Talkable improves cash flow and AR with Tabs

Talkable, a referral marketing platform for e-commerce businesses, faced significant challenges in its accounts receivable (AR) management and needed a more efficient solution for handling billing, invoicing, and collections. 

Before adopting Tabs, the company's billing and invoicing methods were heavily manual, leading to errors, inefficiencies, and unnecessary delays. Talkable transitioned from an outsourced, error-prone AR process to an automated solution with Tabs, improving financial operations and cash flow visibility.

About Talkable

Talkable powers referral marketing programs for e-commerce businesses, allowing companies to offer incentives such as discounts or rewards for customer referrals. By integrating with the bottom of e-commerce sites, Talkable provides customers with an easy way to refer friends, and receive benefits in return. Their platform drives customer acquisition and increases brand loyalty, helping businesses expand their customer base and improve sales. 

As Talkable’s client base and transactions grew, the increasing complexity of managing financial workflows highlighted the need for more reliable and efficient processes. To support its scaling operations and deliver a seamless client experience, the company recognized the importance of streamlining its financial systems.

Life Before Tabs

Before adopting Tabs, Talkable's accounts receivable processes were highly manual, involving outsourced AR specialists who worked with the sales team to manage billing. These specialists manually reviewed Salesforce for closed deals, determined payment terms, and then entered the information into platforms such as Bill.com or QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

Unfortunately, this manual process was prone to errors, which not only led to delays in invoicing but created discrepancies and inconsistencies that damaged client trust when mistakes appeared on invoices.

The lack of automation made it difficult to keep billing cycles consistent, and Talkable often experienced backlogs, especially during busy periods. Invoices were sometimes sent late, and payments were not collected as efficiently as they could have been. Moreover, these manual processes placed additional pressure on the AR team, as they had to send follow-up emails and track payments manually, further increasing the risk of errors and inefficiencies.

Talkable explored other invoicing platforms but ultimately found them lacking in both product maturity and customer service. Their decision to choose Tabs was based on the platform's more robust features, such as automated invoice tracking, seamless integration with Salesforce, and advanced analytics capabilities. Additionally, Tabs’ strong customer support and consultative approach made a significant impact during the evaluation process.

Life After Tabs

Once Talkable implemented Tabs, they experienced a significant transformation in their financial operations. The AR processes that once took extensive manual effort were automated, leading to greater operational efficiency, reduced invoice processing time, more consistent billing cycles, and faster payments. The implementation of Tabs enabled Talkable to cancel its subscription to Bill.com’s invoicing platform, resulting in significant cost savings.

"By adopting Tabs, we not only improved the accuracy of our invoicing but also saw significant cost savings by eliminating the need for outsourced AR specialists and other invoicing platforms. The automation Tabs provides has streamlined our financial operations, enhanced cash forecasting, and allowed us to scale confidently, knowing our processes are more reliable and efficient."  — Sun Choi, VP of Finance, Talkable.

One of the major benefits of adopting Tabs was the improvement in cash flow management and financial forecasting. With automated reports that tracked expected payments based on the invoices sent, Talkable gained a clearer understanding of how much cash was coming in and when. This real-time visibility allowed them to make more informed business decisions, enabling better budgeting and forecasting. This was especially valuable as the company worked to bring more accounting processes in-house and streamline its month-end close.

The implementation process itself took about a month and a half, a timeline extended by Talkable's internal challenges. Their legacy processes, including manual tracking of clients and invoices in Google Sheets, added complexity to the migration. Additionally, non-standardized contracts and off-record agreements (such as informal monthly payment deals) required careful handling. Despite these obstacles, the Tabs implementation team provided white-glove service, ensuring a smooth transition and resolving any issues that arose.

Tabs also helped Talkable handle new revenue recognition (rev rec) needs. As the company grew, accurate revenue recognition became increasingly important, especially as they shifted to more complex accounting needs. The upcoming rev rec feature in Tabs, which is designed to automate compliance with ASC 606, was seen as a significant time-saver for Talkable’s internal accounting team, further enhancing the company’s financial efficiency.

Overall, the switch to Tabs enabled Talkable to not only optimize its AR processes but also increase operational transparency, drive financial accuracy, and better manage its financial operations. This allowed them to scale their business confidently without being weighed down by administrative bottlenecks, ensuring continued growth and success.