Accounts receivable is one of those business functions that often gets left behind during digital transformation. While procurement, inventory, and payments have embraced automation and analytics, many suppliers are still handling receivables the same way they did a decade ago – manually. The assumption is that the current system “works well enough,” even if it’s not perfect. But that logic falls apart under closer scrutiny, especially when you’re operating at scale.
What’s often overlooked is how much manual receivables management actually costs – not just in time, but in capital, liquidity, and missed opportunities. And for businesses with a yearly revenue run rate of €750 million or more, the inefficiencies buried in outdated AR processes aren’t just a minor operational issue. They’re a drag on performance and a threat to financial agility.
The Real Cost of Manual Workflows
When most people think about the cost of manual accounts receivable, they tend to focus on surface-level issues: employee time spent following up on payments, time-consuming reconciliations, and the occasional human error. These are all real concerns, but they’re symptoms. The deeper cost comes from what manual workflows prevent you from doing – namely, managing your cash flow proactively and with full control.
In a manual environment, data is fragmented. You’re relying on spreadsheets, emails, disparate ERP exports, and legacy systems to piece together a picture of what’s outstanding, what’s late, and what’s at risk. This means you don’t just lack efficiency – you lack clarity. And when you can’t see your receivables clearly, you can’t make timely decisions about credit, investment, or working capital allocation. Liquidity, in this context, becomes reactive rather than strategic.
This fog around your receivables has knock-on effects across the business. It slows down treasury, impairs risk assessments, and limits your ability to forecast accurately. And in an environment where markets are moving fast and cash is the most flexible tool at your disposal, this is a dangerous blind spot to have.
Errors and Delays That Compound Over Time
Manual AR processes introduce inconsistencies. A missed email, a duplicated invoice, a misapplied payment – all of these are common occurrences, and while individually small, they add up fast. Each mistake delays cash collection, and every delay puts a strain on your liquidity position.
According to a recent survey, ors in manual processes are common, with 98% of companies reporting costly mistakes in data entry and reconciliation. These errors contribute to delayed payments and poor cash flow management.
Worse, these issues are rarely caught in real-time. Most finance teams find themselves chasing discrepancies at the end of the month or quarter, once the reporting deadlines hit. By then, the impact has already played out. Payments you were counting on haven’t arrived. Cash flow assumptions are off. And your team is spending valuable time retroactively correcting the books rather than moving the business forward.
When delays and errors become routine, they stop being visible. They become accepted as part of the process. But make no mistake: this is an unnecessary drain on your organisation’s capital efficiency.
Liquidity Is the Bigger Issue
Cash flow determines your ability to move, act, and outperform. A business with strong liquidity has leverage. It can invest when others hesitate. It can negotiate harder. It can take calculated risks. But when receivables aren’t predictable, that advantage starts to disappear.
Manual AR processes introduce friction into cash conversion. You’re extending credit on terms you can’t always enforce, relying on follow-ups instead of automation, and dealing with delays that erode your financial posture. For companies operating at a large scale, even a small shift in days sales outstanding (DSO) can mean tens of millions of euros tied up in unpaid invoices. That’s capital that could be used more productively elsewhere.
When finance leaders are tasked with optimising working capital, one of the most immediate wins is to look at how receivables are managed. Yet too often, the systems and routines in place are too slow to provide the agility needed. There’s a gap between what finance wants to do – and what the current AR process allows.
Automation = Control
Automation is often sold as a tech upgrade, a way to “modernise operations” or “improve workflows.” But for suppliers, those talking points miss the mark. What actually matters is this: automation unlocks access to cash – faster, easier, and without friction. That’s the real impact. Everything else is a bonus.
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As a supply chain finance platform Liquiditas is built to shorten the distance between invoice and payment. It gives suppliers the ability to get paid early, without chasing buyers or waiting out 30, 60, or 90-day terms. The automation built into the platform handles the tedious parts – invoice confirmation, payment initiation, buyer-side coordination – so suppliers don’t have to.
Instead of wasting time on manual follow-ups or reconciling late payments, your finance team can tap into liquidity exactly when it’s needed. Whether it’s covering short-term obligations, investing in growth, or simply keeping operations smooth during a tight cycle, early payment access gives you flexibility you won’t get from a traditional AR process.
This isn’t just a process improvement – it’s a financial shift. Manual receivables workflows keep you tied to someone else’s payment schedule. Liquiditas puts that timing back in your hands.
Accuracy and Agility, Without the Trade-off
The dual challenge for any CFO is speed and precision. You need decisions made quickly – but they also need to be right. Manual AR processes often force you to choose between these two: either you move fast and risk errors, or you move slowly to preserve accuracy.
With automation, that trade-off disappears. Liquiditas enables AR teams to operate with both speed and precision, handling large volumes of transactions while maintaining a clean audit trail and full compliance. For a CFO, this is the ideal combination: high control, low risk, and tangible results.
You no longer have to wait for the end of the month to assess your receivables performance. You can track every movement, flag issues immediately, and keep your liquidity plan up to date without the lag or uncertainty that manual processes bring.
It’s Not About Fixing What’s Broken – It’s About Upgrading What’s Holding You Back
Many companies hold off on changing their receivables processes because “things are working fine.” But the standard shouldn’t be whether a process works – it should be whether it enables your next move.
As companies grow, complexity scales fast. More invoices. More buyers. More chances for something to fall through the cracks. Manual AR processes simply don’t hold up under this kind of load – not without expanding headcount or accepting growing delays.
The combination of automation and early payment through Liquiditas allows your receivables process to scale without becoming a burden. You don’t need to add people just to chase cash. You don’t need to sacrifice accuracy for speed. The system works because it’s designed to remove the friction that holds receivables back in the first place.
At this scale, control is critical. And control means being able to access working capital when you need it – without waiting for buyers to move first.
Manual AR is costing you – every day, in ways you may not be measuring. If you want sharper control, faster action, and better use of capital, it starts with how you manage what’s owed.
Let Liquiditas help you turn your receivables into a strategic asset – not a daily problem.
