2020 Wrapped Up: Growing and Innovating Through a Challenging Year

As we near the end of 2020, like us we’re sure you’re experiencing a lot of mixed feelings. This year has seen us through some unprecedented challenges as we’ve navigated a global pandemic, a social revolution, and a new culture of remote work.

Against the backdrop of these obstacles though, it’s been incredible to witness the resilience of our clients and team. We’ve seen our clients support their customers through making the shift to remote working and we’ve seen our growing Versateam masterfully manage both work and home as those worlds collided.

To finish the year off with some levity, we thought we’d share some of the bright spots from 2020.

How Has Accounts Receivable Changed This Year?

From the challenges businesses have had to face this year, more finance teams are finally modernizing their accounts receivable processes and increasing their acceptance of digital payments.

COVID-19 put into perspective just how impractical manual and paper-based AR processes are, especially as teams made the switch to working from home. With no one in office, who’s going to print and mail out invoices and process checks?

A recent report from PYMNTS.com found that 83% of businesses reported having changed their AR processes since the pandemic began, with 83.1% of firms using tech to manage their AR at a high level accepting more digital payments than they were before COVID-19.

The past year has also made businesses reflect more on the importance of customer experience, as providing online channels for billing and payment experiences became non-negotiable. While ecommerce used to be regarded as a channel for lower value purchases, the pandemic has made B2B buyers even more comfortable making big purchases in an online environment.

A report from McKinsey & Company found that 70% of B2B decision makers reported being open to making purchases well over $50,000 in a fully self-serve or remote capacity.

Embracing digital payments and AR automation means finance teams are unlocking potential for cost savings like 30% DSO reduction and giving customers what they’ve long been asking for—a convenient, online experience.

This Year at Versapay HQ

We started the year off on an exciting note as we went through the final stages of Versapay’s acquisition by Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based technology investment firm. In October, we followed this up by announcing our merger with leading payment services provider Solupay and affiliated companies ChargeLogic and 2CP.

Our coming together means we’re better able to deliver on our goal of simplifying the way buyers and sellers do business together by digitizing the accounts receivable process and simplifying payment acceptance.

Merging with Solupay has also meant that we’ve grown from a team of ~100 employees to over 200 and counting. This year we brought on 100 new hires, 92 of whom have never set foot in a Versapay office.

We were pleased to see Versapay recognized for the first time on both Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and Fast 50 lists, honoring the fastest growing and most innovative tech companies in North America and Canada respectively. We were also named a Leader for the second time in the IDC MarketScape for Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Midmarket Accounts Receivable Automation Software.

Our Clients

In 2020 our network of clients served has grown by the thousands, connecting us to 500,000+ end customers. We onboarded some stellar new clients this year, including Dream Office, Amer Sports, and TireHub. Through Versapay, our clients created millions of invoices and processed payments collectively totaling $12 billion.

During the onset of the pandemic, we worked with our clients on ways to support them and their customers. For instance, we:

• Helped our clients quickly pivot to accept credit card payments as their customers needed ways to pay remotely

• Enabled clients to give their customers a financial break by waiving convenience fees at a time when the future for many small businesses was uncertain

• Accelerated the testing and roll-out of pre-payments and initial deposits for more clients, allowing them to accept more payments faster and provide their customers with more flexibility

We were moved to see how a few of our clients went even further to support their customers and first responders through COVID-19.

Kite Realty Group launched a small business loan program aimed at local small shop tenants. To communicate the availability of this program to all their tenants, Kite Realty used the Marketing Message feature in ARC, sending two email blasts to all active tenants.

Bedford Industries, a manufacturer of packaging solutions using Versapay’s Solupay for NetSuite solution, shifted from making twist ties to face shields during COVID-19. Bedford already manufactured the nose wires that go into medical masks and on seeing the dire need on the front lines for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) decided to start making plastic face shields. To quickly get up and running shipping out the face shields and accepting payments, Bedford looked to NetSuite and Solupay to build their ecommerce instance.

A Year of Exciting New Features

This year we released several enhancements to our ARC solution. Here are our clients’ top 3 favorites:

• Electronic Cash on Delivery: Cash on Delivery (COD) has traditionally involved a lot of challenges for distributors, from applying cash payments to open invoices to the logistics of collecting payment at the time of delivery. We’ve tackled these challenges by giving COD customers a way to store their preferred payment method and automating the invoicing, payment, and application of payment the moment an order is requested.

• Discount Management: Our discount management features make it easier to communicate discount terms to customers via their invoice, the ARC portal, or email and tie them to specific payment methods. We’ve made it easy for customers to take advantage of early payment incentives and eliminated the potential for unearned discounts. Reconciliation is automated so you have complete transparency into which discounts are used and why.

• Document Manager: With this new feature, we’ve made it easy for you to securely share documents, marketing messages, memos, and other communications with your customers all in one place—and know when they’ve been viewed.

What’s Ahead in 2021?

We know there are many challenges that complicate payment acceptance for B2B companies, preventing them from delivering exceptional billing and payment experiences to their customers. We’re committed to tackling these issues one by one to simplify the entire order to cash process for buyers and sellers.

As remote work and social distancing will continue well into 2021, we’ll be focused on supporting businesses as they make the shift to digital payments and modernize their AR processes to match. Although 2020 has been challenging, it’s also been a milestone year for Versapay. We’re grateful to our clients, partners, and team who drive us forward in everything we do, and we’re optimistic for what the next year will bring in the world of B2B payments. Will you come along for the ride?

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