Revenue leakage refers, in essence, to uncollected income, typically stemming from a business's inadvertent oversight. This commonly emanates from flawed financial and accounting procedures, frequently manual. This may include issues like pricing inaccuracies, incongruous invoicing systems, dependence on spreadsheets, and instances of services that were either undercharged or went unbilled. While certain forms of revenue leakage may be industry-specific, others tend to manifest universally across various sectors. It predominantly arises in transactions involving contracts or sustained customer relationships, with cash transactions, where buyers immediately receive purchased goods, being less susceptible to such income loss.
Indicators of Revenue Leakage
The organization may inadvertently experience revenue losses through a multitude of channels, but there are three primary indicators of revenue leakage:
Unintended Revenue Leakage
Naturally, the business does not purposefully aim to lose revenue. It could stem from the introduction of an ineffective system, resulting in financial losses. Alternatively, it might be due to congestion in the task management processes, requiring time to resolve issues. Revenue leakage is generally an unintended consequence, except in cases involving theft or fraud.
Unnoticed Revenue Leakage
This is a significant hallmark of revenue leakage, as it comprises subtle "leaks" that escape immediate detection. This may encompass scenarios like failing to bill for all billable hours on service contracts or making unnecessary payments for transfer fees and software licenses. Comparable to a small hole in a ship, these minor deductions in hours and payments might go unnoticed initially but can accumulate into substantial revenue losses over time.
Preventable Revenue Leakage
Certain costs are inherent to a service organization's growth and cannot be avoided. These costs are not classified as revenue leakage. Conversely, income loss resulting from revenue leakage is invariably preventable. In other words, no matter how or where revenue is currently seeping away, there are methods to rectify the situation and ensure it does not recur in the future.
Key Takeaways
- Revenue leakage is not limited to small or poorly organized companies; approximately half of executives across all industries consider it a widespread issue in their business's revenue management.
- A successful revenue assurance initiative begins with identifying areas of revenue leakage and prioritizing them based on their economic significance.
- There are two primary culprits behind revenue leakage: flawed processes and inaccurate data. Common problems include lenient discounting policies and manual invoicing.
- The implementation of software tools can assist companies in gaining better control over both processes and data, reducing revenue leakage.
- Companies that effectively address their revenue leakage problems can experience an increase in earnings of up to 5%. This is because revenue that was previously uncollected and is now recouped tends to have a direct positive impact on the bottom line.
Why Does Revenue Leakage Matter?
Cash flow is the lifeblood of small and medium-sized businesses, powering their operations, customer service, growth, innovation, and the ability to attract top talent. Profit hinges on revenue, making the acquisition of new business a cause for celebration in some companies, complete with gong-ringing rituals when significant contracts are inked. This symbolic act underscores the crucial role of revenue generation—both new and ongoing sales serve as the foundation for everything.
While chasing down revenues that have been rightfully earned but remained unrealized due to operational hiccups may lack glamour, it's a vital discipline that all small and medium-sized enterprises must master. Failing to do so could eventually limit their ability to achieve their desired objectives.
What Is the Impact of Revenue Leakage?
The financial consequences of revenue leakage can vary significantly, contingent on the specific industry and circumstances at play. However, a general guideline is that companies grappling with revenue leakage often experience a reduction in earnings ranging from 1% to 5%. When considering the impact in terms of earnings, as many experts do, it serves as a reminder that when companies successfully recoup previously uncollected revenue, it tends to have a direct and positive effect on their bottom line.
Industries with high complexity levels can experience even more pronounced repercussions. For instance, the intricate reimbursement structures, involvement of numerous parties, and the prevalence of unpaid bills in the healthcare industry pose distinct challenges for healthcare companies in terms of revenue collection. As per McKinsey, as much as 15 cents out of every dollar earned by healthcare companies and hospitals remain uncollected.
A company with a high degree of revenue leakage in comparison to its peers may find itself at a disadvantage when it comes to developing new products or expanding its business. Furthermore, such a company may encounter other issues related to suboptimal cash flow management, such as higher borrowing costs.
What are the Causes of Revenue Leakage?
Here are some of the prevalent factors contributing to revenue leakage in the professional services sector:
Billing errors
The majority of revenue loss results from avoidable billing process mistakes. An inadequately structured invoicing system can lead to invoices getting misplaced or overlooked. This can result in non-delivery, misdirected invoices, or errors that cause expensive delays.
Spreadsheets
Numerous companies depend on spreadsheets as a means to oversee time tracking within their operations. This entails a labor-intensive, manual operation that necessitates a substantial administrative effort to guarantee the timely input of timesheets and their proper allocation to the correct tasks within the appropriate projects. The process of reviewing and authorizing this data and then generating meaningful reports becomes a source of considerable frustration.
The tedium of this workflow is further compounded when it comes to transitioning the time data from spreadsheets to a billing system, a prerequisite before sending invoices to customers. This additional step introduces yet another opportunity for potential revenue loss.
Underbilling
Many organizations establish guidelines regarding the handling of travel time and its billing procedures. However, these rules can exhibit significant variability across different companies. Some entities charge the full rate, others charge at a reduced rate, and some may even bill for travel in only one direction or not at all. Without well-defined guidelines, effective communication, and a means to ensure that the team consistently adheres to these billing policies, there is a substantial potential for revenue loss. Failing to closely monitor how the team records this information makes it quite simple for resources to submit incomplete or inaccurate timesheets. Any timesheet that lacks accurate data introduces a risk of revenue leakage.
Administrative Tasks
On average, employees dedicate approximately 28% of their working hours to reading and responding to emails. Surprisingly, as many as half of them neglect to accurately record the time they invest in this email-related activity. Additionally, they allocate roughly 5 hours per week to attending meetings and another 4 hours to preparing for them. Astonishingly, nearly one-third of employees fail to thoroughly document the time they spend both preparing for and participating in these meetings.
These administrative responsibilities can lead to a substantial accumulation of unaccounted hours, ultimately resulting in a significant loss of revenue for the organization.
Pre-sales
Pre-sales efforts can pose challenges in terms of potential revenue loss. It's common for members of the services team to assist with pre-sales activities, which is beneficial. Collaborating with the services team leads to more robust and realistic proposals, ultimately contributing significantly to long-term customer success. Additionally, the time invested in acquiring new customers yields future revenue returns.
The key question is when this involvement becomes excessive and impacts revenue and profitability. There isn't a set formula for determining how much time the team should allocate to pre-sales. Instead, the key takeaway is that managers need the right tools and processes to analyze and assess the time spent on pre-sales activities. Executives should also possess the business acumen required to evaluate this information strategically and make the necessary adjustments.
Timesheet accuracy
Numerous studies have illustrated the rapid decay of our memory. Consequently, the longer the time gap between a team member's task completion and timesheet submission, the higher the likelihood of forgetting crucial details.
When a timesheet is submitted days or weeks after the fact, the approver's ability to verify the accuracy of the actual time spent diminishes. This, in turn, allows errors to infiltrate the system and lead to a reduction in the total count of billable hours.
Manual billing
Not only is there a risk of error, but going from one system to another likely introduces delays in invoices being sent to customers, which in turn causes gaps in cash flow. A typical payment cycle for many service organizations is 30 to 90 days after the invoice is delivered. A two-week delay on the invoice may push out receipt of payment by another 30 days or more.
Identifying Revenue Leakage: A Guide
A company's leadership, often led by the CEO or a finance officer, typically possesses an intuition for identifying instances where their organization is failing to capture its rightful revenue. However, to take effective action, companies require more comprehensive information. Three key steps can aid in this process:
1.
Develop a hypothesis regarding the source of revenue leaks.
While companies may initially consider their largest accounts as the primary culprits, it's essential to acknowledge that significant revenue leaks can often stem from intricacies in contractual agreements, rather than sheer size. Generating hypotheses about the origin of these leaks should rely not only on executive instincts, although these are valuable, but also on insights from those closely involved in revenue generation and collection.
1.
Prioritize different categories of revenue leaks by their economic impact.
Not all revenue leaks carry equal financial weight. Consequently, it is prudent for companies to begin addressing the leaks that inflict the most substantial financial losses. To achieve this, prioritization is essential, and this should be based on the amount of revenue lost or left uncollected.2.
Validate the hypotheses.
Companies should substantiate their assumptions regarding revenue leaks through a comprehensive audit conducted by the finance department, with the assistance of revenue generation experts. This audit should encompass an examination of data and operational processes and may even involve recreating steps associated with specific revenue transactions.
How to Calculate Revenue Leakage
To calculate revenue leakage in a smaller business, perform an analysis that examines how much the projects are generating and assesses the efficiency of the team's processes. Here are several steps to identify and quantify revenue leakage in the business:
Assess Project and Customer Profitability
Begin by determining the profitability of the projects and customers. Analyzing project profit margins will help identify any potential revenue losses. Review the income generated from each project to pinpoint any financial setbacks.
Examine the Deal-to-Cash Pipeline
Delve into the deal-to-cash pipeline by meticulously reviewing all expenses, down to the last dollar. This comprehensive evaluation will reveal any areas where revenue might be slipping through the cracks.
Evaluate Task Management Processes
With a clear understanding of project profit margins, closely scrutinize the task management processes. Look for bottlenecks or inefficiencies that may be causing revenue leakage. Consider automating certain tasks or eliminating unnecessary steps.
Review the Tech Stack
Similarly, review the tech stack to identify potential revenue leaks. Scrutinize the monthly and annual software license expenses. Explore cost-effective alternatives, if necessary.
Engage with the Team
Foster collaboration with the team members. Seek their insights on areas where revenue might be slipping through the cracks. Multiple perspectives can help uncover missed opportunities and innovative solutions that weren’t considered.
Calculate the Total Impact
After gaining an understanding of project profitability, optimizing processes, reviewing software expenses, and gathering input from the team, calculate the cumulative impact. Compare the expected project income (determined through profitability calculations) with the unintentional costs and inefficiencies that were identified. This will provide a clear picture of the revenue leakage the business is experiencing.
How to Stop and Prevent Revenue Leakage
Reversing a revenue leak should not be treated as an ancillary project; it should be viewed as an integral component of operational excellence. Companies that already possess essential qualities such as discipline and self-analysis, and incorporate technology to enhance their operations, can leverage these attributes to recover revenue that was previously overlooked.
The following six strategies could prove particularly beneficial:
Identify the Issue
The initial step is to pinpoint the problem accurately. Companies can start by gaining insights into common revenue leakage points within their industry. They should also consult employees in revenue-generating roles to gather ideas on where and how revenue might be escaping. As highlighted in the "How to Identify Revenue Leakage" section, the causes of leakage are not always evident.
Streamline Workflow
Most workflow challenges can be resolved. Whether it involves untangling complex pricing sheets or restructuring an organization to prevent excessive discounts, there is typically a solution. Small and medium-sized enterprises may not need elaborate whiteboards and sticky notes in a conference room to address workflow issues; they can often devise solutions swiftly due to their agility. For example, if there is evidence that service representatives are failing to bill for their work at customer sites, a company could use average service times to identify potential instances of un- or under-billed services. This heightened scrutiny, a small change, is likely to recapture previously lost revenue.
Automate Manual Processes with Robust Software
Technology can resolve many of the issues leading to revenue leaks, and there is quality software available to support or automate nearly any manual business process. Effective software can enable service personnel to complete timesheets on mobile devices shortly after finishing their work, reducing billing errors. It can also provide sales staff with knowledge management systems for generating quick and accurate quotes. Furthermore, the software can automate the creation of certain invoices, addressing the issue of late or underbilling.
Maintain Pricing Discipline
Allowing salespeople substantial autonomy in offering discounts can hinder revenue maximization. Likewise, lax enforcement of contract terms is unhelpful. Companies should establish clear, effective rules and diligently enforce them, which can be systematically managed through software in some cases.
Appoint a Dedicated Revenue Assurance Specialist
While it's relatively uncommon for companies to assign full-time staff to revenue assurance, even smaller enterprises that lack a budget for billing analysts can benefit from integrating revenue assurance into the responsibilities of a senior executive. Someone within the finance department may possess the necessary authority and expertise to fulfill this role.
Centralize Timesheets
This is particularly vital for service-oriented companies where revenue is often tied to billable hours. To enhance the accuracy and timeliness of information, companies can configure their billing systems to send automated reminders.
2022 POI Report Rewards o9 with 'Best-in-Class' distinctions
About the author
o9 Solutions
The Digital Brain Platformo9 offers a leading AI-powered Planning, Analytics & Data platform called the Digital Brain that helps companies across industry verticals transform traditionally slow and siloed planning into smart, integrated and intelligent planning and decision making across the core supply chain, commercial and P&L functions. With o9’s Digital Brain platform, companies are able to achieve game-changing improvements in quality of data, ability to detect demand and supply risks and opportunities earlier, forecast demand more accurately, evaluate what-if scenarios in real time, match demand and supply intelligently and drive alignment and collaboration across customers, internal stakeholders and suppliers around the integrated supply chain and commercial plans and decisions. Supported by a global ecosystem of partners, o9’s innovative delivery methodology helps companies achieve quick impact in customer service, inventory levels, resource utilization, as well as ESG and financial KPIs—while enabling a long-term, sustainable transformation of their end-to-end planning and decision-making capabilities.
