5 Practical Ways to Improve Accounts Receivable

Author: Christian Bailey

Title: Professional Services Consultant

Organization: Karmak, Inc.

Are your current Accounts Receivable (AR) workflows helping or hindering your team’s performance? In the heavy-duty trucking industry, efficient AR processes can make a major difference. Delays, errors, and outdated systems don’t just slow down collections… they impact cash flow, customer satisfaction, and overall operational performance. Whether you’re a dealership, service shop, or parts distributor, optimizing how you manage receivables can pay off quickly. The good news? If you’re using Karmak Fusion, you already have the tools to make it happen.

In this article, we break down five essential tactics to help you get the most out of your AR process with Karmak Fusion.

1. Monitor Customer Tax Exemption Expirations

To ensure accurate tax application and avoid costly compliance issues, it’s essential to keep customer tax exemption certificates up to date. Letting one slip past its expiration date can result in unnecessary charges, billing disputes, and frustrated customers.

Karmak Fusion provides a flexible way to track this information. By using a custom miscellaneous info prompt on the customer record, teams can log expiration dates directly in the system. This data can then be incorporated into a Fusion Report Writer (FRW) report to identify customers with certificates nearing expiration. With the right setup, your team can take proactive action before problems arise.

2. Track Collection Activity Where It Matters Most

When it comes to collections, visibility is everything. Without a reliable way to document conversations and follow-up actions, it’s easy for customer issues to slip through the cracks, leading to delayed payments and missed revenue.

Karmak Fusion provides a dedicated space for recording collection notes within the Credit/Collections tab on the customer record. This section offers key advantages over the general Comments tab. First, access is controlled through specific user permissions, giving your team greater control over who can view sensitive financial information. Second, it includes a Resolved checkbox, allowing users to flag issues as closed once appropriate action has been taken.

By leveraging Fusion Report Writer (FRW), teams can build and schedule reports that display only unresolved collection comments. This makes it easier to identify outstanding issues, prioritize follow-ups, and maintain consistent oversight in the collections process.

3. Import and Apply Payments Efficiently

Manual payment posting can slow down your AR workflow and introduce unnecessary risk. By automating payment imports, your team can spend less time on data entry and more time focusing on what matters: cash flow and customer relationships.

Karmak Fusion supports batch importing of payments through its Import File Processing tool, making it easier to apply payments to the correct invoices (especially for transactions made by cash, check, or credit card).

To get started, users configure the import file format by defining the required column structure and sequence. Most teams pair this with a Fusion Report Writer (FRW) report that lists the previous day’s credit card invoices, ensuring the data aligns with the import structure.

If you’re working with a third-party payment processor, the setup can be tailored to match that provider’s file format, allowing for smoother reconciliation.

4. Export Customer Invoices in Bulk

Reprinting invoices can be one of the most time-consuming tasks for AR teams, especially when customers request multiple documents at once. Without the right tools, this process often involves opening, saving, and emailing files one at a time.

Karmak Fusion simplifies this with its Invoice Export feature in the Customer Activity application. Once configured, users can export multiple invoices in a single step, saving valuable time and improving the customer experience. Fusion can generate a single PDF file containing all relevant invoices that can be emailed directly to the customer, significantly reducing the time and effort required for handling bulk invoice requests.

5. Leverage the New Features in Fusion’s Customer Application

Keeping customer data clean and up to date is critical for efficient operations, accurate reporting, and effective customer service. Two recent enhancements to Karmak Fusion’s Customer application make this easier than ever, giving teams better visibility and faster ways to update records at scale.

Customer Change Log
Understanding who changed what—and when—is key to resolving issues quickly and maintaining data integrity. The new Change Log tab gives users a detailed view of customer record updates, including timestamps, user information, and more. You can also filter changes by user or field to support internal audits and simplify troubleshooting.

Customer Mass Update
Need to update the same field across dozens (or hundreds) of customer records? The Mass Update feature eliminates the need to edit each record manually. After narrowing your list, you can apply changes to multiple records in just a few clicks, saving time and reducing the risk of data inconsistencies.

Best Practice: Use the Change Log to monitor data activity over time and the Mass Update tool to streamline repetitive tasks and clean up customer records efficiently.

The Bottom Line

Accounts Receivable is one of the most critical functions in your business, and one of the easiest to streamline with the right tools and processes in place. Karmak Fusion gives you the flexibility to work smarter across your AR processes, from managing customer data to applying payments and tracking exemptions.

By adopting a few practical strategies, your team can reduce manual work, increase accuracy, and gain better control over collections and cash flow.

Need help putting these strategies into action? Contact your Karmak Representative or email ProfessionalServices@Karmak.com.

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