Parascript Reveals Key Findings on Organizations Making Progress Toward Automating Straight Through Processing
Longmont, Colorado (PRWEB) September 16, 2013 -- Parascript®, LLC, a leading recognition solutions provider, is announcing today recent findings on how companies process receivables and are progressing toward automation with straight through processing (STP) to help speed payments.
Parascript worked with analyst firm, Aite Group, to develop the study, which examines how midsize companies are trying to move toward STP to optimize transaction process speeds, how far they have come and challenges they face. Findings include:
• A majority of midsize companies (88%) do at least some of their receivables processing in-house.
• About one-third of midsize companies state that the timing of payments is their company's top challenge with regard to receivables processing, and that processing receivables requires a lot of manpower.
• Small businesses are more likely to make payments by paper check than mid-market and large corporations, are more resistant to switching to electronic payments/electronic remittance communication.
Additionally, the study finds that while most midsize companies see value in STP, they have not yet mastered it. Challenges in processing receivables in house include discrepancies between the invoice and payment, since companies frequently combine more than one invoice in a single payment, take discounts (authorized or not), and/or make other adjustments to the payment amount (for resolved previous deductions or disputed items). This often derails STP, delaying invoice settlement and cash posting and creating challenges for working capital management.
The report highlights many challenges, including:
• Each payment that middle-market companies receive represents approximately 1.5 invoices.
• Most respondents (88%) receive remittance data in a variety of formats – as a document via email, fax, or paper – with remittance detail that needs to be re-keyed.
Having not achieved STP, companies report a mean of 7.9 full-time employees who investigate and process exceptions or discrepancies between payment amounts received and the amount their company invoiced.
“Efficient receivables processing is a critical function that impacts the life blood of a business. Receivables processing for business-to-business payments is complicated, time-consuming and labor intensive, and it has become a gating factor, and therefore a target, for companies looking to streamline their cash flow operations,” said Greg Council, Parascript’s director of product management. “Advanced solutions, such as Parascript’s technology, allow greater read rates from different data types on many forms of payment to speed processing and enable faster time-to-cash.”
“Open Scan Technologies is pioneer in delivering software solutions for automating receivables processing. Through our partnership with Parascript, we are able to help companies process payments and apply cash faster and more accurately,” said Tim Oliver, director of product management and marketing at Open Scan. “In particular, Parascript’s technology enables us to extend the benefits of our solution to field offices, which typically experience the greatest pain in processing receivables.”
Research findings were based on Aite Group conducting 15-minute telephone surveys with 60 receivables experts at U.S.-based middle-market companies (revenue of U.S. $50 million to U.S. $500 million). To qualify as a middle-market company, respondents had to issue a minimum of 1,000 invoices per month to other companies.
For a copy of the full white paper, “Deploying Emerging Technology to Improve Remittance-Details Processing” please visit parascript.com/remittance-processing-research.
About Parascript, LLC
Parascript is a leading developer of intelligent document recognition (IDR) solutions. Drawing from a long history of cursive and handprint recognition, Parascript’s high-value solutions are powered by software that is always learning — constantly maximizing the user’s return on investment. Parascript enables business automation in forms processing, postal and financial automation, and fraud prevention, and supports cancer screening in medical imaging. Fortune 500 companies, postal operators (including the U.S. Postal Service), major government and financial institutions rely on Parascript software, which is distributed through its OEM and value added reseller networks, including partners such as: IBM, EMC, Bell and Howell, Fiserv, Selex Elsag, Lockheed Martin, NCR, Siemens, and Burroughs. Visit Parascript online at http://www.parascript.com.
Claudette, Allingham, Parascipt, LLC, http://www.parascript.com, +1 (303) 381-3108, [email protected]
Share this article