A Seamless Integration with NetYield Pays Off
How Martinez Produce & Seafood Simplified Accounts Receivable, Reduced Reliance on Checks, and Saved Hours of Time
It’s been 90 days since Martinez Produce & Seafood added Wholesail to NetYield to transform its accounts receivable processes. In this short time, they've significantly reduced the number of paper checks processed and streamlined new customer onboarding which allowed them to refocus 50% of their AR team onto other projects.
The Chicago-based family business serves more than 2,000 sushi restaurants across 11 states. While they’re known for excellent products and service, rapid growth and inefficient accounts receivable processes left them handling payments manually, with no way for customers to view their account status in real time.
Iraida Martinez manages accounts receivable among her many responsibilities. Like the rest of her family, she’s deeply committed to the company’s success. She understands that this success depends on the interconnectedness of every aspect of their business—from their drivers and customer service to vendor relationships and cash flow.
“It’s all connected,” she said, explaining that relying on checks created countless problems. Issues like lost, unsigned, or bounced checks disrupted cash flow. Worse, customers with past-due accounts could still place new orders which could cause last minute credit holds and warehouse nightmares.
“It’s kind of bizarre when you think about it, how we managed AR. If you were a customer placing an order at nine o'clock at night and want to see how much you owe or how much credit you have, you couldn’t. You’d have to wait until the next business day—or even longer—until someone sends a statement.”
Now, customers of Martinez Produce and Seafood have complete account transparency. Wholesail’s customer portal allows 24/7 access to statements, invoices, credit memos, and payment history. It’s tied to NetYield, so it’s always accurate and up-to-date.
“NetYield and Wholesail information matches, 100% of the time. I wouldn’t change anything about the integration,” Iraida said.
Now, 24% of all payments she receives come through Wholesail via ACH or credit card, getting them paid faster. 90% of their customers have accessed Wholesail to manage their account standing. And they’ve reallocated half of the staff once dedicated to AR to focus on other areas of their growing business.
Best of all? Wholesail made the first 90 days easy for Iraida—and their customers. See how Wholesail helps manage the change process from Day 1.
The First 90 Days of Integrating Wholesail with NetYield
Easy Onboarding for No-Stress Integration. Iraida has helped Martinez Seafood & Produce implement new technologies. When Wholesail said they made onboarding easy, she was skeptical.
“We’ve been promised ‘an easy process’ before, and it ended up being chaos. So honestly, I was very, very, very stressed when we added Wholesail,” she said.
Iraida was pleasantly surprised. Her role was to review a few summary worksheets and track down contact information for accounts where there were gaps. Wholesail’s team collaborated with NetYield to handle everything else. It didn’t require any heavy lifting on her part. And Wholesail’s entire platform is intuitive and straightforward, meaning Iraida and her team required minimal time in training with Wholesail’s team.
“NetYield is great for many things like inventory, costs, and sales. If you’re considering adding Wholesail to simplify and automate accounts receivable, I would say 100% do it.”
Enhanced Experience for Customers. Iraida was nervous about getting customers to switch from check to ACH or credit card.
Without much effort, 25% of customers have switched to ACH or credit card through Wholesail, with 20% setting up Autopay. And Iraida plans to work with her dedicated Wholesail Customer Success Manager to create email campaigns to drive Autopay adoption.
Plus, she loves that their customers have the ability to interact with their accounts.
“They know exactly what’s on their invoices and know what they need to do to pay on time. It eliminated their need to even speak to AR. They don’t need a middle person there verifying their accounts, which is a good thing. The customers that have transitioned to Wholesail appreciate that transparency.”
Major Time Savings for Staff. Streamlined processes have allowed Martinez Seafood & Produce to reallocate staff, reducing those focused on AR from eight full time employees down to four. They spend significantly less time sending manual statements, processing and manually reconciling checks, and collecting on overdue accounts.
Iraida is spending 50% less time on AR tasks, thanks in part to better reporting.
“I used to have to pull lengthy reports and spend a lot of time filtering them. With Wholesail, it’s one click and I know exactly what every customer with an outstanding balance owes. I’m not pulling multiple reports. Everything is just all in one.”
Plus, when Iraida has a question, she knows Wholesail’s response will be quick and friendly.
“I’ve worked with other systems where the support was unresponsive or lacked kindness. The customer service at Wholesail is so much better.”
New Customer Form Makes Adding New Accounts Professional and Secure. Before Wholesail, the sales team at Martinez Seafood & Produce relied on faxes, paper copies, and photographs to collect the information to onboard new customers. It was time-consuming and for Iraida, felt unprofessional.
Now, the team can send new customers a single link to their customized Wholesail New Customer Form that allows them to collect the needed information. Customers have the option to set up payment information, leave a payment method on file, or setup Autopay from day one.
“Ultimately, our goal is to become check-free. With Wholesail, we might get there.