Making it easier for customers to pay and easier for finance teams to get paid
As a business focused on helping Australian companies improve cash flow and reduce risk, CreditorWatch understands that getting paid isn’t just about chasing overdue invoices. It’s about creating a better process for customers to pay, while reducing the administrative burden on finance teams.
To streamline its accounts receivable workflows, CreditorWatch implemented Collect and Pay Now, bringing together automated invoice follow-up, customer communications and embedded payments in a single platform.
The result is a simpler payment experience for customers, less administration for the finance team and faster reconciliation of incoming payments.
The business
About CreditorWatch
CreditorWatch is Australia’s leading commercial credit reporting bureau, helping businesses make smarter decisions and reduce risk. With access to real-time credit data, payment insights, debtor management tools and business monitoring, CreditorWatch empowers organisations to assess customers, manage exposure and protect cash flow throughout the customer lifecycle.
Industry: Financial Services / Business Intelligence
Region: Australia & New Zealand
Specialisation: Credit Risk, Debtor Management, Business Monitoring & Collections
The challenge
Before implementing Collect, the team relied on ageing reports and manual processes to manage overdue invoices.
While effective, the process required significant time spent reviewing debtor reports, sending follow-up emails and tracking customer interactions across multiple systems.
“The biggest issue with the Excel reports was that they were just a snapshot in time. They didn’t have any history and they didn’t integrate with our workflows or processes.” – Vincent Padovan, Manager OTC
The team wanted greater visibility across accounts receivable, less manual administration and a simpler way for customers to pay.
Creating More Time for Value-Adding Work
Collect automated much of the routine follow-up work that was previously handled manually.
Instead of spending hours preparing reminders and statements, the finance team can focus its attention on customers that genuinely require support or intervention.
By engaging customers earlier and more consistently, CreditorWatch has also reduced the number of accounts progressing into older ageing buckets.
“Having these reminders go out automatically, it gave me time to focus on actually getting the money through the door. I could focus on the accounts that needed to be followed up, rather than consistently writing emails.With Collect now, we have seen a significant reduction in accounts getting to those 90 days overdue.” – Rema Bousalim, Senior Accounts Officer
A Better Payment Experience Than Traditional ERP Workflows
For CreditorWatch, the value of Collect Pay Now extends beyond simply accepting card payments.
The team found that many accounting systems focus on individual invoice payments, whereas Collect provides customers with a complete view of their outstanding balance through reminders, statements and an account-level payment experience.
“The biggest appeal is a lot of ERPs don’t allow you to send a monthly statement with a summary of what’s overdue plus a link to pay.With the monthly statement feature plus the reminders, customers have an easy overview of everything and in a few clicks they can pay it all in a second. Our customers love it.” – Vincent Padovan, Manager OTC
Customers can quickly see what they owe and take action immediately.
By reducing friction between receiving a reminder and making a payment, CreditorWatch has seen strong engagement from customers.
“When we do send out reminders, we get an influx of payments come through. It just gives customers the opportunity to pay on the spot” – Rema Bousalim, Senior Accounts Officer
Faster Reconciliation, Less Administration
One of the most significant benefits of Collect Pay Now has been the impact on reconciliation.
Rather than manually matching bank references to customer accounts and invoices, payment information is automatically linked, making reconciliation significantly faster and easier.
By comparison, traditional bank transfers often require a manual investigation process.
“We can reconcile like 20 payments in less than 30 seconds because you’re just like bang, bang, bang. Whereas EFTs, we have to sometimes spend five to ten minutes just finding out what bank description matches with what customer.” – Vincent Padovan, Manager OTC
The efficiency gains have been so noticeable that the team now actively prefers reconciling Stripe payments.
“I like doing the Stripe reconciliations more than the actual bank ones.” – Rema Bousalim, Senior Accounts Officer
For businesses evaluating payment processing fees, CreditorWatch believes it’s important to look beyond the transaction itself and consider the time saved across accounts receivable workflows, customer follow-up and reconciliation.
One Platform for Accounts Receivable
Another major benefit has been bringing customer communications, payments and outstanding invoices together in a single platform.
“It’s a centralised platform with all the customer history and communication we need in one place. It helps us work more efficiently and makes it easier for customers to pay.” – Rema Bousalim, Senior Accounts Officer
This visibility enables the finance team to spend less time searching for information and more time focusing on improving AR outcomes.
The result
Today, Collect plays a central role in CreditorWatch’s accounts receivable process.
By combining automated invoice follow-up with embedded payments, CreditorWatch has created a better experience for customers while reducing administration for the finance team.
“Collect does a lot of the heavy lifting. If you’re looking to reduce manual effort, it basically gives you more time. I highly recommend it.” – Vincent Padovan, Manager OTC