O2C, or Order to Cash, refers to the entire cycle of goods or services from the time an order is placed to the time it is sold and then its after-sales service. From order procurement to order processing and order final delivery, as well as all related receipts, invoices, documentation, and other paperwork, are covered under the Order to Cash cycle workflow.  

An organization can operate at its full capacity and be able to forecast its revenue, expenses, and cash flow more efficiently when the Order to Cash cycle runs without any barrier. A minute error at any phase throughout the process can delay the deadlines and extend the time period. Such hindrances can reflect an organization that provides bad customer service and often consequences in late payments that affects the reputation of an organization in a market. 

Order to Cash cycle process comprises multiple internal departments at multiple levels so the chances of failures occurring are also high. Let’s look into the internal issues that are more likely to cause and how to eradicate them for achieving the highest potential phase.

What Challenges does an organization face for implementing an effective Order to Cash process?

1. A dysfunctional order management system and difficulties in order fulfillment:

Order to Cash cycle process can greatly affect any of the phases from order procurement to its shipment if its proper execution does not take place. The major challenges faced in fulfilling an order quickly to make an instant entry of that order without any time lag and disrupting any internal processes.

For e.g., while order placement different teams use different platforms for one single service/product order placement like the sales team, warehouse team, inventory management team, delivery team, accounting team, raw material procurement team, and more. In order to integrate all those teams with a single system, Order to Cash plays a vital role in avoiding delays, duplication, waiting time, miscommunication of information, and more.

2. Inadequate inventory management across cross-functional departments:

Having an insight on all items that are present in inventory so that items that are placed could only be invoiced helps to maintain a good image of an organization. Creating such direct relationships between inventory departments and sales departments helps to notify the situation more promptly without any delays or errors.

3. The need for excellent data quality is crucial for an error-free cycle:

Having multiple departments, numerous systems, and manifold processes can lessen the quality of data and misinterpretation of its analytics. Whenever a person adds any information to any system it may cause multiple interpretations and can lead to errors. So having a unified process that keeps all the information in one system and sync makes it easy for a person to analyze.

For e.g., If a customer has changed his/her contact details or email address and the sales department has made changes but the shipping department has not then the ensured order might not be received on time. Thus, having a single process that captures every change in a single system leads to maintaining the best customer service.

4. Plan out strategies for removing manual processes:

Data entry, the billing process, printing, mailing invoices, revenue maintenance, project billing on different targets, etc takes a lot of time and leads to inefficiency as a single person/department could not maintain all such manual processes. Along with this, keeping up with all the paperwork, legal policies, and documentation promptly increases the burden and an organization could not focus on its forte of activities. So, having a strategically planned single process helps to accomplish all kinds of automation and more time can be freed.

5. A lack of a systematic payment collection process:

Having a dedicated payment collection process for timely and secure payments is the most crucial part of an organization. It requires consistent efforts for reducing long-past due on any accounts and sales outstanding days in order to improve the cash flow structure. Calculating payment discounts, adding processing costs, and maintaining recurring payments require lots of financial planning. Large B2B transactions need surety for a systematic cash flow structure and all these can be achieved through the Order to Cash cycle process.

Aarav Solutions‘ outlook for avoiding Order To Cash challenges

The backbone of any organization is its Order to Cash process which has the potential to generate revenue, maintain its cash flow structure, and keep its customers happy. For staying competitive in the market, we help to provide automated solutions with specialization in payments, invoices, revenue management, and financial planning. Our expertise solutions help in keeping track of all multiple transactions, B2B payments, reconciliation, invoicing, CRM, order management, real-time reporting, after-sales services, and more in a single platform with a holistic overview. 

Get in touch with our team of industry experts and understand more about revenue and customer management solutions i.e. lead to cash, Order to cash, quote to cash and how you can leverage it for your business success.

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