Cash flow software.

Avolent Inc., a provider of enterprise application software for eBilling and cash flow optimization, has released BizCast[TM] 6.0, which the company says streamlines "all the financial interactions between a corporation and its customers, such as invoicing, collections, payment processing and reconciliation."

The application offers a new suite of capabilities for CFOs and treasurers "to accurately predict and control cash flow, including cash forecasting, customer profiling and trade term management," the San Francisco-based company said in an announcement. "This enables corporations to increase margins by 1-2 percent while reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) by 3-10 days."

According to Avolent, BizCast[TM] 6.0 is the first software to provide cash flow optimization capabilities based on an eBilling platform, presenting a range of capabilities previously unavailable to finance professionals in existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and treasury systems. For example, with BizCast[TM] 6.0 a finance professional can:

* accurately predict inbound cash flow based on real-time information on the status of all invoices, not just historical information;

* forecast inbound cash flow based on unique customer payment profiles, not outdated models;

* increase cash flow by instantly changing all trade discounts/interest penalties without having to print a single invoice.

"In an industry of thin margins, BizCast's ability to dynamically adjust trade discounts will enable us to maintain our cash balances and margins while incentivizing our member stores to pay promptly," said Kay Williams, vice president of information technology at Do It Best.

In an interview, Scott Dunlap, vice president of marketing for Avolent, said that electronic billing is the company's strength, allowing customers to insert invoices into applications from providers like Ariba or SAP. "You can pay with click of a button, or dispute a line item without holding the invoice. We've built a self-service capability--there's a lot customers can do without picking up the phone."

He adds that the company has filed patents on Avolent's new capability for monitoring trade discounts, append to an electronic document and have ability to dynamically change them.

Web: www.avolent.com