Read how the Valuations & Advisory division of Colliers used Unity to turn Accounts Receivable into a cash-flow engine with automated dunning, embedded pay-now links and one-click paywall functionality.
Colliers International is a global diversified professional services and investment management company. With operations in over 70 countries, their 23,000+ skilled professionals provide expert advice to real estate occupiers, owners and investors.
Commercial Real Estate
23,000+ professionals
Toronto, Canada
70 countries worldwide
For Colliers, like many service-based companies, managing accounts receivable can be a frustratingly manual and time-consuming process. Teams tend to generate ad-hoc reports on overdue invoices, and then take the time to craft individualized follow-up notes that must balance the right amount of nudging, pestering and insistence. Customers in turn frequently requested copies of invoices, or full statements of accounts, which AR staff had to compile manually while further delaying the processing of the invoices.
Recent surveys suggest over 80% of businesses chase a customer down from 1-4 times for overdue payment, showing the case for an automated solution. But businesses often struggle with how to best integrate automated workflows into their existing structures.
Given the challenge, Colliers recognized the importance of finding the right invoice processing automation solution to help turn this time-consuming menial task into a cash-collection machine on autopilot.
AR staff spent hours exporting aging lists, isolating 60-day-plus invoices, and hand-writing reminder emails; the new system had to surface overdue items automatically and generate standardized, on-brand outreach in seconds.
Because collectors relied on an ad-hoc process, only a small fraction of invoices were paid online last year. Colliers needed built-in, secure “pay-now” buttons that could accompany every notice and dramatically boost same-day settlement.
Each request for a missing invoice or full Statement of Account triggered a manual scramble, slowly adding to the share of receivables aging past 90 days. The solution had to make it easier for the AR team to pull key documents on demand in order to shorten the cash-collection cycle.
“We were constantly throwing employee hours at the problem, hiring a bigger administrative team, which both was costly and carried significant risk. We had pushed as far as we could with the idea of outsourcing to make up for productive capacity.”
Head of Valuations & Advisory Services
Unity’s core no-code automation platform and Cash Collector module add-on turned this labor-intensive afterthought into a proactive cash-flow engine, paying for itself in months and compounding returns every billing cycle.
Unity’s core document workflow automation system allowed Colliers to transform its AR and invoicing workflow, providing customizable workflows that reduce the time and effort required for creating invoices and following up with clients until cash hits the books.
Pre-written emails escalate from polite nudge to legally-framed notice and dispatch automatically by invoice age, balance, and customer tier. This keeps accounts on a transparent schedule, drives increased collections, and frees time for higher value work all while protecting customer relationships.
Unity’s integration with payment gateways like Stripe allows for payment links to automatically be populated in every notice. Dedicated payment tracking simplifies the cash reconciliation process and cuts any “check is in the mail” manual payment delays.
Sortable tables, customizable reports and dashboards easily surface at-risk invoices while presenting the key data finance teams need to forecast cash flow.
Colliers also implemented Unity’s Paywall functionality to protect its intellectual property-based product. Now, instead of releasing appraisal reports and then invoicing for payment, customers are notified that a deliverable is ready, but must pay the invoice to access it.
From automating collections processes
Saved in opex vs paper-bound workflows
in collector time on manual follow-ups
within just 6 months
“Unity’s commitment to continuous improvement means we have a partner who will help us navigate future challenges.
Head of Valuations & Advisory Services
Join industry leaders like Colliers and discover how StackDC can help optimize your operations and drive exceptional results with our suite of AI workflow automation tools. Ready to see similar results in your organization?
Let’s discuss your unique challenges and opportunities in adopting AI for enterprise operations, and how StackDC and our AI workflow automation tool Unity can help you with document workflow automation, streamlined invoicing, no-touch bill processing and other manual labor-saving applications.
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