Kolleno Payments
CFOs in mid-market and enterprise firms are under pressure to drive results without increasing headcount. But manual processes still dominate accounts payable, creating delays, errors, and hidden costs.
NetSuite automation changes that. By reducing manual data entry and improving cash flow visibility, finance teams can unlock real ROI—fast.
This article explains how mid-market and enterprise chief financial officers (CFOs) can get the most out of NetSuite thanks to automation.
The Hidden Cost of Manual Processes
Manual processes still dominate many finance functions, but they come at a high cost. From wasted time to weakened data, they slow your team down and reduce your ability to act strategically. Here’s where the real damage happens.
Human Error
When your team inputs data manually, mistakes are inevitable. A wrong number or missed entry can throw off entire reports. These errors lead to delays, extra checks, and growing distrust in your financial reporting.
Duplicate Data Entry
Without system integration, teams often re-enter the same data across tools. This duplication wastes time and increases the risk of inconsistencies—especially when invoice or payment details need to be updated across multiple platforms.
Missed Early Payment Discounts
Manual tracking makes it harder to prioritize payments. As a result, your team might miss out on early payment discounts that could have improved cash flow and reduced total outgoings.
Rising Processing Costs
Every manual step, from scanning invoices to reconciling payments, adds time and labour. These tasks inflate your processing costs, especially as invoice volume grows.
Delayed Reporting
Relying on spreadsheets or email trails slows down reporting cycles. Without timely access to accurate financial data, it’s harder to make decisions or respond to changing conditions.
Limited Team Capacity
When your finance team is tied up with admin, they can’t focus on planning, forecasting, or other strategic tasks. Over time, this limits the impact finance can have on wider business performance.
How Automation Boosts NetSuite ROI
NetSuite is a powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform—but on its own, it doesn’t eliminate inefficiencies. To unlock true ROI, finance teams need automation layered on top. The right AP automation solution reduces manual effort, improves visibility, and drives better financial outcomes across the board.
Here’s how automation translates directly into measurable value for CFOs.
Real-Time Visibility Into Financial Data
When teams rely on manual processes, finance leaders are always looking backward. Reports take days to compile. Data is scattered across spreadsheets. And by the time insights surface, they’re already out of date.
Automation changes that. By integrating tools like Kolleno with NetSuite, businesses gain real-time visibility into financial data, from open invoices to payment status and risk exposure. This unified view gives CFOs a live picture of what’s happening across the business, not just at month-end.
Instead of chasing data, finance teams can track cash flow, monitor account activity, and manage exceptions as they arise. With automation, you’re not just seeing the numbers—you’re in control of them.
Faster, More Accurate Financial Reporting
Manual inputs and disconnected systems slow down reporting and introduce errors. It’s difficult to trust your numbers when they rely on rekeyed data, version-controlled spreadsheets, or incomplete records.
With automation in place, reporting becomes faster and more reliable. Kolleno’s NetSuite integration ensures that all accounts receivable data stays current, so you can generate accurate, up-to-date reports without the manual prep work.
By removing bottlenecks in the financial reporting process, teams spend less time fixing errors and more time analysing trends. You get the clarity needed to respond quickly, make confident decisions, and support broader financial planning efforts.
Improved Cash Flow Management
Cash flow is one of the most critical levers for any CFO, but it’s hard to manage when data is delayed and collections are inconsistent.
Automating AP processes and collections through NetSuite gives finance teams greater control over incoming cash. With Kolleno, for example, you can trigger smart payment reminders, escalate overdue invoices, and surface high-risk accounts automatically, reducing manual effort and speeding up collection cycles.
This doesn’t just improve cash timing. It supports more accurate cash forecasting, better working capital management, and stronger supplier relationships, especially when you can act early and capture early payment discounts.
When automation removes the guesswork, you can plan, act, and report with precision.
Reduced Processing Costs
Manual AP processes are slow, repetitive, and expensive. Every invoice that needs chasing, checking, or re-entering increases your processing costs and ties up your finance team with low-value work.
With automation, these tasks are handled in the background. Invoice matching, reconciliation, and approval routing happen through automated workflows, reducing the need for manual oversight. Errors drop. Cycle times improve. And your team spends less time correcting data and more time improving performance.
Tools like Kolleno eliminate the need for multiple point solutions by providing a centralized AR automation layer on top of NetSuite. This consolidation provides cost savings across your entire tech stack while streamlining operations.
Stronger Controls and Compliance
As your business grows, so does the complexity—and the risk. Without proper controls, it’s easy for financial data to go missing, approvals to be skipped, or user access to be mismanaged.
NetSuite offers robust compliance tools, but automation strengthens them further. Solutions like Kolleno bring clear audit trails, permission-based access, and automated follow-ups directly into the receivables process. This ensures that every action—whether it’s sending a payment reminder or updating a customer account—is logged and accountable.
With stronger controls in place, finance teams can reduce the risk of human error, improve internal compliance, and make audits faster and less painful. Automation doesn’t just increase efficiency—it protects the integrity of your financial operations.
Scalability Without Headcount Growth
Hiring more people to manage more invoices isn’t a sustainable plan. As your transaction volume grows, you need a system that scales, without scaling your payroll.
That’s where automation delivers outsized value. By removing manual effort from day-to-day tasks, you increase the capacity of your existing finance team. One person can manage hundreds of accounts without falling behind. Workflows that used to take days now run automatically. Reporting no longer requires last-minute scrambles.
Kolleno’s NetSuite integration supports this by handling everything from payment tracking to customer communication—across multiple entities and currencies. Whether you’re expanding into new markets or just trying to do more with the same team, automation helps you scale with confidence.
Better Use of Finance Team Time
Manual processes don’t just increase costs—they waste your team’s potential. When skilled professionals are stuck rekeying data, chasing invoices, or updating spreadsheets, they’re not contributing to higher-impact work.
Automation unlocks that capacity. With repetitive admin tasks removed, your finance team can shift its focus to strategic tasks like forecasting, risk analysis, and business partnering. It’s not about replacing people—it’s about enabling them to do more valuable work.
Platforms like Kolleno help by automating key parts of the AP process, surfacing only the exceptions or actions that require human input. That means less firefighting, more forward-looking insight, and a team that’s empowered to drive better financial performance.
Measuring ROI: Metrics That Matter
To prove the value of NetSuite automation, you need to track the right metrics. It’s not just about time saved—it’s about the impact on your bottom line and your ability to make better decisions.
Key metrics to watch include:
- Reduction in processing costs per invoice
- Decrease in manual effort and exception handling
- Faster close cycles and improved financial reporting accuracy
- Improved cash flow forecasting and working capital visibility
- Finance team utilization (time spent on strategic vs. routine tasks)
By layering a solution like Kolleno onto NetSuite, CFOs can access these metrics in real time—without relying on disconnected tools or manual tracking. With real-time visibility, clear audit trails, and consistent financial data, it becomes easier to demonstrate ROI to internal stakeholders and align automation efforts with broader business goals.
Final Thoughts
For CFOs in mid-market and enterprise firms, NetSuite provides a strong foundation. But without automation, too much time is still lost to manual processes, duplicated work, and delayed reporting.
By automating AP processes and integrating the right tools, like Kolleno, you can reduce processing costs, improve cash flow, and unlock better performance across your entire finance function. It’s not just about doing things faster. It’s about doing them smarter, with better data, clearer visibility, and fewer errors.
If your team is still spending too much time on admin or struggling to get the full value from your ERP investment, now’s the time to act.
Want to see how Kolleno can streamline your NetSuite setup and deliver real ROI? Book a demo to get started.
