Overview
Cunningham and Associates (“C&A”) provides business growth and tax consulting services, specializing in tax planning and ERTC / R&D tax credits.
Industry: Financial Services
Problem: Manual Billing Processes are a Pain!
- Manual invoice creation and email reminders
- Limited cash flow visibility
- Manual transaction reconciliation
C&A required a next generation payment solution to offer their customers payment options while automating manual billing and invoicing processes
Solution: Next Generation B2B Checkout
In the two months since onboarding, C&A is experiencing…
- 40% increase in revenue and cash flow
- 10+ hours saved a week by automating manual processes
- Customers transacting 30% faster
“Since partnering with Alternative our cash flow, revenue and payment timing have improved dramatically, and this past November was our highest collection month to date.”
Problem: Manual Billing is Time Intensive
C&A relied on manual invoicing and billing processes, requiring 20+ hours a week. As the Company scaled, these processes became unsustainable. C&A faced 3 main challenges:
- C&A’s invoicing and billing process consisted of numerous manual workflows: creating invoices, sending invoices to customers, emailing reminders, following up to collect on overdue invoices, and reconciling paid invoices. These tedious manual tasks took many hours each day and prevented the operations team from focusing on other valuable workstreams. As the business continued to grow, the time commitment increased in parallel.
- Utilizing a manual system to collect from customers resulted in collection delays and challenges in addition to lack of payment visibility. Customers did not have payment options and frequently mailed checks, creating substantial delays in payments.
- Many of C&A’s invoices are large and customers often requested payment plans. Previously, C&A financed their customers directly to drive new business and strengthen customer relationships. However, C&A was impacted by the lack of immediate cash flow and burdened with collection risk associated with providing payment plans.
Solution: Next Generation B2B Checkout
C&A partnered with Alternative Payments to simplify and automate their entire payment process. Alternative’s white-labeled payment portal improved C&A customers’ checkout experience while providing payment options (credit card, ACH and financing), and C&A has now consolidated payments onto one platform, reducing manual billing workflows.
Highlights of the partnership include:
- C&A has automated its entire billing process, from sending invoices and reminders to reconciliation of transactions. The elimination of manual processes has reduced manual data entry errors and saved the C&A team time to focus on revenue-generating activities.
- C&A is paid 24 days faster than industry average and can easily track customer invoices, providing tremendous insights and customer connectivity. Customers can more easily pay bills through C&A’s white-labeled portal, which is entirely self-service, reducing collection time.
- Alternative’s financing option provides C&A customers with 30-150 day payment terms while removing C&A credit risk. C&A is paid upfront while their customers pay over time, improving cash flow.
“Since partnering with Alternative, our cash flow has improved because of reduced collection times... November was a record collection month”
Results: Accelerated Business Growth
C&A experienced significant improvements 2 months after introducing Alternative’s B2B checkout solution, including:
- 40% increase in revenue and cash flow
- 10+ hours saved a week by automating manual processes
- 30% faster customer transactions
- 3x improvement in close rates and retention rates
“Alternative is saving us 10+ hours a week by automating our invoicing, billing and collections processes”
