Order to Cash (OTC)
Order to Cash (OTC) is the complete business cycle that begins with a customer committing to a purchase and ends with cash received and recognized in the financial system, encompassing order creation, fulfillment, invoicing, payment collection, and revenue recognition. OTC efficiency directly affects working capital and customer experience: delays or errors at any stage, a misconfigured order, a delayed invoice, an unresolved payment dispute, create friction that can damage the customer relationship even after a deal has been successfully closed. CRM serves as the customer relationship context layer around the OTC process, giving account teams visibility into where a customer is in the cycle and enabling proactive intervention when exceptions arise.
Order to cash is the end-to-end business process from a customer placing an order through to the company receiving payment, spanning order capture, fulfillment, invoicing, and collection. Because it crosses sales, operations, and finance, gaps between systems cause delays and errors. Connecting the CRM into the OTC flow keeps order and customer data consistent from the deal forward, improving both speed and accuracy.
Frequently Asked Questions
The end-to-end process from a customer placing an order to the company receiving payment, covering order capture, fulfillment, invoicing, and collection.