Hoyt Archery Automates Payment Processing and Improves Customer Visibility with iPayments

Hoyt Archery manufactures industry-leading compound and recurve bows for bowhunters, target archers, and recreational archers. Through its manufacturer-dealer model, Hoyt sells its products to hundreds of dealers on credit terms, who then resell those products to end users.

Manual Payment Processes Create Growing Challenges

As the business expanded, manual payment processes placed a growing burden on the Accounts Receivable Department.  Researching, applying, and reconciling payments required considerable time, while limited visibility into invoices and payment status created a frustrating customer experience.

Hoyt’s former payment portal accepted payments, but the process behind it created friction. Payments required manual cash application and resulted in posting delays. During that interval, the portal did not always reflect the customer’s true payment status or account balance.

Customers could continue to see invoices as outstanding even after submitting payment. Some responded by paying again, which created duplicate payments and additional unapplied cash. The Credit and Accounts Receivable Departments then had to research the transactions, identify overpayments, issue refunds or credits, and communicate with customers, all while managing a large volume of accounts and transactions.

Seeking a More Integrated and Scalable Solution

The Credit Department at Hoyt Archery knew they needed a better ERP solution to improve the customer experience, streamline accounts receivable, and build an organization capable of supporting continued growth. They selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to build a complete technology stack tailored to their operational needs.

For Dianna Dyson, Credit Manager at Hoyt Archery, modernizing the company’s technology also presented an opportunity to transform its payment processes.

“We wanted an ERP system that was faster and more automated, along with a reliable payment solution that would benefit both our customers and our Credit and Accounts Receivable Departments. Our goal was to reduce manual processing, provide customers with real-time visibility into their accounts and payment status, minimize duplicate payments, and streamline cash application.”

 Choosing iPayments for Business Central

The Hoyt Credit Department chose iPayments, an embedded Accounts Receivable solution built specifically for Dynamics 365 Business Central, to provide the automation, visibility, and integrated payment experience it needed.

“iPayments stood out because it addressed the specific challenges we were experiencing with our previous payment portal while also giving us an opportunity to improve the experience for our customers.

We needed more than just a way to accept payments – we needed a solution that would integrate with our existing processes, reduce manual work, provide better visibility into payment status, and make it easier for our customers to manage their accounts.  With hundreds of customers purchasing from us on terms, efficiency and accuracy are extremely important. iPayments offered the automation and functionality we needed to streamline payment processing, improve cash application, reduce duplicate payments, and provide a better overall customer experience.”

Automating Payments and Improving Customer Visibility

Several iPayments capabilities directly addressed the gaps in Hoyt’s previous payment processes:

• Automated payment processing and application, reducing manual cash application
• Real-time visibility into payments and customer account status
• Native integration with Business Central, keeping balances and payment information current
• Customer self-service for viewing invoices, payment history, and account information
• Greater accuracy and fewer duplicate payments
• Secure, reliable payment processing that helped Hoyt reduce its PCI compliance burden

A Smooth, Collaborative Implementation

During implementation, the team at iSolutions partnered with the Hoyt Credit Department to set up iPayments in their Business Central sandbox, giving them time to evaluate payment transactions, validate internal processes, and complete hands-on user training before going live. When the Hoyt Credit Department felt confident and comfortable with the system, the iSolutions support team set up iPayments in their production environment and the system went live.

“The onboarding and integration process was smooth and well-supported.  The iSolutions team collaborated with us to understand our existing processes and helped ensure the integration with our ERP system was set up correctly.  One of the biggest benefits was having support throughout the implementation rather than being left to figure everything out on our own.  The process allowed us to transition from our previous payment portal while keeping our day-to-day operations moving.  Overall, the implementation was straightforward, collaborative, and much less disruptive than we anticipated, and the result has been a significant improvement for both our Credit Department, our Accounts Receivable Department, and our customers,” said Dyson.

Reducing Manual Work and Duplicate Payments

Since implementation, the Hoyt Archery Credit Department has experienced significant improvements in both efficiency and payment accuracy:

• Reduced manual payment processing and cash-application time
• Applied payments to customer accounts faster
• Minimized duplicate payments through real-time visibility
• Freed the Credit and Accounts Receivable Departments to focus on collections, account analysis, and customer service
• Kept customer balances and outstanding invoices more current and accurate
• Gave customers easier access to invoices, payment history, and account information
• Maintained productivity and absorbed additional workload following an employee departure

Building a More Efficient Accounts Receivable Operation

Dianna said, “overall, iPayments has helped us reduce administrative work, improve accuracy, and accelerate the payment process, which is especially valuable given the number of customers we manage on terms. For us, the biggest advantages have been automation, improved visibility, integration with our existing processes, and a better customer payment experience.  With hundreds of customers on terms, having a reliable payment portal helps reduce manual processing and gives our customers an easier way to manage their invoices and payments.

Overall, iSolutions has helped us streamline our payment process, reduce administrative work, and provide better service to our customers, which makes it a solution we would recommend.”