Collection Issues
As part of my work with the digital Ad Operations group, I was asked to look at streamlining the process for disputed invoices within the collections team. In the existing process, when an agency rejected an invoice for a digital ad campaign, they contacted the collections team. Because the collections team did not have access to the necessary information to resolve the issue directly with the agency, they would pass the information back to billing to work with the agency to resolve the issue. Due to bandwidth issues and other priorities, the billing team was slow to research the disputed invoice and respond to the agency . This resulted in a backlog of invoices going unpaid for an extended period of time.
To streamline the process and provide timely resolution to disputed invoices, the collections team needed access to billing information. As part of the workflow optimization for the ad ops team, an offshore team was established to provide consistent delivery reporting; this reporting was also used for billing purposes. A work stream was established between the collections team and the offshore reporting group to address disputed invoices. The collections team would email a generic account with the disputed invoice information, the offshore team would respond with the necessary first and third party reporting within 2 business days, providing the collections team with the information needed to resolve the dispute directly with the agency. This resulted in a significant reduction in unpaid invoices.