Reselling Accounts Payable Processing Services Creates Competitive Edge
3rd Party Services Deliver Client Retention and New Revenue
Differentiation in the financial and professional services industries is key to success. Forward-thinking organizations, including CPA firms, financial planners, banks, and benefits managers, have increasingly offered extra services -- so-called “value adds” that complement their core competencies. In effect, these companies have moved outside of their traditional focus, turning themselves into “one-stop shops” for clients needing payroll, investments, insurance, financial reporting, bookkeeping, business process consulting, various cash management services, and more. The fees generated by such a diverse service portfolio widen profit margins and provide a leg up on the competition.
Providing a wide array of services also helps attract new clients, and ensures long-lasting ties with existing ones. It goes without saying: the more needs a company can fulfill for clients, the more likely it is those clients will stick around. But the depth of services is just as significant. A deep relationship begets other revenue-generating service opportunities with that client. The deeper a company can reach into a client’s day-to-day operations, the more it costs in terms of systems and expertise for that client to switch to a competitor.
The hidden service – accounts payable
One service that offers tremendous rewards to both financial services organizations and their clients, but has gone virtually untouched in the small- to mid-sized business market, is third-party accounts payable (A/P) and expense-report processing.
IntelAccount Inc., a Web-based A/P service provider based in Minneapolis, Minn., automates the entire process for clients via the Web through its proprietary workflow-and document-management software. Once the data reaches IntelAccount, an on-site staff handles the A/P process, from invoice receipt to payment, as well as digital document storage and 1099 preparation. The process becomes streamlined. Clients see results immediately, among them: improved staff productivity and focus, better process control, reduced fraud risk, faster invoice processing, maximized vendor discounts, easy access to digital documents via the Internet for authorized staff and electronic payment services. Above all, they can save up to 70 percent over existing internal processes.
A partnership for success
Financial services organizations looking to further diversify their services among small- to mid-sized clients can grab a stake in the growing A/P services market. IntelAccount has developed a formal reseller partner program that allows financial-services companies to resell IntelAccount’s services. Partnering companies are free to put their own name and brand on the product line, and they share in the revenue generated by transaction volume. IntelAccount operates efficiently behind the scenes, providing operational, sales and billing support while each partner strengthens its own brand and client list.
“A/P processing is one of the largest hidden costs in every organization and providing these services to small- and medium-sized businesses is a completely untapped market with huge growth potential,” said David Crane, IntelAccount founder and CEO. “The service provides valuable benefits to all parties – product differentiation; new, ongoing revenue to the reseller; and improved productivity and savings to the end-client.”
Savings too big to ignore
Research has shown that most companies don’t pay much attention to the costs and inconveniences associated with A/P processing. Until recently, there haven’t been many alternatives to a company’s manual internal process.
When A/P processing is handled manually, invoices and expense reports can take up to two weeks from receipt to payment as they move through the approval process – often between multiple locations or several approvers – for review and sign-off. The delay causes companies to lose out on opportunities for preferred vendor discounts, as well as add unnecessary expense. Several studies have calculated the average cost of processing each invoice to be between $18 and $24 – not to mention the valuable time that could be focused on the organization’s core business.
Like the success of third- 3rdparty payroll services, using A/P processing services allows companies to enjoy the many benefits of using technology to make their A/P processes more efficient and less expensive – benefits previously only available to large corporations -- without any capital or overhead investment.
Third-party A/P services enable organizations to pay only for the services they utilize. IntelAccount’s A/P systems and services are tailored for small- and medium-sized businesses and can be customized to meet each company’s rules for security, invoice approval and payment. And because clients continue to use their existing financial software, there is no new software to buy or significant training investment. IntelAccount’s system works with almost any financial software package as long as it can import and export data.
As a result, end users get access to the best technology, processes and people without the internal overhead and at an affordable cost -- not to mention the efficiency and environmental benefits of going “green,” since the entire A/P process is paperless.
To find out more about IntelAccount’s reseller program, contact IntelAccount at (888) 449-8501 or via e-mail at .
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