DataTel

Overview

DataTel is a managed IT and cybersecurity provider serving small businesses and mid-market companies with anywhere from 50 to 4,000 employees. Founded in 1963 and acquired by Ben Tiggelaar three years ago, the company has grown to three offices in Idaho and Portland, supporting approximately 2,000 clients with 24/7 coverage.

Industry: Managed Service Provider (MSP)

Company Size: 11–50 Employees

Challenge

AR Was the Last Thing They Fixed and It Showed

When Ben Tiggelaar acquired DataTel three years ago, he inherited a company built on a strong service ethos but running on inconsistent back-office processes. The team executed at a high level across operations, client support, and sales. Accounts receivable was the exception. It was the last area they got to, and by the time they looked closely at it, the problem was significant.

No consistency in billing meant clients were falling through the cracks

DataTel's AR process before Alternative Payments had no reliable rhythm. Invoices went out inconsistently. Follow-up emails to clients were sporadic. In some cases, clients received overdue notices six months after the balance had accumulated. That created frustration on both sides: the accounting team was chasing payments with no structured process, and clients were confused about what they owed and when. For a company that held consistency as a core operational standard in every other department, the billing process was a clear outlier.

A difficult client portal was slowing down payment collection

The previous payment platform compounded the problem. Clients found the portal difficult to use and frequently needed assistance logging in or navigating it. The internal team had to send manual updates, troubleshoot access issues, and push clients through a process that should have been self-service. Every failure in the portal added time to the collection cycle and created more work for an accounting team that was already stretched. The tool was supposed to speed collections up. It slowed them down.

Weak AR visibility meant the CEO couldn't trust what he was seeing

Beyond the operational pain, there was a confidence problem at the leadership level. Ben tracked late payments and outstanding balances closely, but the data coming out of the previous system gave him reason to doubt the numbers. Without clean, reliable reporting, it was difficult to make sound decisions about cash flow, headcount, or growth. A business running 2,000 client accounts needs AR data it can trust. DataTel didn't have that.

Solution

A Clean System That Gave the Team Control and the CEO Confidence

Ben holds vendors to a specific standard: strong communication and best-in-class execution. DataTel moved to Alternative Payments and saw a dramatic improvement across the entire billing operation. Invoices synced and reached clients the same day they were issued. The client portal became something clients could navigate on their own. Auto pay adoption became easier to drive and track. And for the first time, leadership had real-time visibility into payment status that they could trust.

A portal clients can actually use

The shift in client experience was stark. Where the previous portal required constant hand-holding, Alternative Payments gave clients a clean, intuitive interface. One-time payments required a single click. Clients on auto pay didn't need to think about billing at all. The volume of access issues and support requests dropped sharply, freeing up the accounting team to focus on exceptions rather than routine payment assistance. Clients noticed. The team noticed.

Auto pay adoption became a manageable, incentivizable process

Getting clients onto auto pay had always been a significant operational lift on the previous platform. Alternative Payments made it straightforward to identify which clients were not yet on auto pay and move them over. The team could now track that gap clearly and work through it systematically. The ability to incentivize auto pay enrollment added another lever that hadn't previously existed. For a company managing 2,000 client accounts, the compounding effect of higher auto pay rates meant a meaningful improvement in how predictably cash came in.

Tighter QuickBooks sync and faster book closing

The integration between Alternative Payments and QuickBooks was cleaner than what DataTel had experienced with its prior platform. Invoices synced with no failures in the standard flow, and the accounting team was closing books faster as a result. When payment failures did occur, they were identifiable and addressable without derailing the rest of the process. The time previously spent manually reconciling or chasing down sync errors went back to the team.

Results

Consistent Billing, Faster Cash, and Numbers the CEO Can Trust

Alternative Payments gave DataTel what its previous system never could: a billing operation that matched the standard the company held everywhere else in the business. Clients get invoices the same day they are issued and can pay without friction. And leadership now has the visibility to make confident decisions about cash flow and growth. For Ben, that shows up in the two metrics he watches most closely as CEO: the number of late payments and how big they are. Where he used to be suspect of the numbers coming out of the previous system, he now trusts what he sees.

Key results:

• Invoices sync and are payable by clients the same day they are issued
• Client portal ease of use improved dramatically, reducing support volume and accelerating payment
• Auto pay conversion became a structured, incentivizable process for the first time
• QuickBooks sync tightened significantly, enabling faster book closing with no manual reconciliation on standard payments