The Hidden Leaks

Order-to-cash seems straightforward: customer orders, you deliver, you invoice, they pay. Four simple steps that happen millions of times daily across the economy.

But between each step, there are opportunities for revenue to slip through the cracks. Deliverables that never get invoiced. Pricing errors that go unnoticed. Invoice timing that delays cash collection. Collections processes that let receivables age unnecessarily.

Most companies don't know how much they're leaking because they've never measured it systematically. They assume if no one complains, the process is working. The leaks are invisible until someone looks for them—and most companies never do.

Where Revenue Disappears

Unbilled Deliverables

Services delivered but never invoiced. Happens more than you'd think, especially in professional services, project-based businesses, and companies with complex fulfillment processes.

Common scenarios:

• Time worked that never gets entered before billing cutoff

• Project milestones achieved without triggering invoicing

• Deliverables shipped but not linked to billing workflows

• Ad-hoc work requested verbally that nobody tracks

• Change orders that expand scope without corresponding billing

If there's no automated link between delivery and billing, things fall through. The work happens, the value is provided, but no invoice is generated. You've given away your product.

Pricing Errors

Wrong price on the order. Discount applied incorrectly. Contract pricing not reflected in the system. Old price list used instead of current one.

Pricing errors go both ways—sometimes you overcharge (customers complain), sometimes you undercharge (nobody notices). The undercharges accumulate silently.

By the time someone catches it, you've already shipped. Eating the difference is easier than re-billing the customer, explaining the error, and processing corrections. So you eat it, and the pattern continues.

Invoice Timing Delays

Invoicing weekly instead of upon shipment. Waiting for "batch" runs instead of real-time triggers. Manual review requirements that create bottlenecks.

Every day of delay has multiple costs:

• Lost float—money you could have in hand is sitting in process

• Customer memory fades—the longer between delivery and invoice, the more questions arise

• Cash flow planning suffers—unpredictable billing timing means unpredictable cash

• Month-end scrambles—backlogged invoicing creates close pressure

Credit and Collections Gaps

Invoices sent to the wrong contact. Payment terms not enforced consistently. Disputes that languish without resolution. No systematic follow-up process.

AR ages because nobody owns the follow-up process. Each day an invoice ages past due is a day it becomes harder to collect. Eventually, some portion writes off as bad debt—revenue that was earned but never collected.

Revenue Recognition Disconnects

You shipped the product, but revenue recognition happens on a different schedule. The cash comes in, but it's deferred revenue. The timing differences create operational confusion and potential errors.

When billing, collection, and recognition don't align, reconciliation becomes a permanent task rather than a verification step.

The Optimization Levers

Automate Invoice Generation

When fulfillment completes, invoice. No manual trigger, no waiting for batch runs, no human bottleneck.

This requires integration between fulfillment and billing processes. For straightforward scenarios, NetSuite's native capabilities may suffice. For complex situations—multiple fulfillment events per invoice, consolidated billing, or conditional invoicing—custom workflows fill the gap.

The goal: zero deliverables without corresponding invoices. If it shipped, it billed. Automatically.

Validate Pricing at Order Entry

Build checks that flag pricing anomalies before orders ship. Custom scripts can enforce pricing rules:

• Contract pricing validated against customer-specific price lists

• Discount limits enforced with approval workflows for exceptions

• Margin floors that flag deals below threshold

• Comparison to recent orders for the same customer

Catching errors early is cheaper than fixing them late. A validation that takes two seconds at order entry saves hours of correction work downstream.

Link Delivery to Billing Systematically

Time entries, project milestones, shipping confirmations, service completions—whatever triggers billing should do so automatically.

For professional services: approved time should generate billable amounts without manual intervention. For projects: milestone completion should trigger milestone billing. For fulfillment: shipment confirmation should create invoices.

Custom workflows can handle complex billing logic: percentage-of-completion, multi-deliverable arrangements, holdbacks and retainage. The system should know how to bill each scenario.

Age AR Proactively

Don't wait for invoices to become delinquent before starting collections. Proactive AR management:

• Automated reminders before due dates

• Escalating contact sequences as aging increases

• Management visibility into aging trends

• Dispute tracking and resolution workflows

Custom dunning workflows can handle this automatically—sending the right message to the right contact at the right time. Collections that require human attention get flagged for human attention; routine follow-up happens without intervention.

Measure the Leaks

You can't fix what you don't see. Build reports that expose:

• Unbilled revenue—deliverables without corresponding invoices

• Pricing exceptions—orders with non-standard pricing and their business justification

• Invoice timing—days between fulfillment and invoicing

• AR aging trends—how DSO is moving and why

• Write-off history—revenue earned but never collected

Visibility creates accountability. When leaks become visible, they get fixed.

The Multiplier Effect

Order-to-cash improvements compound. Faster invoicing improves cash flow. Accurate pricing protects margin. Proactive collections reduce bad debt. Each fix makes the others more effective.

Companies that invest in O2C automation don't just stop losing revenue—they accelerate it. The ROI on well-built billing automation is measured in weeks, not years. Every dollar that would have leaked is now collected. Every day of delay eliminated is a day of improved cash position.