Why ERPs Alone Can’t Keep CFOs Competitive

For decades, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have promised a single source of truth for finance leaders. But as the pace of business accelerates, many CFOs are finding that their ERP is not built to handle the growing complexity of accounts receivable (AR).

That’s where specialized AR platforms are stepping in, and why finance chiefs are rethinking the way they balance customization, cost and future readiness. The debate isn’t new, but its urgency is rising in an era of multi-ERP environments, increasingly complex buyer-supplier dynamics and the relentless march of AI-driven automation.

Lee An Schommer, chief product officer at Billtrust, told PYMNTS she has a simple litmus test: start with brutal honesty about your organization’s operational complexity.

The first thing she advises financial leaders to do is to “be honest about the complexity of their current environment,” she said. Are they managing heavy B2B volume with layers of nuance? Operating across multiple ERPs, whether due to lack of integration or acquisitions? Dealing with complex buyer-supplier relationships? If the answer is yes to any of these, ERPs alone usually won’t get you where you need to go.

If complexity and volume are high, it’s typically unlikely that ERP alone can deliver the productivity gains needed to stay competitive.

The biggest blind spot? Visibility.

“An ERP won’t be able to allow you to slice and dice data unless you do it in Excel,” which slows everything down, Schommer said.

By contrast, specialized AR platforms can help enable drill-down views of aging receivables, cohort analysis and red-flag tracking, like spotting when a previously reliable customer suddenly switches from autopay to check.

Setting Milestones for Transformation

The payments tech stack decision facing executives is not binary but contingent on scale and complexity. For CFOs managing straightforward, low-volume environments, ERPs can still represent one of the most efficient and least disruptive paths.

“If you don’t need a portal experience … if batching is OK and if you don’t need real-time visibility into where the invoice or the payment sits throughout the journey,” the ERP “could be good enough for businesses with a low volume of bills,” Schommer said.

At the core of the debate lies visibility into cash flow. While days sales outstanding (DSO) remains a familiar barometer, it is becoming table stakes as firms also embrace a broader view of productivity and risk built atop data.

“Knowing where your DSO sits at any given time and being able to drill into the various cohorts” is essential, Schommer noted, but stressed that just as important is measuring AR team efficiency.

It’s a shift from measuring cash flow in the aggregate to measuring workforce efficiency.

If a business can scale without adding AR headcount, or even redeploy staff to higher-value work, “that’s a clear ROI,” she said.

And as buyers increasingly rely on AP portals and diverse payment rails, the seller’s challenge is balancing speed, cost and risk. Analytics, in this context, becomes a shield. By monitoring shifts in payment behavior, sellers can apply surcharging or incentives selectively, maintaining both liquidity and customer goodwill.

Schommer said surcharging isn’t just about recovering fees. It’s giving suppliers the flexibility to manage costs without sacrificing customer relationships. When paired with analytics, it becomes a strategic lever. “You can offer buyers choice while protecting margins, even as credit card use grows. The key is transparency and control, so buyers understand their options and suppliers stay in control.”

Horizon of Payments Innovation

When asked to put on a CEO’s hat, Schommer pointed to the chief financial officer as the orchestrator.

“CFOs have become the arbiters of truth related to data. If I’m a CEO, I say to my CFO, ‘What do you need? Because a lot of the data that runs the business rolls up into you,’” she said, noting that the CFO’s remit can frequently span ERP, payroll, treasury, tax and AR systems, all of which together define the financial health of the enterprise.

For finance leaders weighing ERP customization against specialized AR solutions, the calculus is no longer purely about cost. It is about resilience, adaptability and the ability to see around corners.

Technology adoption rarely happens in one sweep. Schommer counseled CFOs to set near-term milestones tied to immediate pain points while ensuring partners can grow with them. “Identify the number one problem your business has today. Pick a vendor” and evaluate that vendor to make sure they can grow with you, because once you fix the main problem, there are likely to be more on the horizon.

No discussion of finance technology escapes the gravitational pull of AI. But Schommer envisions AI’s role as primarily about augmenting decision-making with granular, data-driven insights. For instance, identifying shifts in customer payment behavior — such as a move from autopay to manual check — can flag risks early.

More sophisticated AI tools, she noted, should also “have a clear ROI calculator built in that shows you the true people usage data.”

In other words, CFOs should demand transparency, not just predictions. That’s how they’ll separate AI hype from real business value.