When we think about billing, most of us picture only the transactional moment where a customer hands over a credit card (or types in the number on the payment screen) and actually pays for the product or service they’ve ordered. However, the billing process is much broader than that, guiding everything that happens between the moment the customer receives a quote and places an order to the moment — after the money changes hands — that the business recognizes and reports the revenue from that particular transaction.
We call this the Quote-to-Cash process, and in that process there are dozens of touchpoints — between the business and the customer and among internal teams within the business — and countless data points to keep straight, including all the products, account information, usage and rating details, and internal reporting procedures. Without the proper systems in place, the quote to cash process could get messy, letting important details fall through the cracks, leaving customers frustrated, and revenue on the table.
Fortunately, sophisticated intelligent billing platforms like Gotransverse are designed to streamline that process, automating every piece of the workflow to give all parties the information they need and make sure each step of the process runs smoothly.
Automating the Quote-to-Cash Process with Intelligent Billing
Let’s take a closer look at what we mean when we talk about “Quote-to-Cash” by breaking down the role of intelligent billing in each part of the process.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems track interactions with existing and potential customers. The Gotransverse intelligent billing platform integrates with your existing CRM systems to ensure the contact information, addresses, market segments, and everything else, works together seamlessly, preventing redundant or conflicting data.
Quote
In addition to integrating with a variety of Configure Price Quote (CPQ) tools, Gotransverse provides basic bundling capabilities, discounting, and product relationships.
Order
Once an order is placed, the billing platform kicks off an approval of the order and then sends details and instructions to everyone involved in processing and fulfillment, keeping disparate teams on the same page and ensuring efficient, accurate delivery of products and services.
Invoice
Then, of course, there’s the meat of the billing process: the invoice, itself. Gotransverse tracks and manages complex (and simple) pricing and rating scenarios at high volumes in order to produce accurate invoices on time. It also manages automated payments and taxation to be sure the billing and payment process is painless and efficient for both the vendor and the customer.
Collect
With the Gotransverse platform, processing past due accounts has never been easier. You have the ability to do more than automated notifications. You can configure web service calls to external systems, provide deep provisioning to external systems, and set up dunning strategies for delinquent accounts.
Recognize
Once the billing is complete, the business has to recognize and report the revenue. Again, the intelligent billing platform is on the job, recognizing revenue as frequently as daily. The Gotransverse platform also handles your accounts receivable needs, ensuring traceability and accuracy, setting you up for successful audits.
ERP
The Gotransverse billing platform takes the complex and high volume billing data and aggregates it into data that is easily digestible in your general ledger included in your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.
When it comes to billing management, the full quote to cash process involves multiple teams and covers a wide range of events and responsibilities. But this process, perhaps more than any other, is critical for both the business’ bottom line and its customer relationships, so it’s critical that it goes smoothly and efficiently every time. While legacy billing platforms and DIY systems may be able to hobble along with simple business models and low volumes, organizations handling complex billing models and/or growing numbers of transactions need more powerful systems.