-driven world, businesses are juggling high volumes of invoices reflecting a variety of billing models. From one-off sales to automatic monthly billing for subscriptions to consumption-based models to a variety of discounts and special offers, invoicing for most competitive businesses these days isn’t quite as easy as filling out a template. A platform like Gotransverse, however, takes away the headache by tracking and managing complex pricing, mediation, and rating scenarios at high volumes to make sure every customer gets an accurate invoice on time.

Collection

From managing automatic payments and taxation to shoring up past-due accounts, a sophisticated billing engine makes collection simple and streamlined, as well. With the right platform, it’s easy to automate more than just late payment reminders, including payment retries, dunning reminders, dunning systems, cure actions, and more. That way, you can ensure every invoice is paid — without jeopardizing the customer experience or losing out on earned revenue.

Revenue Recognition

The process doesn’t end when the customer remits payment. At this point, it’s up to the business to recognize and report the revenue in compliance with regulations like ASC 606. Done manually, or in conjunction with a legacy billing system, this process can be time consuming and tedious — and, done incorrectly, it can lead to significant consequences. But billing platforms like Gotransverse can automate this step as well, managing accounts receivable needs and ensuring traceability, accuracy, and compliance to set your business up for successful audits.

ERP Integration

Just like with the CRM earlier in the process, your quote-to-cash solution should be in sync with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software in order to turn the complex and high-volume billing data into easily digestible, aggregated insights within your general ledger. This empowers your organization to use all that data to make strategic decisions to improve customer relationships, enhance offerings, and grow the bottom line.

Much of the quote-to-cash process may happen behind the scenes, but as you can see, every step is critical to both the customer experience and the business’ financial health. While legacy billing platforms and DIY systems may be able to help with simple business models and low usage volumes, when it comes to more complicated billing efforts, they tend to seize up, leading to administrative headaches and costly errors. To learn how Gotransverse helps our clients automate every step to ensure a frictionless quote-to-cash process, we invite you to take a tour of the Gotransverse platform. When you’re ready, call us to schedule your complimentary, personalized demo.