The most important thing about today’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems may be that nobody expects them to innovate anymore. And that’s a good thing for CFOs who are well aware that customization is expensive, brittle and creates upgrade headaches.
For the latest episode of PYMNTS ON AIR, Lee An Schommer, chief product officer at Billtrust, and Jen Ebert, director of finance at Papé Group, sat down to discuss why the strategic value in finance is migrating upward into intelligence layers that sit above corporate systems of record.
“AR teams don’t usually have a collection problem. They have a visibility problem,” Ebert said, noting the ERP system, as found in the back offices of businesses worldwide, was never designed to handle the full complexity of modern accounts receivable (AR) management.
Where the ERP begins to fall short, she argued, is in helping finance teams answer the questions that matter most to cash flow.
“AR isn’t just about collecting money, it’s about managing the liquidity of our business,” Ebert said.
While an ERP can identify which customers are past due, it often cannot determine which accounts should be prioritized, which customers are most likely to pay or how current receivables activity will affect future cash forecasts. As a result, rather than replacing ERP systems outright, many finance organizations are turning to specialized AR platforms that extend ERP functionality with automation, predictive intelligence and workflow flexibility.
The Limits of the System of Record
The challenge is not that ERP systems are failing. It is that modern accounts receivable has evolved beyond transaction processing.
As Billtrust’s Schommer pointed out, specialized AR software has emerged to serve as an operational intelligence layer that sits above the ERP. She cited research of approximately 500 finance leaders showing that companies use an average of three ERP systems. In some cases, the complexity is significantly greater.
“If three is the average, what does that mean?” she said. “That means you have three of everything. You have three invoice formats, you have three aging reports, you have three sets of exception reports.”
The result is fragmented data that forces AR teams to spend substantial time reconciling information instead of acting on it.
“Collectors, the AR analysts, they’re exporting spreadsheets, they’re reconciling reports, they’re searching multiple systems just to determine what the next step actions are,” Ebert said. “When collections spend their morning pulling data instead of talking to customers, we’re no longer managing receivables. We’re managing data extraction.”
After all, every hour spent consolidating information delays collections activity, obscures risk visibility and slows decision-making.
“Your AR should really be an operational layer that gives you real-time insights,” Schommer said. “It’s the ability to handle exception routing, especially if you have multiple ERPs.”
The goal is not to disrupt the ERP. It is to extend it. ERP systems can already answer what happened, and now AR platforms are being asked to answer what happens next.
The Rise of the Operational Layer
Today’s finance leaders already know ERP systems are fragmented, artificial intelligence (AI) is coming and AR automation exists. But they need answers for their unique business needs specifically.
“Not every customer should be treated the same way,” Ebert said. “A strategic national account or a government entity versus a high-risk customer or a cash-in-advance customer, they all require different approaches that can start with AR.”
Schommer said organizations are looking for tools that can identify payment behaviors, predict outcomes and automate decisions across fragmented environments.
“You have to talk dollars … When your business grows, when your business acquires, when your business changes its strategy, you don’t have to change your accounting software,” she said. “You just have to figure out how to complement and extend it.”
For organizations beginning their modernization journey, Schommer recommended a practical first step: mapping every manual process that exists because the ERP cannot handle it natively.
“When you map out those manual steps, you are going to have a gold mine. You are going to see that that’s an opportunity to automate and use AR and really unlock cash,” she said, describing the evaluation process through three priorities of connectivity, configurability, and control.
The objective is creating a more intelligent, automated, and predictive receivables operation, not embracing innovation for innovation’s sake in a way that disrupts the business.
“The goal isn’t to have fewer decisions,” Ebert said. “It’s to have better decisions.”
Watch the full interview with Billtrust Chief Product Officer Lee An Schommer and Papé Group Director of Finance Jen Ebert to hear more about:
- Why modern AR requires more than ERP systems alone. The discussion explores how finance teams are extending ERP investments with specialized AR platforms to improve visibility, forecasting, and cash flow management.
- How fragmented data and manual processes slow collections. Schommer and Ebert discuss why companies operating across multiple ERPs often struggle with inefficient workflows and delayed cash acceleration.
- Why AI is emerging as a practical tool for receivables management. The conversation examines how predictive analytics, workflow automation, and intelligent cash application can help finance teams improve productivity and liquidity while maintaining human oversight.
