Accounts Receivable Process

Development

Roosa Hildén

BACHELOR’S THESIS
June 2022

Bachelor’s Degree Programme in International Business

ABSTRACT

Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
Tampere University of Applied Sciences
Bachelor’s Degree Programme in International Business

ROOSA HILDÉN:
Accounts Receivable Process Development

Bachelor's thesis 25 pages, appendices 11 pages

June 2022

This study was carried out as a commission from a company that works as a
financial management service provider. The commission was to study and de-
velop their accounts receivable process. The first step was to identify the issues
that the accounts receivable team found the most relevant from the research con-
ducted. The second and the final step of the study focused on finding practical
solutions that the case company could use to develop their accounts receivable
process and the efficiency of the team.

All the data was gathered during the author’s employment in the case company.
The data from the commissioner was gathered via ethnographic methods of par-
ticipant observation, document analysis and specialist, semi-structured inter-
views. In addition, theory and supporting data was added by literature reviews
done by the author based on the guiding factors and results gathered from the
other methodologies in this study.

This thesis project served as a steppingstone for updating the processes within
the case company and mapping the current situation of the accounts receivable
process as it is known to be undergoing changes in near future as the end of this
project. In addition, this paper can serve as a guide or rather a suggestion list to
the case company of possible relevant developments that can be considered
and/or argued by the commissioner.

Key words: development, process development, accounts receivable

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CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 4
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................ 6
2.1 Thesis topic .............................................................................. 6
2.1.1 Objectives........................................................................ 6
2.1.2 Restrictions ...................................................................... 7
2.2 Methodologies .......................................................................... 8
2.3 Thesis structure ........................................................................ 9
3 FINDINGS .................................................................................... 10
3.1 Observation of the work environment and tasks ........................ 10
3.1.1 Observation of issues ..................................................... 10
3.1.2 Observation for possible solutions ................................... 11
3.2 Flowchart analysis ................................................................... 13
3.2.1 Overall analysis.............................................................. 14
3.2.2 Integrating systems ........................................................ 14
3.3 Interviewing of specialists ........................................................ 16
3.1 Supporting data for issues and solutions ................................... 18
3.1.1 Automatization ............................................................... 19
3.1.2 Planned induction for happier employees ......................... 20
3.2 Findings summary ................................................................... 21
4 DISCUSSION ................................................................................ 23
REFERENCES .................................................................................. 26
APPENDICES.................................................................................... 28
Appendix 1. Accounts Receivable Process 2017 ............................. 28
Appendix 2. Accounts Receivable Process 2021 ............................. 29
Appendix 3. The Semi-Structured Interview: Interviewee A ............... 30
Appendix 4. The Semi-Structured Interview: Interviewee B ............... 33
Appendix 5. The Semi-Structured Interview: Interviewee C ............... 36
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1 INTRODUCTION

This thesis showcases a project of accounts receivable development commis-

sioned by a case company, which shall be referred to as “Company X”, the com-
missioner and as seen above, the case company throughout the thesis. The com-
missioner is a medium-sized in-house company and is one of the daughter com-
panies as a part of a bigger parent company. Their main business is a financial
management provider to the public sector, and their main offerings include, for
example, accounts receivable, bookkeeping, debt collection, human resources
management (HR) and payroll. In addition, if their customers wish so, Company
X offers counselling and development services as well (Company X, n.d).

The commissioner had found a need for updated flowcharts of their processes as
their customer base significantly grew during the last two years. After this growth,
a problem arose as the workload grew as well, in addition with daily-to-monthly
time management issues. These issues manifested themselves as not being able
to keep up with the tasks within the desired time limit. The root cause for this was
believed to be the sudden growth in new customers and the shortcomings in ac-
quitting said customers. This led to starting a project to map all their accounting
processes with the thought of perhaps finding development suggestions for the
“bottlenecks” that the company has been experiencing, and accounts receivable
process was thus commissioned to the author.

The author asked for a possible commission as they started as a practical training
trainee in Company X, and this project was later mutually agreed to be the au-
thor’s thesis topic as well. As of Spring 2021 the author has finished their practical
training in their case company and managed to get full-time employment in late
2021 which has given them an opportunity for more in-depth observation of the
case company’s accounts receivable process and the issues affecting said pro-
cess. Let it be said to be a first-hand experience for the author.

The accounts receivable team is responsible of the handling the invoices from
the case company’s customers to the end customers on the receiving end of the
said invoices. The team manages the invoicing material, fixes any mistakes on
 5

the material and updates end customer registers, manages the payments of end
customers for the outstanding invoices. In addition, the team works closely with
the case company’s debt collection partners. In the simplest form, the accounts
receivable team is responsible of handling the debt and the credits the end cus-
tomer owes for the departments that the case company run their accounts receiv-
able for. As such, Company X’s accounts receivable works as in any other com-
pany by example (Investopedia 2022).
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2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Thesis topic

The topic for this thesis is accounts receivable process development. The topic
was chosen as the case company wished for an updated mapping of their AC
processes and based on this the author could proceed to identify possible issues
that are causing bottlenecks and resource management issues as well as re-
search suitable development suggestions that could enhance the current process
and free up resources, which is the focus of this thesis. In other words, this study
can be called a development project. Furthermore, the commission satisfied the
author’s need for practical and meaningful topic for their final work.

The study of the topic collected on this paper will also work as a summary of most
notable and well-known issues within the accounts receivable process as well as
within the respective team. In addition, this paper will also be a summary of ideas
that will help the team overcome the issues presented, though, the practical ex-
ecution of fixes mentioned will be left for the actual case company and the ac-
counts receivable team.

2.1.1 Objectives

The objectives of this project were to study what issues are known to affect the
accounts receivable process and how could this process be developed within
Company X. In the end, the author aimed to create practical and fitted develop-
ment suggestions for the case company based on the analysis of the main issues
and research the author conducted to figure out solutions for said complications.

In addition, the questions this thesis aims to answer are “What issues can be
identified in the accounts receivable process in Company X?” and “How could
accounts receivable process be developed within Company X?”. In the end the
questions are many but so are the issues that continue to trouble the accounts
 7

receivable team and their process. However, in this essay, the biggest, most rel-
evant issues will be brought forward.

“What issues can be identified in the accounts receivable process in the Company
X?” aims to analyse the situation that the case company is in currently. This re-
search is meant to bring forth the biggest complications that the company and its
accounts receivable team suffer from while they are performing their daily and
monthly duties. In addition, the research is meant to identify issues that the case
company has voiced to the author. These complications issues, for example, are
leading to difficulties in resource management and heavy workloads

“How could accounts receivable process be development within Company X?”

aims to continue the research that was derived from the issues analysis. This
research question wants to find answer to the presented issues in the accounts
receivable process and the team that suffers from them. The answers are hoped
to be practical in nature and fit the needs of the case company.

2.1.2 Restrictions

This study came to face restrictions from the commissioner which limited the
amount of information that could be given on the source materials of this case,
which will correlate on the credibility of the research conducted. This however will
hopefully be countered by the time and position of the author within the case
company that were mentioned in the introduction chapter.

In addition, the company has had restrictions in their own development, meaning
that they are aware of their situation but are limited in resources. These resources
are money and time to possibly allocate to development of their accounts receiv-
able process and the respective team.
 8

2.2 Methodologies

For this thesis, four qualitative research methods were chosen. The methods in
question are literature reviews, participant observation, semi-structured inter-
views, and document analysis.

Literature review was chosen for finding supporting articles and studies to con-
clude possible and suitable development suggestions for Company X. In addition,
as a requirement, the literature used as sources must be comprehensive with the
themes presented by the other research methods as well.

Next, participant observation and document analysis were chosen based on the
following criteria: the author worked for Company X for a considerable amount of
time which means the author had an opportunity for complete participation ob-
servation. However, as a commissioner, Company X also wished to remain anon-
ymous. This somewhat obstructed the usual approach of analysing the company
website and their practices from an outsider’s perspective. Participant observa-
tion gave the author freedom to use their experience in the company as a tool,
and internal material could be used for document analysis, which all allows for
anonymity in this research.

Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were planned and held for the accounts
receivable specialists which the author chose based on position and experience
to ensure quality of this research method. In addition, flowchart figures that are
derived from the original documents depicting the accounts receivable processes
at the hand of the case company were used as a reference material for these
interviews to give the interviewees a chance to understand what the situation was
before and what it is now. This was relevant in the interviews as the participants
needed to derive their own opinions of the Company X’s current development
path as well.

Finally, the flowcharts that were mentioned above are analysed as document
analysis to gather insight of the current situation of the processes and develop-
ment that has already happened in the last few years. In addition, these
flowcharts are used as visualisation of possible improvements to the processes.
 9

All these methods presented work together to build a comprehensive study to

analyse the ongoing issues in the case company and its accounts receivable
team. After the issues are analysed, plausible and fitted development sugges-
tions for Company X can be presented in the findings of the study.

2.3 Thesis structure

This paper consists of four main chapters. The first chapter introduces the topic
of the thesis and the commissioner of the topic. The second chapter consist of
the discussion of the topic and its objectives in more detail and how these con-
clude into the research questions of this paper. This chapter also includes the
first introduction theories as to why is there a need for process development, and
methodologies that were used find out where the developmental parts in the pro-
cess are located. The third chapter shows what the chosen methodologies were
able to bring forth from their respective research and finalizes into key develop-
ment suggestions based on the conducted research. Lastly, the final chapter of
this paper discusses if the objectives were met and argumentation whether the
author could have assessed something differently during their research.
 10

3 FINDINGS

3.1 Observation of the work environment and tasks

As the author of this thesis got an opportunity to work for their commissioner as
mentioned in the introduction chapter, participant observation was well suited for
research of the development of the accounts receivable process.

Participant observation is the process of researching the topic chosen in a field-

work type of situation. The participant is present and or involved in the tasks of
the group the researcher is meant to analyse. In addition, participant observation
can be practiced in several different methods that differ in the amount of partici-
pation or observation required. For this thesis the participant observation method
chosen is named as complete participant. The author of the thesis joined the work
environment as part of the team and thus managed to create a good relationships
and trust between their colleagues which are key to fully rounded participant ob-
servation. Being a complete participant in the study helped the author to see the
accounts receivable process as unscripted as possible but as a disadvantage the
author had to stay clear of biases that may grow as they got more comfortable in
their work community. (Kawulich 2005)

The author started as a trainee to then become fully employed, like mentioned
before, in the accounts receivable team. The trainee position worked great as a
learning opportunity as well as for observation for the accounts receivable pro-
cess, while getting fully employed deepened the trust between the members of
the team. As such, the author assumed the position of complete participant as
they integrated to be part of the team while being vocal and honest of their ob-
serving duties.

3.1.1 Observation of issues

The following issues were found in the accounts receivable process while working
as a part of the team: the work burden is too much relative to the time given to
 11

complete them, and the burden means manual work. The team has some autom-
atization available to combat the load of their daily tasks, but this is not always
fool proof as the automatization in use failed to work as intended multiple times
and continues to do so. In addition, managing the flow of invoices and payments
that must be manually handled is taking away from customer and end consumer
interactions which has had negative effects on the reputation of the company and
has created even more stress for the employees. Furthermore, confusion of the
team’s tasks, or the allocation of the tasks within the team, was found to be caus-
ing issues while the team was performing their daily and monthly routines. In
other words, the process lacks structure.

However, the process and workload themselves are not the root causes of the
problem. What was found to be very relevant to the issues at hand was that the
induction of the team was lacking is quality and structure as well. The author
managed to experience and start aiding in the induction of new employees after
their own trainee period. As such, the not so well wounded structural integrity of
this process was more obvious than when the author was on the receiving end of
the same event. For example, it was commonly accepted as fact that the employ-
ees were left on their own accord way too soon for their needs of support of the
tasks given to them. This correlates immediately to management of the daily pro-
cesses within the team and might cause issues for long periods at a time.

3.1.2 Observation for possible solutions

As an observer the author looked for possible solutions for the issues that their
observation brought up. The author had multiple conversations with their team
members to try and understand what they thought about the issues, and if they
had any suggestions how to try and improve the team’s processes.

The issue with manual work and automation have been ongoing challenges for a
while to the team, and even though this problem has been brought to the attention
of higher ups and the team, very little can be done about it. How the knowledge
of automation could be further improved is giving the team education about the
topic. The author suspects that so little is done with automating the processes
 12

because the teams know very little about it and automation can be expensive if
done in a bigger scale. So, as a suggestion, for example, training the team to
become more aware of what automation is those in the accounts receivable team
might be able to bring forth more parts of the process that could be subjected to
automation. This knowledge and spontaneous team could help to find improve-
ment in daily functions through automatization.

As for the daily and monthly tasks, the author took note that in the end of 2021
the team had started to figure out that they need structure to be able to work
cohesively. Thus, the idea of a checklist of tasks and modules was created. The
checklist was created at the start of 2022, but it seemed that no one had imple-
mented the list into their work yet, same with the modules. The author suggests
that the team should allocate time to discuss their tasks and possible modules
and the circulation of said modules together to create a comprehensive schedule
for accounts receivable team to follow. This would furthermore help with alloca-
tion of resources within the team.

The same could be said with induction within the team. If the induction process
within the team had more structure or a checklist, like a welcome back that was
mentioned in the literature reviews, the author believes the turnover rate in the
accounts receivable team, together with the well-structured daily tasks sheet, the
turnover rate would fall significantly. Which in other hand enhances the accounts
receivable process. In fact, the team has acknowledged the need of structure in
the induction process and a few employees are now being trained to be better
inductors. Another thing that the author noticed was that for induction structure to
be improved, the manuals for the daily and monthly tasks need to be updated as
well. The author thinks this because the manuals at this stage are getting out-
dated, and as such fail to guide the new employees as well as the other team
members in their tasks. However, the updating process of the manuals has al-
ready been started, but this will also be an investment of resources, such as time.
 13

3.2 Flowchart analysis

This section will present the findings for document analysis. This method is used
as one of the main methodologies as this research and development can be sup-
ported with the study of the accounts receivable flowcharts, both past and up-
dated versions (see Appendix 1. and 2.). Document analysis works as a comple-
mentary study along with the participation observation and the interviews of this
research. These flowcharts are derived from the original documents but were
changed into anonymous format.

The flowchart analysis in this study is a form of document analysis. Document

analysis is used to, for example, reviewing documents in electronic form to gain
understanding. Though, document analysis can be performed on a variety of
other documents as well and not only official reports (Bowen 2009). In this re-
search, both flowcharts presented are in electronic format and in the hands of the
commissioner.

The updated flowchart (Appendix 2.) was originally one of the author’s main pro-
jects when they started working at Company X. The data on the updated flowchart
is based on the older version from 2017 (Appendix 1.), a product of a study of
what has changed between the years 2017 and 2021, and author’s work experi-
ence in their position as well as discussions with other accounts receivable team
members. In other words, the updated version has been produced with the guid-
ance of the accounts receivable team and has received the approval of the chief
financial officer.

These flowcharts show the participants and the tasks performed in need to handle
an invoice through the accounts receivable process. Their purpose is to depict
the workflow and load of the employees of Company X and its customers do there
is common understanding of the process. In addition, flowcharts of this type are
planned to help new trainees/employees to understand the tasks of accounts re-
ceivable team, if necessary.
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3.2.1 Overall analysis

The flowcharts are analysed and compared to each other to gather insight of the
accounts receivable process flow and if there has been any development from
2017 to 2021. In addition, the flowchart depicting the newer version of the process
will have the main role as a tool for suggestions for better flow of operations.

When looking at both versions of the process from different years, it is obvious
that the flowchart for 2021 is more structurally cohesive and simplified than 2017.
The flowchart for 2021 seems to have easier to follow steps and shows multiple
routes that the process may include depending on the individual situation of the
invoices. For example, there is an addition of 7.B “End Customer – Does not pay
the invoice” in the 2021 version, which is easily left out as its necessity is taken
for granted. Furthermore, some steps towards process development have been
made, for example, automation in step 5, to try and ease the flow of invoices from
self-sustaining customers. In addition, some steps that clearly belong to other
processes than accounts receivable have been left out, such as step 13 from
2017. However, the process still seems to include complicated steps. Further-
more, the process still seems to have the three different routings for invoicing
material, and solution for this will be presented in the next section.

3.2.2 Integrating systems

Firstly, comparing the flowchart version 2021 to 2017, one can note that most of
all invoices go through the case company’s processes and the customer rarely
prints invoices to the end customer. This results in a massive flow of invoices to
be sorted in Company X as well as the responsibility of taking care of any mis-
takes the invoicing material may include also falls onto Company X. The flow of
invoices come from three different invoicing methods, a process that has not
changed from 2017 to 2021, which is one of the biggest reasons for the heavy
workload Company X experiences. The customer invoicing interfaces also differ
from each other so there is no one way to handle these invoices, especially when
mistakes do happen. One way to tackle this issue could be the merging of the
invoicing interfaces to one big comprehensive system and get rid of the different
 15

invoicing methods. The process of the customer sending invoices to Company X

could look like this, for example.

FIGURE 1. The customer fills in invoicing forms and sends ready-made invoicing
material to Company X.

FIGURE 2. The customer produces invoices in their own software, software de-
termined and agreed with both parties in question, and the ready-made material
is sorted in Company X.

The benefits from this type of change between Company X and its customers
would be numerous, especially for the case company. The process of invoice
acquisition from customers will be simplified since only one software or method
 16

for invoicing is used. In addition, the time saved by integrating systems is signifi-
cant. Nurmi (2021) Product Operation Specialist for Heeros software notes that
integrated systems will not only save time but also reduce the number of mistakes
made in the process so the manual workload for would go down notably. How-
ever, there are a few downsides for this type of development that Nurmi (2021)
also brings forth, though he does not call them downsides, he calls them neces-
sary steps. Before integration, a fitting system needs to be found since the sys-
tems in use right now may not be best suited for integrating purposes after they
are evaluated. In addition, this type of project needs resources, such as time and
money as it is a considerable investment. Lastly to note, both parties need to be
inducted for the new software accordingly if an agreement for integration is made.

3.3 Interviewing of specialists

Due to the anonymous nature of this thesis the names of the interviewees will not
be mentioned. For the detailed interviews, see Appendixes 3. – 5.

The type of interview used in this study is semi-structured interviews. These types
of interviews have open ended lead questions to guide the interviewee to the
direction wanted by the researcher. The structured is set to three (3) sections.
First, demographical, and factual focus questions, then in-depth open-ended
questions with guidance to the interviewee to express their emotions towards the
topic at hand. And finally, less in-depth open-ended questions to let the inter-
viewee finish with any thoughts they might wish to say to the researcher. Further-
more, the end goal is that the interviewees continue the discussion by their own
choice and motivation, so that the situation does not feel forced. This way, the
answers given to the interviewers are more natural and potentially gathers higher
quality data than just a closed set of questions on a survey. (Baumbusch 2010)

The semi-structured interviews were specifically chosen because of this method’s

way of letting the interviewee to express their own thoughts naturally rather than
being forced. The author wished to let the interviewees give the most honest an-
swer to the issues and plausible solutions based on their time and expertise in
the case company.
 17

The interviews were conducted by the author for the accounts receivable special-
ists within Company X. The candidates for the interviews were chosen by the two
variables mentioned below: the time worked in the company and the position of
the interviewees. These variables worked as key requirements to ensure the
quality of the gathered data and insight. The interviews consisted of open-ended
and guiding questions respectively, inquiring what the interviewees think of the
AC current process based on the updated flowchart as it was presented to them
(see Appendix 2) and how they feel like the process has changed when they first
started in the company. Furthermore, they were then asked if they themselves
have wishes or suggestions for development of the accounts receivable process
and then guided to elaborate on their suggestions, say, if any practical changes
in the process where development could be done. Lastly the interviewees were
offered freedom to give their own thoughts and relations concerning the process.

For starters, the fact that the accounts receivable process has undergone very
little development was stated by all the interviewees. Furthermore, the interview-
ees shared that the process has become even more complicated due to variety
of mistakes that may occur.

FIGURE 3. The current paths of invoices from customer departments through

Company X to the end customer/recipient. Taken from Appendix 1.

This is mainly because of multiple interfaces in use within the invoicing process.
Figure 3 depicts the different paths that the invoicing material can take before it
 18

reaches Company X and what happens in Company X after the different type of
material has been taken in. These several interfaces were explained to be one of
the biggest setbacks and a reason for increasing and challenging workload. It is
true that the accounts receivable process has remained complicated which
makes mapping the process into a readable format crucial for development. The
updated flowchart was created for this specific reason by the author, to show the
interviewees as well as the accounts receivable team what the process looks like
now and to be used as a tool, as a foundation, for new development within the
process.

In addition, the interviewees agreed on that the current accounts receivable pro-
cess has too many manual steps which strains resources within Company X. As
a result, automatization was the common answer to many issues subjected to
development, such as the updating of the registries of the end customers and the
processing of incoming payments. However, developing automatization for mul-
tiple processes can be argued to be costly and automatization cannot be used as
a solution for everything.

Another common suggestion, or a wish perhaps, by the interviewees was that

some processes that Company X now has the sole authority over could be
merged with their customers or that some duties could be shared. This could help
alleviate the heavy workload that falls on the company. Merging or sharing of
processes could mean, for example, creating a unitary software/platform between
the customer and Company X for invoicing purposes. In addition, it was men-
tioned that debt collection partners and/or archiving process/software could be
the same. There is a problem with this however, Company X knowledges that this
will result in a change in responsibilities and the contracts between their custom-
ers, and this kind of development will require resources and mutual understand-
ing from their customers as well.

3.1 Supporting data for issues and solutions

This section focuses on data gathered via literature reviews of commonly known
issues that affect accounts receivable in the case company. The literature will be
 19

selected so that they offer insight and solutions to the problems that apparent
also in Company X. This way the next can be understood; why the issue exists,
why does it persist and how could it be corrected.

3.1.1 Automatization

The biggest issue in Company X’s accounts receivable process in the heavy man-
ual workload which is difficult to maintain. Banerjee (2022) explains in their blog-
post that there is room for human error when manually processing invoices and
payments, and that it is natural part of manual handling. This is highlighted when
time is running out and the structure of the processes are lacking. As a result, a
reasonable suggestion is that Company X should invest in automatization. It is
not that, for example, chief financial officers do not understand the need of au-
tomatization, the challenge is implementing it (Banerjee 2022). As seen with
Company X, the company and the accounts receivable process already have
some automatization at hand, but as later will be discovered, parts of the current
automatized process are defective though manageable.

Company X should not only focus on automation small parts of the process. Am-
man (2017) explains that a software was developed to automatize many parts of
accounts receivable process, for example, archiving and managing transactions
and customer interactions, though issues automatizing customer/consumer reg-
istration is highlighted. Automatizing cash flow process and customer contacts do
undoubtedly increase the effectiveness of accounts receivable process (Amman
2017). Based on what can be automized, Company X should focus on, for exam-
ple, automatizing invoice flows and archiving. Or archiving can be a process that
is managed by the software the case company already uses.

Other process that can be given up for automation is the start of the debt collec-
tion process, so that the mass of invoices send to debt collection partners do not
need to be handled manually which is known to be a time-consuming process in
Company X. Furthermore, automating customer registration and the updating
process of said register, which were highlighted by Amman (2022) to be tedious,
 20

could free up a lot of hands to one of the most important duties of the case com-
pany which are customer interactions and consumer satisfaction.

3.1.2 Planned induction for happier employees

Induction has been without structure for a long time in Company X, at least in the
accounts receivable team, as will be noted later in the thesis. However, induction
is an integral part of the recruitment process as well as a booster for motivation
of the new employees (Kauppinen 2012). This is something the case company
understands but lacks in practice.

Company X has taken more measures to develop their induction process in the
Spring of 2022. Regardless of being aware of the needed development there are
no guidelines for what the induction process needs and what type of structure
should it have. An article written by Pollitt (2013) introduces a case where new
methods of induction where needed and implemented because of lack of struc-
ture, the induction was said to be non-existent, and the employee turnover was
high.

These new methods Pollitt (2013) presented in his article included materials for
the new employees of course but made sure that HR and recruiters were up to
date as well. For example, new employees would receive a welcome pack com-
pleted with information about the organization and their new duties in their posi-
tion. In addition, new staff would attend workshops to get started with their tasks,
this being participative and practical learning that proved to be successful. Pollitt
(2013) also noted that their induction pack strived to show the new employees
the values and expectations of their organization as well as aim the staff become
part of team more efficiently. Furthermore, in this case the management also al-
located time and other resources to take care of the planning and execution of
the new induction methods. (Pollitt 2013)

Company X would find allocating resources for induction development an useful

investment. Not only would the investment in this make inducting new employees
 21

more efficient and structured but it would decrease staff turnover from dissatis-
faction as well, which of Company X does suffer from.

3.2 Findings summary

The findings of this study point out that most issues with the accounts receivable
process originate from the lack of development and the lack of structure. The
case company of this study should consider these suggestions as possible in-
vestments for the development of their accounts receivable process.

Many studies proved that the accounts receivable process would highly benefit
from automatization of their processes, such as automating archiving, customer
transaction and possibly the register of transactions. Not only literature review
show insight of what to automate in the process, but the interviews with the spe-
cialists also showed the need for automation from the employees themselves.
Few issues with automatization however are the facts that in a larger scale it can
be very resource heavy to implement, and it was observed that not many know
about how to implement it either.

In addition, literature reviews and participant observation showed that lacking

structure in induction and daily tasks within the team are making the employees
confused and a lot of resources are wasted, and the turnover rate is high. So, for
starters, as a suggestion, the team itself has noted the need for a checklist and
modules for smoother circulation of daily tasks. The checklist can be used as a
tool to see if the deadlines are being met, and the creation of modules will help
employees to allocate their time and workload. This will also ease confusion and
the feeling of frustration within the team. Furthermore, the induction in the ac-
counts receivable team needs to have more resources for planning and execut-
ing.

Literature review on this topic showed a few practical ways to start up a working
induction process, such as updated materials “a welcome pack” for the new em-
ployee. In addition of the inductors knowing how to proceed, the managers are
provided with the details of the induction process as well, so a common line can
 22

be achieved. But the accounts receivable team cannot induct new employees
without foundation, thus, induction training is needed, and updating the work
manuals is highly suggested. The work manuals in use now are usable, but out-
dated. The author also observed that the accounts receivable processes have
had changes in the way they are handled, so the work manuals of the tasks per-
formed by the team should be updated not only for the necessity of them for the
team, but for induction purposes as well.

Finally, the analysis of the accounts receivable process flowcharts and the inter-
views together brought forth the idea of merging processes or interfaces with the
Company X’s customers. The process to be merged could be the interfaces which
produce the flow of invoices from the customer to the case company. As of now,
the flowchart shows that there are multiple interfaces and software that the cus-
tomers are using to produce their invoices. This however proves to make the
workload of Company X’s accounts receivable team heavier, and it also leads to
many mistakes that must be manually fixed. As such, handling invoicing material
takes up many resources from the case company. In the end, using only one
software across all the customers prove to save a lot of time and other resources.
 23

4 DISCUSSION

The first question that this study aimed to answer was “What issues can be iden-
tified in the accounts receivable process in Company X?”. The study made by
interviews, observation and flowchart analysis revealed that the biggest bottle
neck in the case company is the lack of resources, in other words, for example,
the amount of work related to the amount of time given is too much for the ac-
counts receivable team. In addition, the workload is directly related to the amount
of customers Company X has and for example, invoicing interfaces and software
were identified to need most of the resources available. And this is because of
many mistakes and manual work caused by the invoicing system managed by
the case company for its customers.

However, Company X also has an internal issue which is the lack of structure
relating to daily or monthly tasks and induction processes within the accounts
receivable team. The observation done by the author revealed that the accounts
receivable team’s resource management issues are directly related to the lack of
structure in the processes even though the updated flowchart made by the author
as a side project was created to battle this. In addition, the lack of structure turned
out one of the biggest issues in addition to heavy workload, causing bottlenecks
and even employee turnover for the team.

The second question this study aimed to answer was “How could accounts re-
ceivable process be developed in Company X?”. The second part of this project
focused on finding plausible and practical solutions for issues that were identified
during the first analysis. In every method used for identifying issues, a solution or
multiple solutions were presented based on how well they would fit the case com-
pany and what the issue was. Solutions were also gathered via literature reviews
which proved that issues with time and resource managing can be alleviated with
automatization of different parts of the process. The solutions that Company X
could implement to their accounts receivable process were automatization of pro-
cesses, planning of modules for daily tasks, planning an induction process and
 24

merging invoicing interfaces and software. Like said before, all solutions are in-
vestments which take up resources but could be considered by the case com-
pany.

This project turned out to be more of a development study of the process and
team issues rather than just analysis of the process that was originally intended.
The commission the case company gave to the author was the mapping of the
accounts receivable process which resulted in the updated flowchart as seen on
the Appendix 2. In addition to this, the case company wished for possible devel-
opment suggestions for the process. However, the author saw that the process
does not work if the issues within the team are not alleviated either. Hence how
the project turned out to be analysis of issues both in the process and in the
accounts receivable team’s structure, and proposal of development and fixes to
the issues that are now known.

So, in the terms if this project was successful, the answer would be positive. Map-
ping out the accounts receivable process was the main, now side project, for the
author and this flowchart is now done. In addition, the main, most obvious issues
in the structure of the process and the structure of workflow were identified and
development was suggested as was asked.

Nonetheless, this study also has place for improvement. One notable improve-
ment for the study would be the amount of the interviews used. In addition to the
amount of the interviews, the questions could have been shaped differently now
that the project is done. The interviews focused mostly on the process flowchart
rather than the processes of the team. For this reason, the accounts receivable
team could be interviewed again but with the support of the participant observa-
tion results that the author gathered during their employment. The answers of
newly made interviews could vary and give new insights as well, since the team
had experienced turnover during the course the author’s project and does not
consist of the same people as in the start of the study. Hence the possible need
for interviewing the team again in the future.

In conclusion, as mentioned before in the findings chapter, Company X is aware

of some of the issues presented in this study, but this project is hoped to be a
 25

compiled summary of issues and solutions that can be considered in the case
company. In addition, all changes and development must be approved by Com-
pany X, and implemented with the resources available, if chosen to be pursued
by the case company.
 26

REFERENCES

Amman, 2017. Automating Cash Flow Management with Accounts Receivable

Software. ICT Monitor Worldwide. Accessed on 18.04.2022. Available at:
https://www.proquest.com/docview/1917124809/F5C01432AA74EC8PQ/4?ac-
countid=14242

Banerjee, K. 2022. Top Account Receivable Challenges for 2022. Blog.

Paystand. Accessed on 18.04.2022. Available at:
https://www.paystand.com/blog/accounts-receivable-challenges

Baumbusch, J. 2010. Semi-Structured Interviewing in Practice-Close Research.

Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing. Hoboken 15 (3), 255-8. Accessed
on 05.06.2022. Required access rights. Available at:
https://www.proquest.com/docview/609337413?accountid=14242&parentSessio
nId=ACAyOHYGB1Fo7UL1%2B6oi5GzNfGJXPUXFhryt3vfa52c%3D&pq-
origsite=primo

Bowen, G. 2009. Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method.

Qualitative Research Journal, 9 (2), 27-40. Accessed on 12.04.2022. Available
at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240807798_Document_Analysis_as_a
_Qualitative_Research_Method

Company X, (n.d.) Company introduction. [online] Accessed on 01.04.2022.

Available at:
https://www.companyx.fi/

Investopedia, 2022. Accounts Receivable (AR). Web Page. Accessed on

05.06.2022. Available at:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accountsreceivable.asp

Invoicera, 2022. 6 Trending Concepts that are Going to Change Accounts

Receivable in 2022. Accessed on 18.04.2022. Available at:
https://marketing-invoicera.medium.com/6-trending-concepts-that-are-going-to-
change-accounts-receivable-in-2022-63e126da461d

Kauppinen, T. 2012. Creating a better induction for employees. Case: Metso

Minerals Inc. / DC Europe. Degree Programme in International Business.
Tampereen Ammattikorkeakoulu. Bachelor’s Thesis. Accessed on 22.05.2022.
Available at:
https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/39679/Kauppinen_Tiina.pdf?seq
uence=1&isAllowed=y

Kawulich, B. 2005. Participant Observation as a Data Collection Method. Forum

Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6 (2), Art. 43.
Accessed on 13.03.2022. Available at:
https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/466/996
 27

Nurmi, V. 2021. Taloushallinnon ja toiminnanohjauksen (ERP) integrointi. Ac-

cessed on 26.05.2022. Available at: https://www.heeros.com/ajankoh-
taista/taloushallinnon-ja-toiminnanohjauksen-integrointi

Pollitt, D. 2013. Co-operative Group induction inspires enthusiastic and en-

gaged employees: Award winning program proves to be a great value for
money. Human Resource Management International Digest, 21 (5), 19-21. Ac-
cessed on 22.05.2022. Available at:
https://www.proquest.com/docview/1399610566/fulltext/339B308A168B4229PQ
/1?accountid=14242
 28

APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Accounts Receivable Process 2017

 29

Appendix 2. Accounts Receivable Process 2021

 30

Appendix 3. The Semi-Structured Interview: Interviewee A

Semi-Structured Interview

The name of the interviewees will be kept anonymous as asked by the commis-
sioner. This is so any competitiveness is not lost due to publication of the thesis.
The interviews will be kept within their original language, but rough English trans-
lations will be made.

Name (nimi): Interviewee A

Date of the interview ( haastattelun päivämäärä): 9th November 2021
Position (työvirka/titteli): Software specialist
Time worked in the company (aika vietetty yrityksessä): 12 years
Time worked in the said position ( aika työskennelty nykyisessä virassa): 1 year

How do you feel the accounts receivable process is nowadays compared

to the old process, when you first started in the company? (Miten/miltä teistä
tuntuu, että myyntireskontran prosessi etenee nykyään verrattuna siihen millainen se
oli kun aloititte yrityksessä?)

Edelleenkin hirveä prosessi, prosessista ei välttämättä aukee/hahmotu, mitä kukakin osa-

puoli tekee konkreettisesti. Paljon on tullut liittymiä lisää, aiheuttaa paljon laskutusvirheitä.

Translation: The process is still horrible and does not clearly show/convey who is responsi-
ble of which part of the accounts receivable process (Company X/Customer). In addition,
many new interfaces has become a part of the process which lead to many invoicing mis-
takes.

Guiding questions ( johdattelevat kysymykset): Why do you feel like this? Do

you have any examples of development that might have happened? (Miksi
teistä tuntuu tältä? Onko teillä joitain esimerkkejä mahdollisesti tapahtuneesta kehi-
tyksestä?)

Prosessi on edelleen todella monimutkainen ja että Yritys X tekee suurimman osan työstä.
Tuntuu siltä, että prosessi ei oikeastaan ole muuttunut ollenkaan. Kaavio on yksinkertaistu-
nut, mutta sisällöltään prosessi ei oo muuttunu.
 31

Translation: The process is still very complicated, and it feels like Company X does most of
the work. It feels like the process has not changed at all. The flowchart has become more
simplistic, but the process has not changed.

Do you have wishes or suggestions how to continue to develop the ac-

counts receivable process? (Onko teillä toiveita tai ehdotuksia, miten jatkaa myyn-
tireskontra prosessin kehitystä?)

Kehitystä on jo tapahtunut esim. automaation avulla, mutta määräänsä enempää on vaikea

automaatiotakin tuottaa.

Translation: Some development has already done, for example, with automation but pro-
gress with automation is also limited.

Guiding questions ( johdattelevat kysymykset): Do you feel like the process is

lacking something (updated flowchart)? Can something be done in bet-
ter/faster fashion process/software wise? What could it be? ( Tuntuuko teistä
siltä, että prosessista puuttuisi jotain (päivitetty prosessikaavio)? Pystyttäisiinkö pro-
sessin/alustan kannalta tehdä jotain paremmin/nopeammin? Mitä se voisi olla?

Ei puutu mitään, mutta kyykkää 3 ja 3A kohdalla koska asiakasyrityksestä tulevan laskuai-

neiston virheet vievät resursseja. Asiakasyksiköiltä voitaisiin pyytää tarkempaa laskutusai-
neiston tarkistusta ja/tai viilausta ennen Yritykselle X lähettämistä. Automaatio virheellisten
aineistojen takaisin lähettämisestä yksikölle. Toki, vastuumatriisit menisivät uusiksi, jos tämä
kehitys idea menisi läpi. 12 ja 13 voitaisiin yhdistää, kehitysideana automaatio voisi haistella
avoimia laskuja ja ylimääräisiä suorituksia ja kykenisi kohdistamaan niitä itse, manuaali kä-
sittelyn sijaan ja kykenisi itse merkkaamaan suoritukset ylimääräisiksi, jos se niitä on. Helpot-
taisi ja nopeuttaisi myyntireskontran käsittelyä.

Translation: The process does not really lack anything, but the process struggles with 3 and
3A because the invoicing mistakes the up many resources. The customers could do more
precise inspection of the invoicing material before sending it to Company X. As a develop-
ment idea processes 12 and 13 could be merged, and automation could handle the direction
of payment to an open invoice or the marking of extra payment to the AC which are now done
manually. It would make the processing of accounts receivable easier and faster.

Do you feel like you have anything else you would wish to say about the
accounts receivable process? (Tuntuuko teistä, että teillä olisi vielä jotain sanot-
tavaa myyntireskontra prosessista?)
 32

Kehitysideoita voi olla ja ne voisivat oikeasti auttaa, mutta sen kustantaminen ja konkreetti-
nen luominen ovat sitten eri asia. Talousprosessi on ollut olemassa jo monta monta vuotta,
mutta on silti edelleen todella kankea.

Translation: There can be development ideas and they can definitely help, but financing and
manufacturing the ideas is a different story. The process has been in works for years but it
is still very rigid nowadays.
 33

Appendix 4. The Semi-Structured Interview: Interviewee B

Semi-Structured Interview

The name of the interviewees will be kept anonymous as asked by the commis-
sioner. This is so any competitiveness is not lost due to publication of the thesis.
The interviews will be kept within their original language, but rough English trans-
lations will be made.

Name (nimi): Interviewee B

Date of the interview ( haastattelun päivämäärä): 10th November 2021
Position (työvirka/titteli): Talouspalvelusihteeri
Time worked in the company ( aika vietetty yrityksessä): 3 years
Time worked in the said position (aika työskennelty nykyisessä virassa): 3 years

How do you feel the accounts receivable process is nowadays compared

to the old process, when you first started in the company? (Miten/miltä teistä
tuntuu, että myyntireskontran prosessi etenee nykyään verrattuna siihen millainen se
oli kun aloititte yrityksessä?)

Robotti (automaatio) tullut virheellisten suoritusten käsittelyyn, osat osasuorituksista menee

automaattisesti laskuille. Liittymiä on tullut useita lisää, ja virheet tämän myötä lisääntyneet.
Oikeistaan hidastaa prosessia, kun virheet ovat moninaisia. Operaattori vaihdos on vienyt
prosessia taaksepäin.

Translation: The robot (automation) has been made to process some incorrect payments
and some payment go directly to open invoices. There are many interfaces in use and with
this change the mistakes have been increasing. Because there are so many mistakes and
the mistakes vary, it slows down the process. The change in the operator has made a step
back in the process.

Guiding questions ( johdattelevat kysymysket): Why do you feel like this? Do

you have any examples of development that might have happened? (Miksi
teistä tuntuu tältä? Onko teillä joitain esimerkkejä mahdollisesti tapahtuneesta kehi-
tyksestä?)

Työtehtäviä on lisääntynyt ja tehtävien haastetaso on kasvanut.

 34

Translation: The amount of work has increased as well as the difficulty of said work

Do you have wishes or suggestions how to continue to develop the ac-

counts reveivable process? (Onko teillä toiveita tai ehdotuksia, miten jatkaa myyn-
tireskonta prosessin kehitystä?)

Tietyt asiat voitaisiin automatisoida, mm. asiakkaan perustaminen, käsilaskujen käsittely ro-
botille (laskutustoimeksiannot), asiakasmaksu palautuksiin tilinumeroiden automatisoimi-
nen?? (asiakaspalvelun automatisoiminen, alusta tai lomakkeen luku robotilla, onko mahdol-
linen SAP:ssa?). Laskutusperusteiden kyselyt suoraan yksikölle asiakaspalvelutiimin sijaan.
Perinnän automatisointi. Ongelmat: mikä on rajaveto yksikön ja yrityksen X välillä, rahoitus
mahdollisille robotti päivityksille? Työkalujen/ohjelmistojen helppokäyttöisyys!

Translation: Certain processes could be automatized, for example, creating new customer
interfaces, the handling of invoicing material for automation purposes, the process of refund-
ing customer payments, can this be automatized as well? Recipient inquiries of the invoicing
material straight to corresponding customer, not through Company X’s customer service
team. The automatization of debt collecting. Noticeable problems: changes in responsibilities
between Company X and the customer, financing for possible robot (automatization) devel-
opments? Accessibility of current tools and softwares!

Guiding questions ( johdattelevat kysymykset): Do you feel like the process is

lacking something (updated flowchart)? Can something be done in bet-
ter/faster fashion process/software wise? What could it be? ( Tuntuuko teistä
siltä, että prosessista puuttuisi jotain (päivitetty prosessikaavio)? Pystyttäisiinkö pro-
sessin/alustan kannalta tehdä jotain paremmin/nopeammin? Mitä se voisi olla?)

Asioiden automatisointi nopeuttaisi ja vapauttaisi tekijöitä. 1 ja 2B nykyisestä kaaviosta au-

tomatisointiin??

Translation: Automatization of current processes would make the employees work faster as
well as free up said employees for other tasks. Parts 1 and 2B from current flowchart can be
automatized??

Do you feel like you have anything else you would wish to say about the
accounts receivable process? (Tuntuuko teistä, että teillä olisi vielä jotain sanot-
tavaa myyntireskontra prosessista?)
 35

Prosessi on pysynyt samanmoisena aika pitkään, kehitysehdotukset eivät mene läpi vaikka
sillä yritettäisiin helpottaa kaikkia osapuolia. Toivotaan asiakasyksiköiltäkin ennakointia jat-
kossa. Henkilöstömitotus ennakoivasti, jotta työt saataisiin jaettua.

Translation: The accounts receivable process has stayed the same for a long time, devel-
opment ideas won’t get through even though they would benefit both parties. The Company
X’s customers could also use predictability in their work. In addition, predictability in resourc-
ing employees so that tasks can be distributed fairly.
 36

Appendix 5. The Semi-Structured Interview: Interviewee C

Semi-Structured Interview Template

The name of the interviewees will be kept anonymous as asked by the commis-
sioner. This is so any competitiveness is not lost due to publication of the thesis.
The interviews will be kept within their original language, but rough English trans-
lations will be made.

Name (nimi): Interviewee C

Date of the interview ( haastattelun päivämäärä): 11st November 2021
Position (työvirka/titteli): Service Manager
Time worked in the company (aika vietetty yrityksessä): 1,5 years
Time worked in the said position ( aika työskennelty nykyisessä virassa): 1 year

How do you feel the accounts receivable process is nowadays compared

to the old process, when you first started in the company? (Miten/miltä teistä
tuntuu, että myyntireskontran prosessi etenee nykyään verrattuna siihen millainen se
oli kun aloititte yrityksessä?)

On tullut pieniä kehitys askeleita digitilasoitumisen kautta, pohja prosessi on kuitenkin sama.

Translation: Some development has happend with digitalization of the company, but basic
process is still the same.

Guiding questions ( johdattelevat kysymysket): Why do you feel like this? Do

you have any examples of development that might have happened? (Miksi
teistä tuntuu tältä? Onko teillä joitain esimerkkejä mahdollisesti tapahtuneesta kehi-
tyksestä?)

Korona-aika ja etätyöaika on pakottanut muuttamaan työkaluja, kumppaneiden vaihdot, li-

säksi on tehty tietoista prosessi kehitystä. Asiakkaiden vaatimukset vaikuttaa.

Translation: Covid and teleworking has forced the change of tools. In addition, there has
been changes in partners and some conscious process development has been made. Cus-
tomer requirements have influence on the processes.
 37

Do you have wishes or suggestions how to continue to develop the ac-

counts receivable process? (Onko teillä toiveita tai ehdotuksia, miten jatkaa myyn-
tireskonta processin kehitystä?)

Toivotaan, että saataisiin yhdistettyä asiakkaiden prosesseja, kun tämänhetkinen tilanne on

kovin monimutkainen ja raskas resursseille (tulevaisuudessa tavoite, että on täysin yhtenäi-
nen ohjelmistoympäristö), prosessien leaniiminen (automatisointi).

Translation: The wish is to merge customer processes because the current situation is so
complex and heavy on all resources (future goal is to create/have a fully unitary software),
lean processes (automatization).

Guiding questions ( johdattelevat kysymykset): Do you feel like the process is

lacking something (updated flowchart)? Can something be done in bet-
ter/faster fashion process/software wise? What could it be? ( Tuntuuko teistä
siltä, että prosessista puuttuisi jotain (päivitetty prosessikaavio)? Pystyttäisiinkö pro-
sessin/alustan kannalta tehdä jotain paremmin/nopeammin? Mitä se voisi olla?)

Yhdistämällä prosesseja ja ohjelmistoympäristöjä. Tällä hetkellä on operaattori sama, toivo-

taan myös, että ehkä perintä kumppanit olisivat samat, arkistointi on valittu (toki toivottava
tilanne voisi olla, että arkistointi voisi tapahtua automaatiolla).

Translation: By merging processes and software. Right now, the operator is the same be-
tween partners, but it is wished that debt collector partners and archives would be the same
(though archiving could be made fully automatic).

Do you feel like you have anything else you would wish to say about the
accounts receivable process? (Tuntuuko teistä, että teillä olisi vielä jotain sanot-
tavaa myyntireskontra prosessista?)

Vielä on liikaa manuaalisia työvaiheita, ja monet työvaiheet ruuhkautuvat (ei pullonkauloja).

Prosessin päivitetty kuvaaja elin tärkeä, että mitään ei jää huomaamatta ja että ruuhkautu-
neisiin tilanteisiin saataisiin apua (aikatauluista myöhästymisen ja laadun heikkenemisen
vaara). Perehdyttämisen/asiakasesittely/tilintarkastuksen kannalta tarkka prosessi on hyvä
olla olemassa ja on eduksi.

Translation: There is still too many manual processes and bottlenecks. The updated
flowchart is crucial, so nothing is left unnoticed and in order to support the busier times (failing
 38

to meet deadlines and decrease in quality of services). Precise flowchart also supports new
employees and customers as well as auditing of accounts.