Credit Control and the Rise of Document Management Part 1
Abstract
The paperless office is more of a reality than it has ever been. Falling costs, improved technology and the rise of the Internet are some of the reasons why electronic document management (EDM) systems are being used by increasing numbers of businesses worldwide. From a credit control point of view, EDM systems can assist in managing credit and building good relationships with customers from generating clear and understandable invoices, and instantaneously delivering documents through to the electronic receipt of payments. With today’s fast moving businesses putting increasing pressure on credit controllers to get payments in, ignoring document management is no longer an option.
Not the paperless office again!
Despite the now pervasive use of computers, credit control
processes have changed little over the past 50 years. Credit
controllers still spend much of their time dealing with paperwork.
Whether it is posting out statements, making copies of invoices or
digging out customers’ original orders and proofs of delivery, the
often promised ‘paperless office’ might seem as far away as ever.
Electronic document management (EDM) and imaging solutions
have been around since the late 1980s, but until recently their use
in finance and accountancy tended to be restricted to stand-alone systems for scanning supplier invoices or proofs of delivery. At long
last, this is now changing. More and more organizations of all sizes
are recognizing the benefits of the electronic management, delivery
and storage of business documents, and the demand for these
solutions is growing strongly. Document management is now
something that anyone charged with getting cash in quickly and
cost-effectively needs to take very seriously.
