Whether customers are new or existing, pre-payment requests for advertising invoices are rising for broadcasters. Manually managing this workflow is cumbersome and delays realizing revenue and running ad campaigns.
The simple and effective approach is to use an electronic payments platform that enables pre-payment requests. So, how does that work? Let’s find out.
Why Are Pre-Payments Such an Important Feature for Electronic Payment Solutions?
Advertisers that don’t have an established relationship with your station or have a history of slow payment create the need for pre-payments. You don’t want to render services in the form of running ad campaigns without the guarantee of revenue.
It may be a protocol you use with many types of advertisers, and you’re within your right to want to collect payments up front.
If days outstanding keep trending up and aging reports get longer, pre-payments can be a proactive approach to settling invoices before you do the work.
Now, you just need to make it easy for your financial operations team and customers.
Key Functionality in a Pre-Payment Feature
Not all payment platforms offer this capability, which can differ across applications. When evaluating options, seek out this functionality:
- Viewing and filtering of lists for pre-payment requests to monitor their status
- The ability to edit or cancel a request
- Simple fields to generate the request, including client name, salesperson, due date and description
- Flexibility to add multiple stations for pre-payments
- One-click sending once the document is complete
- Transparency in what the advertiser sees, including custom messaging, the ability to download the invoice as a PDF, the amount and the due date
- Guest checkout for pre-payments, which means the customer doesn’t have to log in to your portal to pay
- Notification of payment to you and the payer, including the payment number and pre-payment ID
What Are the Benefits of Using Pre-Payments with an Integrated Payment Solution?
If you’re currently requesting pre-payments manually or via other workflows that cause challenges in reconciliation, you’ll find it difficult to manage. Another critical concern is if the payment platform requires the advertiser to log in to an account for every transaction. That’s why it’s so important to have guest checkout.
Additionally, if your electronic payments system isn’t integrated with your traffic system, you may have issues determining who paid for what. It will further delay the customer’s advertising and could impact their experience.
Payment and traffic systems should be within the same ecosystem to keep processes streamlined for you and your customers.
These systems also have customer portals that make all your digital payment interactions with them consistent. All of this is occurring in a safe and compliant online space.
See How Easy Pre-Payments Are in PayNow
Interested to see how PayNow makes pre-payments simple and straightforward? Request a demo today of our platform.
