Latest news with #Billtrust
Finextra
4 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Billtrust unveils agentic AI-powered credit and collections platform
Billtrust, a B2B accounts receivable workflow and payment software market leader, today announced new innovations in its Collections solution, delivering a new standard for AR teams by unifying advanced automation, AI-driven insights, and seamless agentic AI workflows. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. These innovations empower finance teams to streamline collections, resolve disputes faster, and make smarter credit decisions—all from a single, intelligent platform. The release introduces powerful new AI capabilities, including Agentic Email, Cases (Dispute Management), Credit Review, and Collections Analytics. Together, these features eliminate manual inefficiencies, improve compliance, and drive superior financial outcomes. "We're delivering the future of collections—intelligent, automated, and customer-centric," said Sunil Rajasekar, Billtrust CEO. "With these new innovations, we continue to help organizations modernize their operations, reduce risk, and unlock new levels of performance and customer satisfaction." Agentic Email: AI-Powered Inbox Automation for Collections Agentic Email revolutionizes how collections teams manage email volume and complex workflows by leveraging AI for advanced task recognition and intelligent response generation. Purpose-built for accounts receivable, AI agents instantly recognize key tasks and bring all relevant data and documents to inform their response. Collectors can resolve emails 10x faster by slashing manual effort and eliminating the need to dig through lengthy email threads, ensuring customers receive timely communication and swift resolution. Cases: End-to-End Dispute Management, Fully Integrated Cases transforms dispute resolution from a fragmented, manual process into a streamlined, transparent workflow. Disputes raised through eInvoice Connect, its billing and payments portal, flow directly into the Collections platform, where they are automatically tracked, paused from dunning workflows, and managed in a centralized portal. This ensures full visibility, reduces errors, and accelerates resolution times, helping teams protect customer relationships while improving cash flow and compliance. Credit Review: Intelligent, Ongoing Credit Risk Management Credit Review brings credit and collections together in one intelligent workflow. Unlike traditional systems that only assess new credit applications, Billtrust enables ongoing credit monitoring and management. Teams can adjust limits, block or unblock customers, and launch new applications—all from a centralized dashboard. AI-powered triggers and scheduled reviews ensure timely interventions, reducing bad debt and supporting strategic growth. Collections Analytics: Real-Time Insights to Optimize Performance Collections Analytics empowers finance teams with real-time visibility into collections performance. With industry-standard KPIs like the Collections Effectiveness Index (CEI) and automated anomaly detection via Billtrust Autopilot, teams can proactively identify bottlenecks, benchmark performance, and mitigate risk. Custom dashboards and detailed reporting enable data-driven decision-making, helping organizations continuously improve collections strategies and outcomes.
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How CFOs Are Preparing For A Looming Recession
For months, economists and analysts have looked at the numbers and tried to predict if a recession is coming. And while the official declaration depends on indicators such as GDP, employment figures and economic activity, CFOs are already preparing. According to a recent study from Billtrust, more than four in five financial decision-makers see recession as either likely or possible in the next year, and they're adapting policies to get through it now. Almost all of them—97%—reported having specific plans in place. These preparations include a much more conservative approach to cash management, spending and planning. About six in 10 are actively strengthening their financial positions through cash reserves and debt restructuring. The same proportion are reducing discretionary spending and capital investments. Just under a third are diversifying revenue streams or pursuing strategic acquisitions. And they're reviewing their forecasts much more often—38% reassess at least monthly—so they can make changes as needed. Complicating everything is the looming presence of tariffs, which a quarter of financial decision-makers said has the biggest impact on their financial planning. More than four out of five report moderate to significant cost increases from tariff changes over the last six months, with 23% reporting increases of more than 15%. About 84% said they are actively managing those challenges—55% through increasing customer prices—but that's not the only method. Four in 10 are rebuilding their supplier networks, 34% are changing approaches to inventory, and 30% are reconfiguring manufacturing footprints. One area financial leaders aren't cutting back on is AI investments. The study found that about 90% rely on AI for financial decisions, and 83% said that it has positively influenced their approach to managing financial risk this year alone. Two-thirds of financial leaders said they are dedicating more than 10% of their 2025 budget to AI and automation technology. But even if the economic disarray means your company has no additional funds to spend on technology upgrades, there's still likely money available through careful cost management. I talked to two executives at enterprise tech consulting firm Rimini Street—CEO Seth Ravin and CFO Michael Perica—about how companies can cut their IT budgets without sacrificing technological advancements. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday morning. While President Donald Trump was in the Middle East forging business deals last week—many dealing with technology, AI and defense—the stock market saw a tech bump. But Wall Street's underlying issues didn't go away. On Friday, financial ratings firm Moody's downgraded the U.S. government's credit, citing rising government debt and interest payment ratios. Moody's was the last of the three ratings agencies to rank the U.S. as Aaa, and lowered it to Aa1. The markets reacted slightly to the ratings cut. As trading opened on Monday, stocks briefly fell, but the market as a whole rebounded by closing time. Meanwhile, yields for 30-year Treasury notes hit 5%, an area that they've spiked to a couple of times in the more recent past—when Trump announced sweeping tariffs on all nations at his 'Liberation Day' press conference last month and when the Federal Reserve sharply increased interest rates in October 2023. Other than that, the last time 30-year yields were at 5% was in 2007. Forbes senior contributor Jim Osman writes that Moody's downgrade has a deeper impact than the immediate market response. It means that the world's trust and confidence in the U.S. economy is eroding, a long-term problem that policymakers need to solve together. Businesses are still wrestling with tariffs. On Monday, U.K.-based alcoholic beverage company Diageo said it expects to lose $150 million in annual profits to tariffs. Last week, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told investors that despite the company's attempts to hold the line, tariffs would result in higher prices in coming weeks, especially on items including bananas, avocados, coffee and roses that primarily come from other countries. Trump responded on Truth Social that Walmart should 'EAT THE TARIFFS,' especially because of Walmart's large profits. Sony also said last week that tariffs could drive the company to increase prices on its games and systems, and analysts say U.S. consumers may see higher prices soon. The U.S. Capitol on Sunday night, as the House Committee on the Budget voted to approve President Trump's massive tax package. The Moody's rating drop hits at an interesting time. The ratings agency wasn't just looking at the volatile economic situation in the U.S. right now, but also the ever-growing national deficit and its repayment. Forbes senior contributor Erik Sherman spoke with analysts who defined the problem succinctly: The deficit has been too high for an Aaa rating for at least 17 years. And that doesn't seem like it's about to change anytime soon. On Sunday night, Trump and Republicans' mega budget bill, which includes $3.7 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, writes Forbes' Kelly Phillips Erb, passed the House Budget Committee. The bill is expected to add up to $4 trillion to the national debt, and five Republicans initially voted against moving it out of the committee last week. Four of them voted 'present' on Sunday night so it could advance. The bill includes a host of Trump's tax priorities, including extending his 2017 tax cuts, no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime and no taxes on car loan interest. Erb runs down exactly what the bill does in terms of taxes right now—though it's highly likely that it will not pass Congress in its current form. People walk in front of a Foot Locker store on 34th Street in New York City. Retail behemoth Dick's Sporting Goods announced last week it plans to buy specialty retailer Foot Locker for $2.4 billion, writes Forbes senior contributor Pamela Danziger. The acquisition will nearly triple store count for Dick's Sporting Goods, which has 856 locations in the U.S. It will also expand the company to international markets. Foot Locker makes about 30% of its revenue internationally. It has about 2,400 retail stores in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Dick's plans to continue to operate the two stores separately. Dick's has reportedly been eyeing a Foot Locker acquisition for some time, and the athletic shoe store has seen its profits decline in the recent past. Its total revenue in 2024 was down 1.9%. Meanwhile, Dick's sales were up 3.5% last year. Analysts say the deal has potential for success, and while not an immediate and guaranteed slam dunk, the merger could provide opportunities for value. The transaction, which still needs to be approved by Foot Locker shareholders, is likely to close in the second half of 2025. Rimini Street CEO Seth Ravin and CFO Michael Perica. As tariffs loom, companies are making as many changes as they can to keep their goods and services on the market without losing profits, but budget cuts are on the table everywhere. And while the vast majority of companies are putting a priority on tech transformation, it's likely that IT budgets are among the first things cut. I talked to two executives at enterprise tech consulting firm Rimini Street—CEO Seth Ravin and CFO Michael Perica—about how companies can cut their IT budgets without sacrificing technological advancements. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity. A longer version is available here. About how much does your average company spend on tech that they don't need, like outmoded programs, updates, unused logins? Ravin: I would be surprised if you didn't see at least 30% wastage—or more—in the IT budget. We believe even we have 30% we can take out. About 30% to 50% could be cut and streamlined in the years ahead. How do companies rack up so much in IT contracts that they continue to pay for and don't need? Ravin: Every software company right now is asking its customers to do big migrations and upgrades. If you're Salesforce, I want you to put in Lightning and our AI agents. If you're SAP, I want you to mandatorily upgrade to S/4HANA for potentially hundreds of millions in costs. Microsoft wants you to do Windows 11 across 27,000 workstations. They're sitting there with hundreds of applications and there's literally not enough people, time and money to do everything every one of these vendors wants you to do. The reality is for most companies, these changes are work projects. They really don't change the trajectory of the company. If I change out my payroll system that's working, are my employees going to be happier because the direct deposits somehow comes from a different company? They don't care. If it's working and it's accurate and it lands in their account on time, then they're happy. So what are you going to get out of the change for millions of dollars of the payroll system if it doesn't actually improve your business in a way that makes you more competitively advantaged or helps drive your costs down? There's so many of these projects being asked of the CIO and the CFO, their heads are spinning. Perica: What he just described was the normal operating procedure—and the challenge—prior to 'Liberation Day.' To shift the supply chain—and I did it in a prior CFO chair—the IT organization is a critical component. To have even one major upgrade project that's not going to have impact on operation, other than disruption, because it's forced by the vendor, is just going to be compounding in this environment where one needs to be flexible. The IT organization has to be in lockstep with the operation side to be flexible, to assist with scenario analysis and be ready to move swiftly when there is a plan that has been decided at the C-suite and board level on how to manage one's supply chain. We're at the dawn of bringing AI into businesses, and everything that I've read from analysts and experts has said the same thing about bringing AI to the enterprise level: Companies that get AI and get IT entrenched in it will be the ones who move ahead. If you don't, you're going to be catching up. As IT budgets are going down, how can businesses cut costs and bring AI into their systems? Perica: They don't call me to say hello. They call to get more money. You say IT groups want to put AI into their systems. That's what the vendor tells you. And that's one of the biggest mistakes you can make. We espouse the approach of have AI enterprise wide. Extract the data from your existing system, put it at the user layer or the data layer, and then invest in the AI on top. Vendors are talking about: Here's our AI on this platform, here's our AI on that platform. They're different models, trained in different ways. They give you different answers. You have your hallucinations set in the AI system. The innovation is get your data in one place—all the data, all the information—get it consistent, and then put the model on top as it evolves. Invest there. It's drastically, radically more economical to have this approach. And you're going to get better information from your queries. For a company that is beginning this journey on their own, how do they determine what might be the right things to upgrade, what might be the right things to just keep going with, and what might be the right things to just get rid of? Ravin: The first thing you've got to do is get your full portfolio list together. You have to understand everything you're running because the next step is to go line by line to figure out what I think I could run for longer, which things I think I might need to change out. We help them with this methodology because they don't always understand: If I run Windows 10 longer, does that have any impact on any of my other connectivity? These are things that they didn't think they could do because the vendor's pushing them to make mandatory upgrades. If you're looking at the ERP, you want to know: How am I going to secure it for another 10 years? How am I going to make sure it'll work with other products over the next 10 years, and how will I make sure that I stay compliant with tax, legal and regulatory changes? If I can solve all those things and get support for it, then I would be in a position to say I could use that. If you're going to drive your car another 10 years, we want to make sure there's going to be parts available. We want to make sure there's going to be mechanics that'll know how to fix it. It's important for business leaders to put their values behind their business, building companies with a strong corporate culture that is a positive force in the world. Here are four books on how to bring this kind of cultural leadership to your business. The best teams come to problems with purpose and intent, engage in dialogue marked by active listening, and work together to understand others' perspectives. Here's a guide breaking down what all of that means, and how you can apply this framework to your teams. While in the Middle East, President Trump railed against Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is reportedly looking to move manufacturing of most U.S.-bound iPhones out of China to another country. Where does Trump not want Apple to move its manufacturing? A. Vietnam B. Indonesia C. India D. Hong Kong See if you got the right answer here.
