Why Businesses Should Prioritize Payment Tracking and Reporting

Every business has its roster of “hot buttons” in other words, a list of top priorities. The use of automated payment tracking and reporting tools belongs squarely on that roster.

There are multiple reasons why this is so. Automated payment tracking and reporting tools:

Reduce Risk and Support a Proactive Approach to Business

No matter a business’ age or size, manually gathering and tracking payment data or manually gathering it and tracking it minimally or not at all leave businesses vulnerable to many types of risk, such as incomplete information and errors. This makes it difficult if not impossible to pinpoint and remediate problems, for instance, repeated voids and unusual transaction patterns before widespread negative consequences occur.

By contrast, the more easily data can be amassed, reported on, and tracked as is the case when utilizing automated payment tracking and reporting tools the more easily it can be found and leveraged and the faster problems can be addressed. For instance, with a solution of this type in place, business owners can see that a customer completed payment by phone on a day two weeks previously, and then, when it was declined, registered for a recurring payment plan but also made a one-time online payment that must be refunded.

Function Like a Single Front-End Portal Business, Offering One Unified Vision of Their “Payment and Transaction Truth”

Automated payment tracking and reporting solutions allow business owners to view, on a single screen, information about all payments received from a given customer regardless of whether those payments were made via a live telephone call, a recurring monthly process, online, through a text-based payment system, and the like. Data about individual customers’ payment interactions with the business is accessible by simply entering a user-defined search term, such as a name, telephone number, or last four digits of an account number, into the system.

Save Time and Money

Automated payment tracking and reporting tools allow credit card processing and account reconciliation to occur faster than would be possible using “paper and pencil”, saving not only time but reducing costs in the bargain.

Facilitate Control of Access to Payment Information

Automated payment tracking and reporting tools can be programmed to control which payment data managers and customer service representatives can see and the scope of what they are permitted to do with it. This is not possible with manual methods.

Enable Flexible, Seamless Transmission of Transaction Information to and from Other Business Systems

Customer balances are easily imported into automated transaction tracking and reporting tools. Transaction data defined by myriad parameters (e.g., all transaction information for a particular month, a particular customer, or a particular branch of the operation) can be exported to systems used in other departments, such as accounting, or to other financial software, like Quickbooks. This leads to increased operational efficiencies and reduction of errors by eliminating manual processes. E-Complish provides payment and tracking tools within its VirtualPay platform and can also create customized payment portals for businesses of any size. Schedule a consultation to learn more.