Pradyut Hande on Why AR Automation Is Central to Financial Workflow Efficiency

If your Accounts Receivable (AR) function is still handled manually, your financial workflows might be suffering more than you realize.

In this conversation, Pradyut Hande, Associate Director of Product Marketing at Growfin, dives into how AR Automation sits at the heart of enterprise finance, eliminating repetitive tasks, speeding up cash flow, and fostering stronger cross-functional collaboration.

You’ve had a rich career in product marketing across B2B SaaS. How has that experience shaped the work you’re doing at Growfin today?

Over the last 8 years, I’ve had the privilege of building and scaling Product Marketing engines across BI, MarTech, and digital commerce SaaS, from scrappy startups and rocket-ship scale-ups to enterprise-grade platforms spanning the NAMER, LATAM, EU, MENA, and APAC regions. I’ve navigated all the working models too—fully remote, in-office, and hybrid—which has sharpened my ability to adapt and deliver.

Taking products to market at different stages of maturity, whether one is evangelizing a lesser-known brand or defending market share as an incumbent, teaches one how to create a sustainable business impact faster. It also means wearing multiple hats: shaping positioning, driving enablement, aligning cross-functional teams, and tuning the narrative to what really matters in each territory. And doing this during seismic shifts—the pandemic, the rise of Gen AI and Agentic AI, a global economic slowdown—just raises the stakes and accelerates the learning curve.

One thing I’ve learned: there’s no plug-and-play template for Product Marketing, but there are battle-tested habits and first principles-led mindsets that compound over time. Curiosity, strategic storytelling, staying close to the customer, and relentless cross-functional alignment. These have helped me connect the dots between Product, Sales, Marketing, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success to unlock real value at every stage of growth. That’s precisely what I’m doubling down on at Growfin today.

At Growfin, we’re solving a critical pain point for enterprise finance teams that’s been overlooked—or hasn’t adequately been solved at scale—for far too long. We help B2B businesses modernize and digitize their Accounts Receivable (AR) function, essentially helping them collect outstanding payments smarter through automation and Agentic AI to unlock cash inflow and working capital faster.

My experience helps me position our product in a way that’s deeply customer-centric yet commercially compelling. It’s about balancing strategic narrative building with tactical enablement, ensuring our value proposition resonates in global markets, aligning with cross-functional teams, and telling a story that lands equally well with a CFO, an AR manager, or an investor. In any industry and region.

In a fast-growing SaaS company like Growfin, one has to wear multiple hats – part storyteller, part strategist, part tactical executioner, and part enabler. And the blend of startup scrappiness and enterprise rigor I’ve built over my career is exactly what I bring to the table every day. Whether that’s sales enablement, customer advocacy, and events marketing, or analyst relations, partner marketing, and thought leadership evangelism.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about Accounts Receivable (AR) automation today? How is Growfin setting a fresh narrative while strengthening its position?

There are two misconceptions or myths that I’d like to bust. One of the biggest misconceptions about AR automation is that it’s just about faster invoice processing or sending scheduled payment reminders. In reality, the pain points it addresses are far more layered. AR automation is about giving finance teams greater visibility, predictability, and control over their cash flow while protecting and enhancing customer relationships at scale.

Most straitjacketed legacy solutions or clunky homegrown workarounds only scratch the surface. They automate a few repetitive tasks but do nothing to break down the actual data and ops silos between Sales, Finance, and Customer Success. That’s why so many CFOs still rely on age-old spreadsheets and endless email threads.

Another common misconception is that you can throw more people at AR problems and expect near-instantaneous results. But adding headcount without fixing broken processes or siloed systems only multiplies inefficiencies. There will be infinite cycles of outreach, follow-ups, manual busywork, and error rectification. AR complexity isn’t a staffing problem; it’s a visibility and collaboration problem.

That’s where modern AR automation flips the script. It gives lean teams the tech tools and real-time insights they need to resolve issues faster, strengthen customer relationships, and unlock cash flow without endlessly growing the payroll. I recently outlined my thoughts in an article on the hidden costs of manual AR processes and how they can bleed an enterprise dry in the absence of intelligent automation.

At Growfin, we’re rewriting that narrative. We’re not just encouraging AR teams to automate basic tasks; we’re reimagining the function as a collaborative, revenue-protecting growth lever. Think of it as a “connected cockpit” for AR: everyone from the CFO to the Controller to the AR Specialist has a single source of truth (with consolidated AR data across ERPs, CRMs, billing platforms, AP portals, payment processors, spreadsheets, and more) to track, prioritize, and resolve outstanding receivables proactively. It’s about real-time visibility, team alignment, and predictable cash flow. All while keeping the customer experience front and center.

This fresh perspective is helping us strengthen our position in the market. Instead of selling just efficiency gains with simple automation, we’re enabling finance teams to act as strategic growth partners to the business. This shift is resonating with fast-scaling companies and large enterprises alike because in today’s market, every dollar of working capital recovered today is a dollar that can be reinvested to fuel growth tomorrow.

Where does AR automation fit within the broader financial workflow, and how does it contribute to driving enterprise-wide agility?

The way I look at it: AR automation sits right at the heart of the broader financial workflow. Yet it’s long been the most overlooked or under-digitized piece. While companies have digitized invoicing, payments, and procurement, the actual process of collecting and reconciling receivables is still painfully manual and fragmented for most teams. This creates blind spots in cash flow forecasting and drags down the agility of the entire finance function.

When you automate AR the right way, you’re speeding up collections and reducing your Day Sales Outstanding (DSO). This is a key financial metric that spotlights the average number of days it takes for a business to collect payment after a sale has been made, an indicator of how efficiently a company is converting credit sales into cash coming in. The lower, the healthier.

I spoke about the end-to-end visibility and predictability of the Order-to-Cash cycle that AR automation offers. I’d like to take a short segue here to highlight the other metrics that enterprise finance teams need to track in conjunction with DSO to build a more complete picture of their receivables health.

Average Days Delinquent (ADD) measures how long invoices stay unpaid or past due after credit terms have elapsed and helps identify whether there’s a customer behavioral problem or an inefficient internal process problem at hand. Average Days Collected (ADC) tracks the full Invoice-to-Cash (I2C) lifecycle, from invoice issuance to cash coming in. And finally, there’s Collection Efficiency Index (CEI), measuring payments that got collected during a specific period vs. what could potentially have been. In essence, while DSO indicates that there’s a collections problem, the other metrics help finance teams unravel the “why” and “what's next”. Modern AR automation platforms like Growfin empower businesses with that actionable intelligence.

Coming back to the original question!

AR automation also enables enterprises to connect the dots between Sales, Customer Success, and Finance. Real-time visibility into what’s outstanding, what’s at risk, and what needs action today is priceless from a current comprehension and future forecasting perspective. This helps CFOs receive a clear, dynamic view of working capital. Sales teams know exactly where deals stand. Customer Success teams can bolster relationships instead of getting blindsided by payment disputes and needless escalations.

In a market where cash is king and predictability is gold, AR automation is a lever for enterprise-wide agility. It frees up working capital faster, reduces risk, and lets finance teams shift from playing catch-up to proactively advising the business. So, instead of firefighting over unpaid invoices, businesses can focus on unlocking cash that can be reinvested in growth, innovation, or simply weathering uncertain times. That’s the bigger picture: AR automation isn’t just back-office efficiency; it’s front-line resilience and a competitive advantage for the entire enterprise.

CFOs often struggle with fragmented communication between sales, collections, and customers. How does Growfin enable cross-functional collaboration to improve cash flow and reduce DSO?

You’re right! One of the biggest headaches CFOs face today is the constant back-and-forth between Sales, Collections, and the Customer. AR teams chase payments in spreadsheets and inboxes, sales teams aren’t looped in on overdue accounts until it’s too late, and customers often don’t have a clear line of sight into what they owe or what’s holding things up. It’s fragmented, slow, and directly impacts cash inflow and DSO.

Growfin fixes this by putting true collaboration at the core of AR processes. For starters, our native integrations with Salesforce ensure sales teams don’t have to dig for answers. They get real-time AR insights right inside the CRM they already live in. So, a sales rep walking into a renewal or upsell conversation knows instantly if there are unpaid invoices that could derail the deal or make for an unpleasant talk track.

We’re also one of the first players in the industry to offer a Slack integration. This ensures that Finance, Sales, and Customer Success teams can seamlessly communicate on aging receivables, payment disputes, or escalations in real-time. Minus endless email threads. No more silos, just fast, contextual updates right where key internal teams already collaborate.

On the customer side, Growfin’s self-service Customer Portal gives customers a clear view of outstanding invoices, payment status, and dispute resolution in one place. This transparency removes friction, speeds up payment cycles, and builds trust. Combine that with AI-led adaptive dunning workflows—which personalize follow-ups based on customer behavior and dynamic account health/risk scores—and you’re not just automating reminders; you’re driving smarter, more effective collection strategies.

In short: Growfin turns AR from a (wrongly perceived) back-office silo into a connected cockpit for everyone who impacts cash flow. That's how we help CFOs reduce DSO, unlock working capital faster, and keep customer relationships stable and strong in the process.

There are differences in behavior aligned with every customer. What signals should finance leaders be monitoring to optimize their collection strategies with automation and AI?

The truth is that a one-size-fits-all approach to AR and collections management doesn’t work and never will. You can build customer cohorts and segments based on similar behavior, but every customer is unique. They may have varied credit terms, payment methods, custom billing cycles, specific AP processes, and more.

For starters, finance leaders need to acknowledge that. And then capture the smallest micro-signals that predict the health of their cash flows over a 12-18 month time horizon. For instance, slower response rates, missed early-pay discounts, drifts in payment methods, rise in bounced payments, and credit limit use spikes may indicate a cash flow squeeze. Similarly, credit score dips within the same quarter, industry lay-offs, funding freezes, increased requests for higher credit are other red-flag signals.

That’s where AI can come in – going above and beyond simpler automation workflows. Most of these may exist scattered across convoluted other systems, email threads, AP and Customer Portals, and more and may seldom surface in any aging report. Learning from these micro-signals fueled by centralized and real-time data, Growfin’s AI can spotlight dynamic customer account health scores and offer insights on Predicted Pay Date (PDP). This enables forward-thinking finance teams to transition from reactive collections to proactive cash flow management.

There’s a lot more that we’re currently deep in the trenches building on this front—and should hit the market sooner than soon!

For finance leaders skeptical of AI in core finance operations, what’s your argument for embracing it?

I completely understand the skepticism. Finance leaders are rightly cautious about handing over critical operations to AI as a black box. Especially in this global economic climate, where they have to straddle the lands of financially prudent investments and missing out on the hype train. But here’s the reality – the biggest blockers in AR today are manual, repetitive tasks and fragmented data. That’s exactly where AI, when done right, becomes a force multiplier, and not a risk.

At Growfin, we don’t position AI as some magical silver bullet. We use it to solve real, everyday pain points that bog down collections and cash application teams. Our AI-powered collections engine analyzes payment patterns, customer behavior, and historical risk factors to prioritize which accounts need attention first, so teams aren’t wasting hours chasing the wrong customers or relying on intuition.

On the cash application side, our Agentic AI matches incoming payments to open invoices automatically, even when remittance data is incomplete or messy. That means fewer manual reconciliations, faster cash posting, and more time freed up for teams to handle exceptions and disputes proactively.

And the metrics that matter don’t lie. Reducing DSO by 33%, collection times by 45%, and increasing cash flow by almost 30% are strong enough reasons to become more receptive to AI in AR. 98% accuracy in payment matching and 80% same-day payment posting bolsters that same argument.

In reference to the Law of Diffusion of Innovation, finance leaders should ideally want to be early adopters or fall into the early majority. But definitely not cede too much time and ground by being late to the party as a laggard.

The bigger picture – AI does the heavy-lifting, so teams can focus on higher-value, human intelligence-driven tasks. These could take the shape of reinforcing customer relationships, resolving disputes faster, and advising the business on cash flow strategies. And because Growfin’s AI is built with finance teams at the center—with explainability, audit trails, and full human oversight—leaders can trust that they’re not giving up control. AI will further make AR more intuitive, adaptive, proactive, and deeply integrated with business strategy.

Simply put, every day that businesses speed up cash recovery and every dollar unlocked is a competitive edge. So, the real risk doesn’t lie in embracing AI; it stems from and snowballs when they stand still in an analysis-paralysis limbo, while competitors modernize how they protect and grow revenue.

Looking ahead, what’s one shift in enterprise finance you think is being underestimated? How is Growfin preparing to meet that moment?

One big shift that I’m seeing is that enterprise finance is quietly becoming one of the most customer-facing parts of the business. Historically, Finance sat ensconced as an unglamorous, distant, disconnected back-office function. They focused on compliance, reporting, and closing books. But today, finance teams are more visible on the front lines. They’re protecting revenue, managing risk, and delivering frictionless customer experiences. AR fits right into that paradigm, very often being the final touchpoint with a customer.

What’s underestimated is how much a poor AR process can damage customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. Disjointed follow-ups, unforeseen escalations, lost invoices, wrong information, dated or ill-timed updates – all of that chips away at relationships Sales and Customer Success teams work so hard to build. On the flip side, a well-run AR function can actually strengthen loyalty and unlock growth because customers get clarity, flexibility, and faster resolution when there’s an issue.

This is exactly where Growfin is leaning in. Sure, we’re automating AR, but we’re also turning it into a collaborative, customer-friendly experience. Our self-service Customer Portals give customers real-time visibility into invoices and payments. Our AI-driven collections prioritize outreach intelligently, so follow-ups feel timely and relevant, not spammy and tinged with harassment. It’s about personalized engagement and not blindly chasing payments with a spray-and-pray approach. Our tight integrations with CRM tools like Salesforce and HubSpot and communication platforms like Slack keep everyone in sync.

Looking ahead, the winners in enterprise finance won’t just be the ones who automate tasks. They’ll be the ones who make cash flow management a customer-first, insight-driven process. They’ll be the ones who empower and elevate their teams enough to grab an unquestionable seat at the strategy table in the boardroom of leadership. At Growfin, we’re preparing our customers for that shift now, turning AR into a strategic lever that ring-fences revenue, improves customer relationships, and makes every dollar of working capital work much more efficiently.