Buzz.ai is an AI-driven sales engagement platform in hyper-growth mode, serving a global client base.
By early 2025, the company had reached eight-figure annual revenue, but its billing and collections process struggled to keep up. Two remote team members in the Philippines manually handled invoicing via Slack and Stripe, requiring multiple approvals and constant follow-ups.
This not only drained over 80 hours per month in productivity, but also tied up leadership in billing tasks and stalled cash collection.
LedgerUp partnered with Buzz.ai to implement “Ari,” an AI revenue assistant embedded in Slack. Ari now automates the entire quote-to-cash cycle – from generating invoices in Stripe when deals close in HubSpot, to chasing down payments and reconciling records – all through conversational Slack interactions.
The impact was immediate and profound. Invoice collection speed improved by ~75%, accelerating Buzz’s cash flow. The team recovered $40,000+ in past-due revenue within weeks of deployment. Sales reps no longer waste time on billing admin, freeing up roughly 80 hours monthly to focus on closing deals.
Perhaps most importantly, the Buzz team gained real-time visibility into receivables and a newfound peace of mind.
As CRO Joshua Ethier put it:
"Quote-to-cash has definitely been expedited… You don’t have to worry about it. [It’s] not keeping me up at 2 in the morning”.
Company Snapshot
Before and After: At a Glance
Operational Efficiency: Automating Quote-to-Cash
For Buzz.ai’s leadership, the immediate appeal of LedgerUp was relieving a huge operational headache.
Before, every new sale triggered a clunky series of hand-offs: a sales rep closed a deal in HubSpot, then pinged a Slack channel with contract details; two billing specialists in the Philippines would pick it up and manually create a customer and subscription in Stripe, generate an invoice, then post back to Slack for the rep to send to the client.
This process was labor-intensive and error-prone – and it couldn’t keep up with Buzz’s growth. “Our old billing lady was ... stubborn... she was definitely a snail’s pace compared to Ari,” admits Gareth Myhal, Buzz’s VP of Sales. “It created a lot of back and forth” between the remote billing team and sales reps, slowing deals and causing frustration.
After implementing LedgerUp, those manual steps have been replaced by a single, integrated flow.
When a deal moves to “Closed Won” in HubSpot, Ari springs into action behind the scenes – creating the customer in Stripe, auto-generating the invoice (with the correct plan, term, and any discounts), and even scheduling follow-up reminders.
All of this is surfaced through Slack: the team can interact with Ari in natural language, ask it to adjust an invoice or approve an exception, and get instant updates.
What used to require multiple people and status meetings now happens with a quick Slack command.
Routine approvals that once clogged the pipeline are no longer an issue. “The four or five people getting tagged for approval used to drive me [crazy],” Joshua Ethier recalls.
With Ari’s workflow automation, those approval bottlenecks have vanished – deals flow from quote to cash with minimal human intervention.
“What was truly broken before was how manual and ad hoc it all was. Our billing reps worked 9-to-5, but our sales guys might close a deal at 9 PM – guess who was having to hammer out the invoice at midnight? I was. It was definitely not the best use of my time. Now, those invoices go out instantly, whether it’s noon or 2 AM. It’s a lot more efficient and has freed up my time for more important things.”— Joshua Ethier, CRO, Buzz.ai
By automating the quote-to-cash process, LedgerUp enabled Buzz to redeploy its human talent to higher-value work.
The two full-time billing coordinators who were once typing up invoices all day could be reassigned (or avoided hiring altogether), and Buzz’s CRO and co-founders no longer spend late nights double-checking billing.
Ari handles tasks in seconds that took employees hours, and does so with greater accuracy (no more forgotten discounts or duplicate invoices).
The operational impact is not just speed, but consistency: every step happens the same way every time, following best practices built into LedgerUp.
“All of this is done via Slack, so it’s super easy to delegate,” LedgerUp’s founder Joseph Johnson explained during onboarding.
For Buzz, that meant even a junior sales rep can trigger the entire billing workflow without needing to know the intricacies of Stripe or accounting. In short, LedgerUp turned a formerly tedious process into a competitive advantage – one that scales as Buzz grows.
Financial Impact: Faster Collections, Real-Time Cash Flow
The efficiency gains quickly translated into bottom-line improvements.
With Ari taking over invoice follow-ups, customers pay faster – significantly faster. Buzz estimates that its average collection time (from invoice sent to payment received) has improved by about 75% since deploying LedgerUp, thanks to timely, automated reminders and the removal of manual delays.
In practical terms, this means improved cash flow and fewer receivables languishing overdue. In fact, within the first month, Ari surfaced and recovered over $40,000 in past-due revenue that had accumulated under the old process.
These were payments from clients that previously required repeated human outreach; Ari was able to systematically identify them and “hound” them (politely) until they paid – a task that would have required substantial human time or might never have happened at all.
Internally, Buzz’s finance team now has real-time visibility into cash collection. Every invoice status (sent, viewed, paid, overdue) is tracked and can be queried on-the-fly. Ethier notes that they have “better visibility into deals in progress now than we did in the past… [the] quote-to-cash process has definitely been expedited”. Instead of waiting for a monthly aging report or pinging a billing person for updates, leadership can simply ask Ari in Slack: e.g. “How much did we collect today?” or “Which invoices are overdue?” The AI provides up-to-the-minute answers, enabling proactive decisions. For example, if a big payment hasn’t come in, the sales rep and Ari are already on it that same day, rather than management discovering it weeks later. This real-time cash flow tracking gives Buzz confidence to make faster budgeting and investment decisions, knowing the state of receivables at any moment.
Financially, LedgerUp’s solution also drove cost savings. By eliminating the need for outsourced billing labor (previously two remote staff) and reducing reliance on senior executives to intervene, Buzz saves an estimated 80+ hours of work each month. Those hours translate into tens of thousands of dollars in operational cost that can be reallocated to growth activities. “I wouldn’t even want to calculate how much [the old process] cost the company,” Ethier quipped, highlighting how inefficient it was to have highly-paid leaders performing data entry. Now, that hidden cost is gone. In summary, the LedgerUp implementation improved Buzz’s working capital position (faster cash in hand), cleaned up aging receivables (turning lost revenue into found money), and avoided substantial personnel expense – a trifecta of financial wins for the company.
Team & Cultural Impact: An AI Teammate That Boosts Morale
Beyond the numbers, one of the most striking impacts has been on Buzz’s team culture. Initially, one might expect that introducing an AI agent to handle what humans used to do could be met with skepticism or fear. At Buzz, the reaction has been the opposite – Ari has become a beloved “digital colleague”. The sales and revenue teams quickly realized that Ari wasn’t there to replace them, but to empower them by taking grunt work off their plate. As a result, morale has noticeably improved. Reps who used to get bogged down chasing invoices or wrangling billing issues can now focus on selling, which is what they do best. And they’re hitting their numbers without the previous frustration. As Gareth Myhal observed, when billing was slow, “guys were just like, ‘get the invoice [out], my client’s trying to pay!’” – that friction is now gone. If a payment is delayed or an issue arises, “it’s a lot better to let them just argue with Ari, for sure,” he jokes. No human feelings are hurt if someone vents to the AI, and Ari will tirelessly keep working to solve the issue. This has taken pressure off the interpersonal dynamics of the team.
Perhaps the most unexpected benefit has been how seamlessly Ari blended into Buzz’s Slack culture. Far from a stiff automation tool, Ari was designed by LedgerUp to have a bit of personality. He responds in a friendly, professional tone – and even has a sense of humor. The Buzz team took notice. “He’s really articulate… very conversational,” Myhal says, praising the AI’s human-like touch. “You guys have done a tremendous job making him very conversational. He articulates the ideas you give him in a way that you can’t really tell it’s AI… the conversational tone, him being able to joke with people, poke and prod at the team members – love it.” This level of engagement is something you don’t get with typical software. Ari doesn’t just post updates; he interacts. Team members have been known to say “thank you” to Ari or include him in light-hearted banter during Slack discussions. In essence, Ari has been embedded as a proactive, always-on team member who never sleeps, never complains, and always has the latest info. New hires are introduced to Ari on their first day, just like a real coworker. That kind of cultural adoption speaks volumes about the trust and enthusiasm Buzz’s employees have in the tool. It’s not often that a finance automation can become part of the fabric of the company’s culture, but Ari achieved that at Buzz.
Next Steps and Expansion
With billing now running like a well-oiled machine, Buzz.ai is looking to expand its partnership with LedgerUp to even more areas of revenue operations. One immediate next step is leveraging the rich data that Ari gathers to improve sales strategy. Ethier notes that they’d love to analyze “the gap between a HubSpot quote being sent and cash collected” in finer detail – essentially extending their sales funnel analytics all the way to money in the bank. By identifying patterns (for example, which reps or customer segments tend to have slower payments), Buzz can implement targeted coaching or process tweaks to improve those metrics. Ari is already tracking metrics like how many invoices are unpaid or overdue in real time; the next phase is turning those insights into alerts and dashboards for management. This will help Buzz ensure that as they scale, no revenue slips through the cracks and every team member stays accountable for their part in the revenue cycle
Buzz is also planning to roll out LedgerUp’s capabilities to new markets and use cases. As the company launches an international sales team, they anticipate more complexity in billing (multiple currencies, localized payment methods, etc.). LedgerUp’s platform is set to handle these seamlessly, and Ari will be trained on any new workflows so that the billing process remains just as smooth globally as it is now in the U.S. Additionally, Buzz’s leadership is exploring using Ari in other financial processes – for example, automating customer contract renewals or churn follow-ups. LedgerUp’s modular design means Ari can easily be expanded to handle related tasks like sending renewal reminders or alerting the sales team of an upcoming contract expiration. The vision is to have Ari act as a proactive revenue guardian across the customer lifecycle: not just billing and collections, but also ensuring customers are retained and possibly even identifying upsell opportunities through usage data. Given the success of the initial deployment, Buzz is eager to continue as a design partner for these new features, helping shape how LedgerUp’s AI can drive even more value.
Both Buzz.ai and LedgerUp view this partnership as long-term. The Buzz team’s feedback has already influenced LedgerUp’s product roadmap (for instance, improving features for amending subscriptions mid-term and integrating more contract data). As new needs arise, Ari’s capabilities will grow in tandem. For Buzz, having an AI teammate handling an ever-larger share of revenue operations means they can scale without worrying that back-office processes will bog things down. It’s a clear win-win: Buzz gets to stay lean and efficient as it grows, and LedgerUp gets a happy customer willing to push the envelope on what its AI can do.
Frequently Asked Questions About LedgerUp
How long does it take to implement LedgerUp's AI billing assistant in my existing tech stack?
Most companies can get LedgerUp's Ari up and running within 1-2 weeks. The implementation connects seamlessly with your existing tools like HubSpot, Stripe, and Slack. As Buzz.ai discovered, the onboarding process is straightforward – LedgerUp's team handles the technical setup while training Ari on your specific billing workflows and business rules.
Will LedgerUp's AI actually reduce my billing team headcount or just make them more efficient?
Both scenarios are possible depending on your goals. Buzz.ai was able to reassign two full-time billing coordinators to higher-value work and avoided additional hiring as they scaled. LedgerUp's AI handles the repetitive tasks that consume 80+ hours monthly, allowing your team to focus on strategic initiatives, customer relationships, and exception handling rather than manual data entry.
How does LedgerUp ensure accuracy when automating invoice generation and payment collection?
Ari follows the exact business rules and workflows you establish during setup, ensuring consistency across every transaction. Unlike manual processes prone to human error, Ari never forgets discounts, never creates duplicate invoices, and processes everything the same way every time. Buzz.ai reported greater accuracy after implementation compared to their previous manual system.
Can LedgerUp handle complex billing scenarios like multi-currency, subscription amendments, and custom payment terms?
Yes, LedgerUp is built to handle sophisticated billing requirements. The platform supports multiple currencies, localized payment methods, and complex subscription models. Buzz.ai is currently expanding LedgerUp's use to their international markets. The AI can be trained on any unique workflows or edge cases specific to your business.
What happens if our sales team closes deals outside of normal business hours?
This is one of LedgerUp's key advantages. Ari works 24/7, instantly processing deals whenever they close. As Buzz.ai's CRO noted, invoices now go out immediately whether it's "noon or 2 AM," eliminating the bottleneck of waiting for billing staff to come online. Your sales velocity is no longer constrained by office hours.
How quickly can LedgerUp help us recover outstanding revenue and improve cash flow?
Results are typically immediate. Buzz.ai recovered over $40,000 in past-due revenue within the first month of deployment. Their average collection time improved by 75% thanks to automated follow-ups and the elimination of manual delays. Ari systematically identifies and follows up on overdue accounts that might otherwise be forgotten.
Will our team actually adopt an AI assistant, or will there be resistance to the change?
Buzz.ai's experience shows that teams quickly embrace Ari when they realize it's eliminating tedious work, not replacing jobs. The conversational Slack interface feels natural, and Ari's personality (including humor) helps with adoption. New hires at Buzz are introduced to Ari on day one, just like meeting a new colleague.
How does LedgerUp integrate with our existing CRM and payment systems?
LedgerUp connects directly with popular platforms including HubSpot, Salesforce, Stripe, and other major CRMs and payment processors. The integration is API-based and doesn't require replacing any existing systems. When a deal closes in your CRM, Ari automatically handles everything downstream through your connected platforms.
What kind of ROI can we expect from implementing LedgerUp?
While results vary, Buzz.ai saw multiple areas of return: 80+ hours saved monthly, 75% faster payment collection, $40,000 recovered in the first month, and the elimination of outsourced billing costs. The combination of faster cash flow, reduced operational costs, and improved team productivity typically delivers ROI within the first quarter.
Can LedgerUp scale with our company as we grow from startup to enterprise?
Absolutely. LedgerUp's architecture is designed to scale seamlessly. Unlike hiring more billing staff as you grow, Ari handles increased volume without additional cost or complexity. Buzz.ai views their LedgerUp partnership as long-term, with plans to expand Ari's role as they scale internationally and add new revenue streams.
Book a LedgerUp Demo Today
Transform your quote-to-cash process just like Buzz.ai did. See how LedgerUp's AI billing assistant can recover lost revenue, accelerate cash collection by 75%, and give your team back 80+ hours every month.
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