Marketron, provider of business software solutions for the media industry, has introduced a new digital bill payment service for advertisers called PayNow that will save the US radio industry millions – as much as 75% in accounts receivable costs — by eliminating the hard costs associated with paper billing as well as the administrative inefficiencies.
Following on the roll out of Electronic Invoices and Orders, Marketron has launched PayNow to allow advertisers to electronically pay invoices from a secure portal. The benefits to radio stations are faster payments, reduced handling costs and error reduction. A 2012 Working Paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimated savings of 70% by adopting electronic collection and presentment.
Says Deb Esayian, CRO, Marketron, “This completes the loop for our suite of features that now allows broadcasters to invoice and receive payments electronically at dramatically reduced costs.”
Marketron’s new 360-degree paperless solution enables station advertisers to pay invoices by credit card, e-check/ach and gsa smart pay, facilitating easy online payment. It also reduces DSO, enables collection efforts and generally conserves station resources.
“Based on our internal data we estimate the industry collectively spends more than $40 million a year on processing payments. On average a station could realize savings of as much as 75% depending on market size by converting payments to PayNow,” says Jeff Haley, CEO, Marketron.
The service also simplifies the payment of a station’s month to month contracts. It provides a snapshot of all station billing and a complimentary statement analysis. Finally, PayNow enables the storage of a station’s customer data in one place.
