Barrett Smith joined Versapay in 2021 leading the Analytics and Pricing teams and was promoted to Head of Payment Operations and Optimization in 2023. With over 20 years in payments, analytics, and fintech, his success revolves around using data as a cornerstone for decision-making and ensuring that each choice made is grounded in concrete information and insights. He has proven he is adept at navigating challenges and opportunities with a well-informed perspective. Barrett’s prior tenures at WorldPay (now FIS) and Global Payments, Inc, have provided a breadth of leadership and experience across functional areas within the payments industry covering FP&A, analytics, pricing, operations, sales support and strategy. As a payments leader, Barrett is dedicated to translating data-driven insights into actional strategies to shape Verspay’s future achievements and efficient operation.
Barrett holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from The University of Alabama and an MBA from The College of William and Mary.
Why is Accounts Receivable (AR) essential for effective financial management in a middle market company?
Accounts Receivable (AR) is unrealized cash flow — money a business is planning on but has not yet collected. When the invoice-to-cash (or order-to-cash) cycle drags, companies are left guessing about what’s in their control, debating tough choices: intervene with customers, hold off on hiring, delay technology investments, or scale back future plans. This ripple effect extends beyond the business itself, impacting partners, employees, and even the local economy that depend on an interconnected cash flow loop.
For middle-market companies, cash flow isn’t just a financial metric — it is the oxygen for the business. Unlike large enterprises with extensive credit facilities or small businesses with less complexity on their side, mid-market finance teams often operate with tight margins and resource constraints that create a heavy reliance on predictable working capital.
Globally, an estimated €456 billion is locked up in AR among median-performing companies. If middle-market businesses — responsible for a third of U.S. jobs and 40% of GDP — optimized AR processes, the economic impact would be profound. Unlocking that capital isn’t just about efficiency—it is about resilience.
What are the biggest challenges companies face in their AR processes related to payments?
Cash flow shouldn’t be a challenge, it should be a catalyst. Yet, for many companies, the AR ecosystem is riddled with friction, slowing down payments and creating unnecessary chaos. The biggest culprits are invisible payment delays or exceptions that leave finance teams scrambling, disconnected financial systems that make tracking and reconciliation a nightmare, and manual processes that introduce errors and waste valuable time, not to mention leave data sitting in silos.
What’s often overlooked is that Finance is customer-facing, just not in the traditional sense. They control cash flow, issue refunds, and weigh in on pricing, meaning they directly shape the customer experience as gatekeepers, responsible for paperwork, approvals, credit checks, and insights to drive action. But without modern tools, these key interactions can become bottlenecks — slowing deals, frustrating customers, and straining internal relationships.
Automation is the game-changer. SaaS tools can digitize historically manual processes, streamline invoices and communications, and eliminate errors across the AR journey, increasing the visibility and fluidity of payments. This shift repositions Finance from a reactive back-office function to a strategic driver of business success. By replacing inefficiencies with data-driven connections, companies strengthen customer relationships and cash flow confidence, in turn enhancing their financial agility.
How do you ensure the security of payment systems while providing a seamless experience for customers?
The CFO-CTO relationship has never been more critical: 72% of leading CFOs identify technology leadership as essential to their success. Because in today’s economy, the companies that move money securely and efficiently protect their bottom line and gain a competitive edge.
I still remember working in an office where an entire floor was dedicated to AR file cabinets —payment receipts, invoice records, and the endless cycle of digging through paperwork. Lost an invoice? Better hope you can find a copy. Today, in the world of real-time data and instant AI-powered answers, I can’t imagine physically mailing invoices and waiting to see if they were received, let alone paid securely.
Replacing guesswork with accurate visibility is step one. Digitization and automation eliminate blind spots by ensuring that every step before, during, and after payment is always accessible.
But security isn’t just about seeing transactions, we must also ensure payments flow the way customers expect while safeguarding sensitive data to continuously earn and keep trust. With payment fraud evolving — from vendor impersonation and deep fakes to business email compromise, which cost companies $2.7 billion in 2022 alone — healthy friction is a necessity for digital-first experiences.
Automating AR lays the foundation for both the security and agility people expect. It enables businesses to adapt to new payment methods and introduce verification safeguards like Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) compliance. And as consumer fintech trends like digital wallets and real-time settlement networks start shaping B2B payments, businesses must proactively prepare for what’s next.
How do macro-level regulations and policy shifts impact the Accounts Receivable market?
Regulatory and policy changes directly impact a company’s cash flow, financing options, and overall financial strategy, which is why AR efficiency is no longer just a back-office function but a competitive requirement.
Take rising interest rates: When the cost of capital increases, so does the opportunity cost of outstanding receivables. Reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) becomes critical to ensure working capital is harnessed efficiently, minimizing reliance on expensive external financing. Similarly, in a tightening credit environment, banks pull back letters of credit or revolving debt, leaving businesses more dependent on fast, predictable cash flow from AR.
Recent tariff policy shifts highlight another way AR plays a strategic role. Trade disputes create cost volatility, making it harder for companies to plan. A sudden 50% tariff on Canadian steel, for example, could leave U.S. companies scrambling to cover an unexpected cost imbalance between their payables and receivables. Some businesses preemptively stockpile inventory to hedge against future increases, tying up capital and stretching credit limits. In both cases, an optimized AR process provides financial flexibility to navigate uncertainty.
Why should middle market businesses optimize AR to mitigate market uncertainty?
If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that businesses can’t afford to leave cash flow to chance. Something as simple as severe weather can wreak havoc on operations. Recently, winter storms and wildfires across multiple states led to major disruptions in postal services. As a result, businesses relying on paper checks and invoices to circulate smoothly via the mail suddenly faced process delays and unexpected cash flow disruptions.
Whether it’s rising interest rates, supply chain instability, a tightening credit market—or bad weather, the reality is, you can’t predict when the next disruption will hit. What you can control is how quickly and efficiently you convert receivables into cash, reducing dependency on external funding and increasing financial resilience.
Historically, finance teams have spent countless hours pulling reports from multiple systems, manually reconciling invoices, and chasing payments. But in today’s fast-paced economy, manual processes don’t just slow you down, they put you at a disadvantage.
Digitization and automation transform AR into a proactive, strategic function. It integrates billing, forecasting, and reconciliation into a single source of truth, providing finance teams with real-time insights into cash flow, outstanding invoices, and payment trends. This visibility enables companies to identify potential cash flow issues early, adjust payment terms proactively, and strengthen financial agility while mitigating disruption risks.
In 2024, 96% of businesses said they were investing in finance automation to improve effectiveness. They understand that financial agility is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a necessity to safeguard their ability to grow, adapt, and compete — no matter what the market throws their way.
How important is payment choice for today’s middle market businesses?
For middle-market businesses, payment choice isn’t just about convenience, it is often about survival. Buyers today expect the same seamless, flexible experience they get in consumer apps, and companies that fail to meet those expectations risk losing customers to more adaptable competitors. The worst-case scenario is having a customer that wants to pay in a way you do not accept.
The power of choice in payments is becoming a key differentiator. Offering a range of payment options, from real-time payments and virtual credit cards to ACH and even checks, allows businesses to meet diverse buyer preferences while optimizing cash flow. Legacy payments arrive late up to 30% of the time, creating unnecessary financial strain.
But payment choice alone isn’t enough. The real value lies in what surrounds the payment: automation, reconciliation, and data-driven optimization. Businesses that streamline invoice-to-cash processes reduce friction, minimize manual intervention, and unlock operational leverage, which can be a critical advantage for mid-market companies, many of which are family-backed or private equity-owned and looking to maintain or scale efficiently.
Is there anything else you would like to add regarding the future of Accounts Receivable and payments?
The future of Accounts Receivable belongs to businesses that embrace digitization, automation, and integration. Those still relying on manual processes and fragmented systems will find themselves operating with friction rather than flow, constantly chasing payments instead of optimizing them.
For companies just starting their AR transformation journey, the first step isn’t choosing technology, it’s understanding your biggest bottlenecks. What’s driving higher-than-expected DSO? Where is your team spending the most time? Whether it’s invoice volume, process complexity, or inefficiencies in collections, identifying these pain points is critical to selecting the right solution.
It’s also about defining success from the start. Are you aiming to accelerate cash flow, improve customer experience, or reduce reliance on external funding? By aligning technology with business outcomes, you create a scalable foundation that evolves with your needs based on relevant use cases—not the latest media trend.
And remember: You don’t need years of data to start measuring impact. CFOs often worry about historical benchmarks, but the reality is the sooner you begin tracking, the sooner you build the insights needed for year-over-year improvements. It’s like any key metric: You have to establish a baseline before you can optimize.
At the end of the day, AR isn’t just a finance function, it’s a strategic lever. The businesses that treat it as such will outpace competitors, unlocking momentum and future-proofing their financial operations.
