Group Sales, Inc. Reduces AR Collections with Integrated Payments for Sage 100

Group Sales, Inc. is a national distributor of toys and gifts for specialty stores, travel centers, and e-commerce partners. They also support and supply toys for schools and charities such as Toys for Tots, The Salvation Army, and more.

Since 1991, Group Sales has experienced unprecedented growth by providing competitive prices and unparalleled customer service.

The Challenge

Group Sales, Inc. implemented Sage 100 in 2010 to manage their order and fulfillment process. With a 500% increase in order volume over 10 years, the company needed to find ways to make the order fulfillment and payment process more efficient in order to scale and meet rising demand.

Group Sales had been manually entering orders and payments. As demand grew, they began losing orders because they couldn’t process them quickly enough to meet timelines. Historically, the solution to increased order volume was to add more staff. “We had over 15 people entering orders all day at terminals, and another 45 employees fulfilling orders in the warehouse,” said Jason Ernst, Vice President of Operations.

The impact of COVID-19 led to even higher eCommerce activity, driving up order volume and bringing in new customers. “It also got us into the attraction of some customers who we haven’t done business with,” stated Ernst. While Group Sales traditionally sold to clients on terms, they needed a way to engage these new customers without the risk of extending credit terms too early in the relationship.

The Solution

Looking ahead to the future and how to serve their customers and employees better, Walters Management set out on a path that embraced the changing market dynamics and the role Group Sales needed a payment partner with a fully integrated solution for Sage 100, and they found that partner in REPAY. “The REPAY team is great to work with. Their product does what they say it does, and they have worked with us to make it work for our process.”

REPAY helped Group Sales simplify and automate the payment process. Their sales team could easily attach credit card payments directly to orders in Sage 100. Once those orders were fulfilled, the payments were automatically settled as well.

With REPAY’s ClickToPay, it became easier for Group Sales to do business with new clients. ClickToPay allowed them to send invoices that clients could view and pay online using a credit card or ACH payment.

The Results

Group Sales is now batch processing orders and fulfilling order volume levels previously considered out of reach. In 2019, Group Sales was able to accommodate 19,000 orders in a single day—still their highest one-day order total to date.

While new customers have partnered with Group Sales, and orders have increased, they have decreased risk to Accounts Receivable. “To be able to get a credit card up front, attach it to the sales order in Sage 100, so that when it ships, it’s already charging that credit card—there is no AR. We’ve collected our money. We’ve got it, and we are not chasing that customer to get payment.” What’s more, Group Sales has leveraged REPAY ClickToPay and made it easier for customers to pay via ACH.

With REPAY ClickToPay, customers can view their invoices online and choose to pay using ACH or credit card. Group Sales not only reduced their AR balances but also the labor needed to manage AR processing and collections. “Right now, we are at 65 employees; my AR team is a team of one.”

As an added bonus, Group Sales has improved cash flow. “That is another big feature REPAY has over other processors; your nightly capture and closing and depositing 95% of those funds the next day, if not 100% of the funds. From a cash flow standpoint, that is huge—getting our money and still making customers happy,” says Jason.