B2B Transforming Accounts Receivable (DESCRIPTION) Logo: U.S. Bank. Two slides appear side by side. The slide on the left is headed Video, and the slide on the right is headed Slides. The slide on the left has the text, This session will start soon. Below are four icons with text below: Refresh your browser if you experience any delays or the screen freezes. Use Chrome, Edge or Firefox browsers, for best viewing experience. If you have a question for the presenter, please use the Q&A panel on the right of your screen. Turn your computer sound on and volume up. There is no dial-in. The slide on the right has the U.S. Bank logo and the text, Transform B2B Accounts Receivable (A/R). Explore proven strategies for accelerating cash flow. May 2025. Photo: A woman sits at a desk with a calculator and two monitors. (SPEECH) Hello, and welcome. Please note that today's session is being recorded. If you object to the recording, please disconnect now. You will notice the panels on your screen. You may choose to resize or move these panels on your screen to match your viewing preferences. To ask a question of the presenter, enter it in the Q&A panel on the screen. Please note, questions may not be answered. If you experience any technical issues during the broadcast, we suggest you first refresh your browser. If that does not resolve the issue, please message through the Q&A panel. Let's begin the session. (DESCRIPTION) The video begins in the screen on the left. A woman in a sleeveless floral print top sits in an office with a whiteboard in the background. Crisha Hall, Senior Vice President, U.S. Bank. (SPEECH) OK, hello, and welcome to our webinar today, on transforming your B2B accounts receivables process. I am joined with an esteemed panel, where we'll be walking you through a lively discussion on ways that you can move towards automation in this process. (DESCRIPTION) Three men join in the video chat. The agenda appears on the right, then headshots of the four panelists with their names and titles. (SPEECH) Perfect. I'm going to turn over to Alberto Casas for our first introduction and we'll go through some introductions. I'll start with myself. My name is Crisha Hall. And I lead the Go To Market and Solutions Enablement Team, here at U.S. Bank, in our Treasury and Payment Solutions Group. And then I'll turn over to Alberto. (DESCRIPTION) Alberto Casas is in the upper right quadrant. (SPEECH) Well, good morning or good afternoon, everyone, depending upon where you are. My name is Alberto Casas. I am the Chief Product Officer for Treasury and Payment Solutions, responsible for commercial money movement, data and channels, as well as our deposit and liquidity business. Great to be with you. Nick? (DESCRIPTION) Nick Izquierdo is in the lower left quadrant. (SPEECH) Hey, everyone, Nick Izquierdo, it's nice to meet you. Thanks for joining us. I'm the EVP of Corporate Development at Billtrust. Billtrust is the software provider that powers U.S. Bank's advanced receivables. We're really excited to share with you today, everything that our software can do in conjunction with U.S. Bank. So thanks for joining Jason? (DESCRIPTION) Jason Syverson is in the lower right quadrant. (SPEECH) Hi. And I'm Jason Syverson, Vice President of Finance for Ziegler Companies. And excited to provide an overview of how we utilize the Billtrust and U.S. Bank application. Perfect. Thank you, guys. (DESCRIPTION) Text: Our agenda. A/R challenges and barriers. Benefits of A/R automation. Impacts of Artificial Intelligence (Al) and Machine Learning (ML) on A/R management. Insights from Ziegler Corporation. Questions. Next to the agenda is a stylized network of nodes with icons set against a globe, with a blurred image in the background of a person at a laptop who holds a smartphone in one hand. (SPEECH) OK, so for our agenda today, we'll be walking through challenges and barriers, benefits of automation, the impacts of AI and machine learning, insights from our partner, Ziegler, and then we'll get into questions. So throughout the presentation, we will have the chat open. If you have questions for any of the presenters, please put them in the chat. And then at the end, we will get to those questions as a group. So first, we'll turn it over to Alberto to get us started. (DESCRIPTION) Alberto appears full screen. (SPEECH) All right, well thank you. Thank you Crisha. Before I begin, I just want to give a special thank you to our guest, esteemed guest, Jason from Ziegler. While as product people and as bankers and fintech entities, we love to share our perspective, it's always fantastic to have a practitioner's real-world and hands-on perspective, relative to AI automation. So honored to have you, Jason. (DESCRIPTION) Text: Addressing the manual, fragmented and non-standard B2B A/R process is the next frontier in treasury management. A graphic shows a semicircle, with the flat part on the bottom, with the text inside, Challenges faced by suppliers. Around the semicircle are icons with text. From the left, up and around to the right, Digitation requires synergies between supplier and buyer who have their own priorities. Buyer preferences and data technology limits digital adoption of invoices and payments. Applying cash with unstructured remittance data is time consuming and expensive. 40% of B2B Payments are still made by checks. Late payment collection. (SPEECH) Let me start by acknowledging that we're living in some pretty extraordinary times. Can't turn on the news without hearing about tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, impact to global trade. There is tremendous, tremendous noise relative to new and provocative technologies that are being contemplated for our business, AI, machine learning, stablecoins, blockchain, you name it. So we do realize and recognize that it's difficult to filter through all of that, and prioritize where you should be spending your time to get the most bang for your buck, for your organization, and driving value for your shareholders. So I want to sincerely thank you for spending time with us. With that as a backdrop, we know your time is valuable. And we know you're taking time out of your day to be with us. Now, we're not going to have all the answers to all those macro questions. But we are here to talk about some perspective that we have, relative to addressing one of the more stubborn challenges and opportunities that exist in payments. And that is A/R automation, and digitizing A/R, improving working capital, and supporting a more efficient and beneficial process for your customers, as well as your own internal stakeholders. I want to start by very clearly defining the problem statement associated with A/R, as we believe that this is the next frontier in payments automation, and absolutely well worth your time and attention. So for years, as an industry, we focused a lot of our time on A/P. It's not really hard to understand why. On the A/P side, you have control over who to pay, when to pay, and how to pay. And that's led to considerable advances in the A/P side with digitization, driving more card spend, and just driving general value from outbound payments. If you think about how that relates to, or compares to B2B accounts receivable, it's a much different story. A/R process today is still very inefficient, error prone. And we're going to talk a little bit about some of the key elements that are driving that. So the question is really, why? Why is this such a tough nut to crack? And I would say that-- and I would share five specific factors that are on the page in front of you-- and provide some evidence from a number of surveys, including a proprietary survey that our partner, Billtrust, has conducted with a significant number of industry participants, to look at this particular opportunity. And just as a reference, if you have any questions about any of the statistics that we share on this presentation, please note them. Ask us after the presentation. We'll be happy to share all of the sources. So let's get into the five items. First, fact is that, unlike the A/P process, the A/R process is more of a coordinated dance, a tango of sorts. It's a two-sided business model. And you all know this, having to manage your complex A/R process today. So it is a careful coordination. Number two, buyer preferences vary significantly, based on their level of sophistication and their level of commitment to technology. And what's connected to this is a key driving factor of inefficiency. And that is that suppliers have a vested interest in pleasing their customers. And as a result, they offer flexibility and choice, and manage a whole lot of exception activity. What it translates into is a very fragmented and manual series of processes. It's ugly. Most of our clients would use that word. It's ugly, it's inefficient, and it's error prone. So buyer preferences, a very significant factor in why we haven't been able to digitize and automate A/R processing. Number three, it's very difficult to apply cash, based on the unstructured nature of remittance data. I'd also assert that the A/R process, or A/R, is a complex ecosystem of participants, intermediaries, and technology platforms. So if you break this down, you will see that there are multiple invoice delivery channels. So there's print and mail, there is email, there is online portals that you would know as electronic invoice presentment and payment utilities. There are also multiple payment methods. So there is check, there is ACH, there is wires. And we are seeing a new opportunity to add more payment methods, new payment methods, like real-time payments, RTP, and FedNow. As transaction limits increase, those opportunities to collect faster will present themselves, and will add to the complexity. In addition, there are significant number of technologies involved, and more than 200 AP and ERP platforms engaged in this ecosystem, all with their own unique languages that require custom interfaces and development and ongoing maintenance. That's very significant. There's no standardized data, as you all know. And payments and information do not always travel together. So that creates significant complexity in the reconciliation process. So you can update your account receivable, and continue to do business with your valued customers. So with all that in mind, you're not going to be surprised to learn that the B2B A/R process remains very, very paper driven. About 50% of invoices-- only 50% of invoices are provided by suppliers, to their customers, for adjudication and payment. And likewise, on average, we're seeing that roughly 40% of payments that are coming back to the supplier are in paper check format. It's obvious that creates some significant complexity. So we know it's inefficient. We know it's fragmented. We know that it is paper driven. And lastly, I'd just say that the exception processing around the A/R process is error prone. Data is typically not reliable. And it creates challenges, in terms of managing late payments and exceptions. So if you're on this call, and all of this is resonating with you, you're not alone. Let me share some statistics with you. 9 (DESCRIPTION) Text: Biggest barriers to automating A/R processes. A bar chart shows five bars decreasing in height from left to right. On the left at 55% is Difficulties integrating A/R with other systems. Next to that, at 51%, is A/R teams interacting with 11-20 AP portals. Next to that, at 39%, is Concerns about accuracy of automated processes. Next to that, at 38%, is Complicated workflows making automation difficult. And last, at 38%, is Data quality issues. (SPEECH) out of 10 of our customers, or organizations that we have polled, indicate that they face challenges with outdated A/R processing. In addition, 60% of customers indicate that there is a direct link between cash flow and manual A/R processing, a negative link, from a cash-flow perspective, as a result of poor A/R processing. Now, the good news is that if you invest the time and you implement the right technologies, you will absolutely be rewarded. So number one, more than 90% of customers indicate that if they do invest, that they receive significant benefit in terms of increased savings and growth in their underlying business. Whether you are selling services or products, there's a significant lift. We know that a high percentage of suppliers experience more loyalty and increased savings from their engagement with customers, where they provide them choice, and where they link to their platform of choice. So where the process is simpler, they do more business with those customers, and it is an improved overall experience, front to back. And then the other big factor-- and it's one thing that I'd ask all of you to think carefully about-- this is a working capital optimization play. This is not just about reducing costs and digitizing payments. This is about improving working capital, improving your DSO performance relative to your peers, and overall, improving your cash flow, as well as reducing your borrowing costs, so decreasing your annual interest expense, a real outcome of improving the A/R process. So just a few more things that I'll reference before I turn it over to Nick, what you see on the slide today is the outcome of a proprietary study that was conducted by Billtrust, that polled 500 financial professionals. And you'll see that what I've just mentioned is substantiated in that 55% cite significant difficulties in integrating A/R. They referenced the number of absolute portals they have to connect to. But the right side of the screen tells you something interesting. They don't trust that an automated solution will work, and they're concerned about unintended consequences. And these are real considerations that everyone should take into account. What I will say, and what you'll hear from the rest of this presentation, is that technology has come a long way. Our connectivity to the ecosystem that I spoke about has come a very, very long way. And with that, I'll turn it over to Nick, to speak about the added benefits, but also to talk about A/R automation in terms of advancements in AI and machine learning. So, Nick, I'll turn it over to you. (DESCRIPTION) Text: Fueling better outcomes across the business. A row of text sections with headings above a stylized image of a finger pushing a button with a checkmark, surrounded by concentric circles with nodes next to it, reads, from left, Understand customer behavior, Reveal trends in how customers pay and where engagement needs to shift. Deliver actionable insights. Share buying patterns with sales and service to enhance customer appreciation and retention. Support strategic decisions. inform go-to-market plans with vertical-specific trends and preferred payment platforms. And Elevate customer experience. Help teams better manage buyers through data- driven guidance. (SPEECH) Thanks, Alberto. And thanks to U.S. Bank for bringing this great group of folks together. And a very special thanks to Jason, at Zeigler, for taking the time to share with this group the benefits of driving good business outcomes through a more automated A/R cycle. I'll spend a few moments discussing how a more automated A/R approach drives positive business outcomes. Foundational to this is really, is understanding your customer's behaviors, and seeing that customer journey from end to end, from initial credit approval, all the way through cash receipt and posting. This visibility's super critical to being able to drive change, and drive continuous optimization. Once you've had an end-to-end, customer-journey view-- excuse me. The insights of benchmarking can drive some pretty actionable changes. And you can start to turn the dials on your A/R cycle to really drive to some specific outcomes. Whether they are reducing days to pay, to optimizing payment acceptance costs, having the right software in place, to drive those outcomes, is super important. Actioning insights is also something that is possible through a robust set of features and functionality, again, to tune the dials and to support strategic decisions and outcomes. And then lastly, we don't want to forget that A/R is the last touch point for your customers with you. And so we want a platform that delivers your customer an elevated and elegant invoice and payment experience, and really capitalizes on that last customer touch point, to reinforce why doing business with you is a great choice, and drive business back to you. So we move on to the next slide. (DESCRIPTION) Text: Robust AI-centric software adoption is paving the way to modernizing your A/R process. Rows of text to the right read, Automated and consistent workflows. Information available with one workspace with self-serve reports. Reach the right customer with the right message. E2E visibility from buyer credit issuance to payment collection. Maximizing payment probabilities. Optimized collections procedures. (SPEECH) We can talk through AI, and how AI is really impacting the cycle. And what I share with you is, Billtrust has been leveraging AI for many years. And we're super, super excited at how the technology continues to expand the way it can impact the A/R cycle. The best way to think about AI is, it is a transformational technology. And the way we're approaching AI is revisiting all the areas and workflows that our software solves for today, and seeing where we can improve the delivery of those workflows, and then second, and perhaps more excitingly, is really understanding the technological capacity for automating workflows that were not previously technologically possible. And so there's a lot of new areas of workflows that AI is allowing us to touch. When we think about where AI is used best, it's automating workflows in areas such as cash application. That's an area that's been a legacy use case for AI. And AI-- the newer technology is continuing to advance the speed and the accuracy and the match rate on cash application. The second area is collections communication. So communication that once was only possible leveraging humans has now advanced to the point where the ability to think and to reason and to deliver automated responses with appropriate context is possible, and drive that communication more closely to a resolution with the customer. So that's been super exciting. We've layered in AI, into the platform, to leverage the ability to surface insights, based on prompting, that searches across your full customer data set, as well as industry data, so really neat ways to-- a simple use case might be answering specific questions that are being asked of the A/R department by other departments, or automate some of the reporting for things like month-end reporting with the CFO. This has been a great way to do that. AI is-- it's also setting up to be able to continuously optimize things like a payment-acceptance policy, which historically, has been more of a static setting. As you think about the policies that you put in place to accept payment from your buyers or customers, that has typically been a set of static settings, based on buyer behaviors and tolerance for payment-acceptance costs that is potentially reviewed on a quarterly or annual basis. AI, here, has the ability to do this on a continuous basis, and change payment-acceptance policies by buyer cohort, or down to the buyer level, based on observations from similar buyer changes in payment practices, so some really, really powerful ways that AI is continuing to drive new innovation in the space, new ability to automate workflows, and drive up value delivery for the A/R department. (DESCRIPTION) Simplify the receivables processes and accelerate cash flow. A row of five icons has text below. Increase speed to credit decisions. Speed up credit decisions with customized with an online applications for auto-decisioning. Streamline the billing and invoice process. Automated multi-channel delivery with optional outsourced printing and mailing for paper invoices. Automate electronic Payments. Tailor payment methods against customer preference and cost basis by company to help drive maximum efficiency. Streamline trapped cash. Enable higher matched rates, easier exception handling and seamless remittance data collection from multiple sources. Past due payments. Invoicing and payments insight facilitates more positive customer engagement. (SPEECH) On this next slide, I think it's best to really cycle through a couple of the touch points that the software solves for, across the A/R cycle. And I want to share again, the value of a unified approach to managing your A/R cycle, provides an end-to-end view of your buyer journey, which creates an optimal data set for continuous optimization. And the software itself allows for greater leverage across the A/R staff, to involve themselves in workflows across disparate areas of the cycle that were previously staffed independently. The process always starts with credit decisioning, so who receives trade credit, on what terms, and based on what data? Understanding that, and having that available throughout the cycle, is super important, as is speed to decision. Next is invoicing-- invoicing, super, super critical phase to the A/R cycle. It creates the engagement between the supplier and the buyer on what is owed. Our platform provides multiple delivery methods to optimize that engagement, find the optimal time and form and location to attempt to engage with the buyer on what is owed, and increase the speed-to-payment decision. So we think about invoice from the initial touchpoint to the decision to make a payment. Once a decision to make a payment has been made, that moves you into the payment module. And here, this is all about providing you, the supplier, the appropriate locations and payment modalities to drive payment into your closed-loop system. We layer that on top of the ability to set dynamic payment acceptance policies, to drive the best outcomes for the payment-acceptance costs that you are open to incurring, to drive payment flows from your buyers. Next is applying cash. Here, it's all about speed and accuracy. The faster that you can apply cash, the faster you can reopen credit lines, the faster your buyers can continue to make purchases from you. And so we offer industry-leading match rates with cash application and a compounding value across both invoicing and payments, to the extent that you invoice on the platform and you capture payment on the platform, the speed and accuracy of the cash application increases beyond what is capable on a standalone solution. So that's super exciting. And then lastly, for customers who aren't paying timely, you need to run a robust collections process, one that's informed by the history of the buyer journey, the history of the touch points that have been made, and to drive as much engagement to deliver improved collection rates in a cost-optimized manner. So I'll reorient everyone on end-to-end visibility, a single data layer, internal and external data inputs that allow for AI to drive for continuous optimization, both on a prompted and in an automated fashion. The outcome of all that is increasing working capital, reduced costs to deliver on your A/R cycle, and most importantly, delighting your customers, delighting your customers through an elegant engagement, flexible payment policies, and a quick reopening of trade credit lines to keep them purchasing. So that's really what it's all about. So now, back to Crisha, to speak with Jason on how adoption of this solution has delivered results for Ziegler, so super excited to hear from them. So back over to Crisha. (DESCRIPTION) Text: Insights from Ziegler Corporation. (SPEECH) Yes, thank you Alberto, thank you, Nick, for your words, and just giving us an overview of what's possible. Now, I am excited to talk with Jason around how they made this automation a real-life experience for their organization. So Jason, thank you. So first, I'd like to get an overview of your organization from you. And just tell us what your company does. (DESCRIPTION) A/R solution case study. Heavy equipment industry. Logo: ZIEGLER COMPANIES. Text: Ziegler is one of the largest CAT dealers in the United States and have provided construction, agriculture, power generation and mining equipment to their customers for more than 100 years. Identified problem. Ziegler implemented a new ERP system and were looking for ways to automate customer payments, accounts receivable and invoice delivery. Solution impacts. Implemented a new electronic presentment and payment platform. Increased Invoice auto-match rate for Cash Application. Adoption of an A/P portal for delivery of invoices. Key decision makers. A/R Manager, Credit, Treasury, Sales Operations. (SPEECH) Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Thank you, Crisha. So we are primarily a Caterpillar dealer. We're based out of the Midwest, with a territory in Minnesota and Iowa. And we also cover Ag equipment, and obviously, sell, also parts and service to our customers in our territory. Perfect. And when you were looking to make changes in your A/R, tell us about why. Why were you looking to implement change? (DESCRIPTION) Selection process. Improve customer experience and decrease operational expenses through A/R automation. Outsource invoice delivery, Utilize a portal to give customers the ability to receive and pay invoices, Make internal cash application process more efficient, Leverage E.D.I. invoice options for entering vender invoices into our customer portals. Success factors. Text in three boxes: Find a solution that meets your customers' needs. Obtain feedback from operational and customer facing departments. Gain buy-in and early involvement in review process from departments impacted. (SPEECH) Yeah, so from a background standpoint, we have roughly 25,000 customers that we invoice on an annual basis. And we really had two driving factors that we were trying to address. One is, improve our overall customer experience. And then also, operationally, internally within our company, we wanted to be more efficient with our processes, and also reduce or minimize a lot of our expenses. Just to give a little more background, back in 2021, we had implemented a new ERP system in Microsoft Dynamics, 365. And it took us about a year to get through and work out the kinks. But ultimately, in that 2022 or 2023 time frame, we really wanted to leverage not only the Microsoft Dynamics platform, but also leverage the different technologies that were out there, to really help us in this space. Yeah, and we hear that frequently, whenever clients are going through an ERP conversion. What can they do to maximize their big purchase? So not an uncommon theme. So when you then, walked through that change, and started to think through, OK, who am I going to make these changes with? Tell us about your selection process. Yeah, so just to go back on the customer experience side, one of the things we were looking for was an invoice or web portal for our customers to access invoices. We also wanted to provide them the flexibility to make payments, whether via ACH or credit card. And so we wanted that flexibility, which we didn't have before. And then lastly, we wanted to provide an option, or have the ability for our customers to have us enter their invoices into their different payment platforms, whether that's Ariba or Coupa. We had a lot of customers that were coming to us, asking for that ability. And we just wanted to be cognizant of our own internal resources. And some of those customers, we had to turn away or at least push down the road until a solution like this came along. Also then, secondly, from an internal standpoint, operational side, we wanted to leverage just the overall matching capabilities, from a customer-payment standpoint. Going back to ACHs, we were starting to see a lot of customers make payments with ACH. And we didn't have a really good way to automate those matching, or automate the payments, with the actual open A/R invoices that we have in our system. And so that payment stream was increasing and again, taking a lot more resources. So we wanted to leverage the automated matching aspect, just within accounts receivable. The other thing we were also trying to do is, look at how we were presenting or getting invoices to our customer. We had some capabilities to email invoices. But we were also sending invoices through the mail. And we were doing that all internally. And so we wanted to be able to outsource that capability, but also then, figure out a way to drive more customers to that email platform, or to the web portal, to actually get those invoices. So again, that was really some of the key drivers around why we wanted to go down that process. As far as the selection and how we got to where we landed, as a Caterpillar dealer, we get together with other Caterpillar dealers in North America. And for us, Billtrust was a vendor that was utilized by other vendors or other Cat dealers. It was a vendor that we were very familiar with. And so we had some knowledge and experience with Billtrust, however, just not on the new platform, this Microsoft Dynamics platform, that we were on. And so at least from our standpoint, we were looking for something to also, easily integrate into the Microsoft Dynamics platform as far as our selection process. No, that's great. And you kindly shared the success factors that really-- and we've put them here, for everyone to see-- that really, you were able to achieve with your group. So do you have any more, besides what's on the screen, that you would like to share, regarding-- Yeah, I think-- yeah, just from a selection process, we do utilize other banks. And so we felt it was important to reach out to them and look at other options or other solutions. And so we did create an RFP. We brought in a lot of those banks, and asked for solutions in this space, specifically around Cash App and invoice presentment and web portals. And again, ultimately, we ended up landing on Billtrust. Knowing that the partnership between Billtrust and U.S. Bank was already there, and just our knowledge Billtrust, it was a fairly easy decision for us, to move that direction. No, thank you. OK, so you said that you and your team had just implemented a ERP, which we all know is not a small feat. And then you took on the implementation of the Billtrust solution. So I think we're interested in hearing how that went for you. How was the implementation process? (DESCRIPTION) Implementation process. 3 separate projects to avoid overloading IT. 1. Payment matching. 2. Customer portal / Invoice presentment. 3. E.D.I. invoicing. Leveraged 3rd party resources to assist with integrations (SPEECH) Yeah, so overall, we broke out the implementation into three different projects. The first project was the Cash App. And we did that first. And the reason we did that is really, it was a smaller group that was impacted. It was the Accounts Receivable team. And we knew that we could get some benefit right away from utilizing that solution. Out of the box, the Microsoft Dynamics platform did not have any automated matching. And so we knew that was, again, a huge opportunity for us to jump on right away. So that process went fairly well, again, a fairly small team involved in that implementation. What we then moved on to was really the invoice presentment. So it was really, how we send our invoices to Billtrust. Ultimately, we asked Billtrust to outsource the mailing and printing of invoices, but then also, presenting those invoices within, really that customer portal. And so that project or that phase took a little bit longer, just given the fact that it included a lot of IT resource. We had been on Microsoft Dynamics for roughly a year, year and a half. We have some great IT resources in-house, but our ability to really understand how to pull information out of Dynamics, it just took a little bit longer, from a learning-curve standpoint, to really get that implemented. And that was roughly about a six-month process from start to finish. But again, overall, once we got to the end line or to the finish line on that project, that went really well, too. The third phase was, really trying to integrate into the different invoice platforms that our customers had. And so we pushed that off into phase three. And that is all about, really, us sending our invoices to Billtrust, and then utilizing Billtrust to then, enter that invoice information into their platforms. And so again, that came back into the accounts receivable side of it, or at least our Accounts Receivable team, which is really responsible for getting those invoices into those customer platforms, from a historical standpoint. Yeah, and what I hear you saying is, there were multiple different groups within the organization that were involved in this process. So coordinating those groups, I know, is not a small effort. So kudos to your team for getting on the other side of that. Really, what everybody is really interested in is, what has it done for your organization, to move to this automation? (DESCRIPTION) A/R automation results. Streamlined payment matching processes. Enabled customer self-service for getting invoices or making payment. Re-allocated internal resources on other tasks. 37.6 average days to pay. (10% faster than heavy equipment dealers). 73% of invoices delivered electronically. 75.5% cash application match rate at invoice level. (SPEECH) Yeah, so I'll start with the Cash App side of things, from an accounts receivable. It's allowed us to, I guess, more efficiently post our invoices. Microsoft Dynamics, as a whole, is very real time. So as soon as you post a payment, you're going to see that right away, on a customer's account. And so I know the Credit team really enjoys, or likes the fact that they can see that. So it's sped up that time, or at least that visibility. From a resource standpoint, it's also allowed us to minimize or cut back on resources. And so we've done that over time, as we've become more efficient in, certainly the understanding of how the Cash App process works in the system works. So that aspect of it-- I know from the customer portal side, the benefits around that, we are pushing more customers that direction, not only to pull their invoices on the portal, but to receive their invoices electronically. And so we're seeing improvement there. I think right now, we're up to-- almost 75% of our customers are receiving that electronically, which from our standpoint, is no cost for us. And it certainly minimizes the mail and resources to put those together. So we continue to try to drive and improve that process. And then also, just on the EDI side of it, we've been able to minimize the resource needs to really enter that information into our customers' portals. But it's also allowed us the option or the ability to take on more customers, knowing that we can more easily or more automate that whole process as a whole, going forward. And you eluded to this, just in the "almost 75% of electronic invoices." But I think it's so important, you established KPIs in the beginning of your project. And you were showing the group here, today, how well you've aspired towards them. But do you have anything that you would just share, on how you established those KPIs, and just how excited you are to see you, getting so close? Yeah, I think from a Cash App standpoint, we started right out of the gate, right around 60%, automated matching. And again, the way the system works, it learns over time. There's some additional resource upfront, from your A/R team. As you have certain customers that continue to pay in a certain way, you teach the system or you teach the application, so that the next time that comes around, it just automates that whole process. So again, that's been really beneficial. And I think the more important part for us was, we were coming off of a year or so on Microsoft Dynamics, where we didn't have that automated matching process. And so again, we got that real benefit, right out of the gate. From an invoicing standpoint, I want to say, we were close to about 50% of our invoices were sent electronically, prior to Billtrust. And again, we go through different campaigns to try to push out and entice or get a lot of our customers to switch over to that electronic receipt of those invoices. So again, that's also gone very well. Well, it's great to hear. So what's next? You did this great, fantastic thing. And now, what's next for you in your A/R journey? Yeah, so A/R, I think-- obviously, we feel-- we're in a good spot there. I know, from a credit standpoint, are there things that we can do to improve, again, days of sales or collections processes? How do we make sure we're calling on the right customers at the right time? And so there are some things inherent within Microsoft Dynamics. I think there's some AI technologies that we're going to take a look at, also understanding there's also other technologies with other third parties, including Billtrust, around the same space. And how do we become better at collecting from our customers more timely and more efficiently? Great. Well, thank you, Jason. I think we've come to the end of our time together. But I know that all of our listeners have likely enjoyed the conversation, and just hearing about how your organization was really able to make this happen. So kudos to you and your team. (DESCRIPTION) Questions. (SPEECH) And at this time, we're going to turn over-- oh, yeah, thank you-- we're going to turn it over to questions that may have come in through the chat, through the presentation today. So let me pull that up there. Tyler [? Wyndorf ?] asked, "I'm curious how the system links with vendor A/P portals, such as Ariba and Coupa." So I think that's Nick. Hey, guys, yeah, happy to discuss there. So A/P vendors, we link in two different ways, so two different products. So from an invoicing standpoint, we offer what is called A/P portal delivery, where if the linkage that you're seeking is the ability to deliver your invoices directly into your buyers' portals, like an Ariba or a Coupa, we have the capabilities to do that at high volume, in a fully automated manner. And then the second is, from a payment-receipt standpoint, we have a digital lock-box solution. So the A/P providers in the market typically prefer to make payment on invoices via virtual card. If you're open to virtual card acceptance, the digital lock-box solution offers you a way to accept virtual cards from participating A/P providers in a straight-through processed manner, said differently, in a way that creates no incremental workflow for you. And so the capture of that virtual card, the capture of the remittance information, is all automated and all presented back into the ERP in a fully reconciled manner. So it's really great solution. And on the issuer side, all of the major accounts payable issuers, banks and independents, are participating members of our payment network, and are set up to make payment immediately upon you showing up in the payment directory, so two very efficient ways to engage with your buyers, both on the invoice-delivery side and on the payment-receipt side, both of which fully eliminate any associated workflows with doing so. Thanks, Jason-- or Nick, sorry. I have Jason in my head because all the questions are coming in for Jason. So Jason, it is your time to shine. First question, what was your biggest obstacle in your journey? I think the biggest obstacle for us was just trying to understand how we were going to get a solution to integrate with Microsoft Dynamics. And at the end of the day, we did find another third party to help facilitate that. But again, Microsoft Dynamics was still so new for us, in that how we were going to be able to send invoices to another party or to Billtrust, or how we were going to be able to take Cash App application matches, and integrate that into our Microsoft Dynamics product. To me, I think that was our biggest challenge, is just understanding. Again, I'm on the accounting side. I'm not on the IT side. But at the end of the day, those are all issues that were fairly easily addressed. The next one is also for you. They're curious about how you were able to secure internal approval for the project. Yeah, so I think-- well, I shouldn't say, "I think"-- but for us, the customer experience was really key for us. We had moved down this direction of Microsoft Dynamics, knowing that it was the state of the art technology, and we're really looking for Microsoft to help us out, from how we go to our customers, how we interact with them. And so that was a really easy win, from that standpoint, is that this solution, having a customer portal, fit right into that capability. And again, it just allowed us more flexibility with how we interact with our customers. And so that aspect of it, like I said, it was an easy win, internally. And to that point, how are you measuring customer satisfaction? Because I know your customers were asking for it, and now you've given it to them. So how are you measuring that? Yeah, it's hard to measure directly, but I will say, as a Caterpillar dealer, all dealers are measured, or have questionnaires sent to their customers. And ultimately, that is our best measure. And that's what we're using. Obviously, other factors come into play with that. But that's our best gauge. And thus far, it's all been just positive information or feedback from our customers because they had been asking for this for quite a long time. Well, that's great. There is another question. So, "Interested in how the payment-application automation process works when payments are not received through the portal." That could be Alberto or Nick. Oh, I'm happy to take that. So let me interpret a little bit here. So the two most common ways payment acceptance payments are accepted on the platform are either in the portal-- and that's typically a buyer, using a corporate card to make payment on an individual or a collection of invoices. The other common way is what I described previously, which is through an accounts payable provider, where they have sent the file off, said, approved to pay, please disperse payment. In that scenario, those payments arrive, no longer in somebody in the A/R group's email box. They arrive in a central repository, where, through a combination of robotics and artificial intelligence, our system automates the capture of all the relevant payment and remittance information, processes the payment information automatically, and reconciles both the payment and remittance information back into the ERP on an automated basis. So those are the two most common ways of capturing payment. Thank you. The last question is back to Jason. "What is your favorite part about working with U.S. Bank?" I think it's a good question. My favorite part? I think, and at least for me, I do like how U.S. Bank has been able to go out and find partners on different applications that fit the credit, finance, accounting side of things. Obviously, we do have a long-standing relationship with U.S. Bank. And they've been a great partnership for us. But I do appreciate that they continue to find solutions that they can bring to us, as a dealership, just given how things change in the-- technology or just different ways to do things differently. I do value that aspect of it. Well, thank you. We appreciate your partnership, as well. And that concludes the questions that we had in our chat. So for everyone who was able to join today, we thank you for taking your time. And if you have any future questions, of course, you can always reach out. And we will be providing all with a recording of today's session. So thank you. (DESCRIPTION) Disclosures. Deposit products offered by U.S. Bank National Association. Member FDIC. Products and services may be subject to credit approval. Eligibility requirements, restrictions and fees may apply, U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables is powered by BTRS Holdings Inc. dba Billtrust. Billtrust and the Billtrust logo are registered trademarks of Billtrust. Copyright 2025 U.S. Bank. CR - 6 2 3 6 0 3 5 6. 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