How BrewBird Automated a Complex Receivables Process with Tabs

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, BrewBird is transforming the coffee experience with delicious and responsible coffee. The company has developed a platform to help local and national roasters scale to homes and offices. Since raising their Series A financing in 2021, BrewBird has made a name for itself as the most technologically advanced and sustainable drip coffee brewing platform, using whole beans in compostable pods.

The Challenge

BrewBird had a tedious, manual process to manage their receivables each month. Invoices were complicated –  in addition to the monthly subscription fees, the Finance team had to support ad hoc billing for pod orders which occurred but frequently but irregularly. 

Not only was the process manual and time-consuming, it also required collaboration across the Operations, Customer Success, and Finance functions to ensure they had the right data for each invoice and the right contract terms for each customer. At a lean, fast-growing company where every employee wears multiple hats, this was taking crucial time and focus away from other business initiatives. 

BrewBird used an outsourced accounting firm, but A/R was owned internally. Verifying the accuracy of each invoice took time that the team simply didn’t have to spare. As the company scaled, Brewbird needed to find a way to get accurate invoices out the door more quickly, while reducing the burden on its internal team.

The Solution

BrewBird appreciated Tabs’ ability to integrate with the company’s order management system, seamlessly capture purchase orders, and trigger invoicing. 

"The Tabs platform is so valuable because it fully automates our invoicing process from customer orders to payment reconciliation. With Tabs, we’re able to put receivables on autopilot and free up the team to focus on growth.” 

Now there is an automated sync between the order management system, Tabs invoicing, and Quickbooks. The BrewBird team has visibility into the status of every invoice and can easily see the break-down between subscriptions and POs.

The Tabs platform also enables BrewBird to offer a variety of payment methods to customers, from ACH to credit card, without creating any additional work. As a result, customers can pay in the way that suits them best and pay more quickly. Automated reconciliation between customer payments and invoices saves the team additional time, while customizable email follow-ups help BrewBird collect faster on overdue invoices. 

Since implementing Tabs, BrewBird has been able to streamline internal processes and collaboration around processing and collective receivables. This has resulted in more accurate invoices, savings on outsourced accounting resources, and saved time for several team members each month.

Impact

• Increased invoice accuracy and eliminated under-billing
• Reduced costs on accounting outsourcing 
• Saved time processing receivables, resulting in faster cash collection