New software for accounting to help enterprises accelerate receivables processes, Paid Pronto by SAP, is now available on SAP App Center.
SAP has always been at the forefront of technology innovation and investment- from billion-dollar acquisitions like Qualtrics’ to seeding startups through SAP.iO. Just last December 2020, SAP’s efforts through SAP.iO has been recognised by open innovation advisory firm Mind the Bridge in cooperation with the International Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 25 most active companies to encourage open innovation with startups.
As the German software giant’s early-stage venture arm, SAP.iO scouts and accelerate new ideas and talent inside and outside of the company. Specific to in-house innovations, SAP.iO Venture Studio invests in small, entrepreneurial teams to build and launch products that tackle some of the most challenging problems of enterprises. This January, SAP announced its latest investment in new software for accounting developed by its in–house talents.
Paid Pronto by SAP, a new application designed by SAP employees aims to accelerate receivables processes through automation, driving cash into businesses faster.
New Software for Accounting
As part of the SAP.iO Venture Studio, Paid Pronto by SAP has the same objective of building a new growth business to impact SAP’s business and customers. SAP’s latest employee-led innovation focused on automating accounts receivables, like other in-house projects, has gone and passed through a rigorous selection process for it to gain support for product development inside the company.
General Manager Erin Dierker shared the backstory of Paid Pronto after delving into the accounts receivable space as an entrepreneur-in-residence. She said:
“I was exploring how various back-office teams engaged with our enterprise resource planning solutions and was energized by the opportunities I saw in the receivables space.”
“Today, your average receivables analyst is running full speed as the quarterback for all topics related to collecting payment. Many are covering hundreds of accounts at a time,” she added.
Dierker highlighted that she recognised the opportunity to build on existing SAP solutions for receivables as the foundation of Paid Pronto by SAP. She saw that the current accounting solutions could be further developed to include automations for some of the most common accounting tasks, which would, consequently, improve the experience in managing accounts and ultimately collect payments sooner.
“The existing SAP S/4HANA Cloud for receivables management and other receivables solutions from SAP already support those teams in many ways, including helping them prioritize which customers to take action on and dig into the full context of each account to understand what needs to be done,” Dierker explained.
Helping the Receivables Team
Through automation, Paid Pronto by SAP helps the receivables team by providing:
- Personalised customer outreach with full transparency like easy-to-digest reminders beginning when an invoice is first released until payment is received
- Automations for frequent collector actions
- Request routing for customer responses
The solution aims to deliver value by increasing cash collection, decreasing days of sale outstanding, and reducing the total open customer items.
“We help receivables teams run faster and ensure a seamless experience for a business’s customers, so these businesses can get more cash in the door sooner and operate as effectively as possible,” Dierker emphasised.
