Automated AR with client self-service for B2B service companies.

Fragmented billing across projects and clients creates invoicing chaos

B2B service companies bill clients through multiple engagement models simultaneously: a single client may have a monthly retainer, two active projects billed on milestones, and a time-and-materials engagement billed weekly. Each billing stream generates invoices on different schedules with different calculation methods. When billing is managed manually — finance staff reviewing engagement records, calculating amounts, generating invoices, and sending them — the invoicing process consumes 15-25 hours per billing cycle and introduces errors that damage client relationships. A missed invoice means delayed revenue recognition; an incorrect invoice means a credit memo and re-bill that wastes staff time and client goodwill. PaymentHub automates invoice generation from engagement schedules: retainer invoices generate on their monthly cycle, milestone invoices generate when milestones are marked complete, and T&M invoices calculate from approved time records — all posting to the ERP automatically.

Manual collections consume staff time while straining client relationships

Professional service companies face a collections challenge that product businesses do not: aggressive dunning can damage the client relationship that generates future revenue. An AR team that sends the same automated past-due notice to a $50,000/year retainer client as it sends to a one-time project client risks alienating a relationship that represents significant lifetime value. Manual collections — where AR staff make judgment calls about when and how to follow up — is relationship-appropriate but does not scale. A service company with 200 active clients and 800 open invoices cannot maintain personalized collections without significant AR staff. PaymentHub solves this through segment-based collections workflows: retainer clients receive relationship-calibrated reminders with different tone and timing than project clients, escalation paths route to the engagement manager before a collections call, and autopay enrollment reduces the need for active collections on recurring engagements.

Clients lack self-service access to invoices and payment options

Service company clients — procurement teams, department heads, AP clerks — frequently need access to invoice copies, payment history, and account statements for their own internal processes: budget reconciliation, audit requests, and accounts payable workflows. When the only way to obtain this information is to email the service company's AR team, both sides waste time on administrative requests that a self-service portal would eliminate. A client AP clerk who needs to confirm payment of an invoice from three months ago sends an email, waits for a response, and then manually reconciles the information. PaymentHub provides a client payment portal where authorized users view all invoices, make payments against specific invoices, download statements, access payment history, and manage their payment methods — reducing the volume of administrative requests that the AR team handles.

Multiple gateway dependencies fragment payment processing and reporting

Service companies that accept credit cards, ACH payments, and wire transfers often process each through a different provider: cards through Stripe or a merchant account, ACH through a separate bank integration, and wires through the banking portal. Each provider has separate reporting, separate fee structures, and separate reconciliation requirements. Finance teams must download three sets of statements, match transactions from three sources to ERP invoices, and reconcile three bank deposits — tripling the reconciliation effort. PaymentHub consolidates all payment methods into a single orchestration layer: cards, ACH, and wire payments all flow through PaymentHub's gateway routing, with all payment records unified in a single reconciliation workflow that posts to the ERP with consistent invoice-level matching.

Reconciliation across recurring and project payments requires manual intervention

The combination of recurring billing (predictable amounts, regular timing) and project-based billing (variable amounts, irregular timing) creates a reconciliation challenge. A bank deposit of $47,250 might include a $5,000 retainer payment from Client A, a $12,250 milestone payment from Client B, and a $30,000 T&M payment from Client C. Matching this deposit to the correct invoices across different billing types requires context that bank statements do not provide. When this matching is manual, reconciliation for a service company processing 500 payments monthly takes 15-20 hours per month. PaymentHub eliminates this through invoice-level payment capture: each payment is associated with specific invoices at the time of payment, and the reconciliation engine matches payments to invoices automatically — regardless of billing type.