Growfin vs. Upflow: Why Real-Time Data Matters More Than Ever

Accounts Receivable (AR) is no longer just a back-office function—it plays an important part in the customer experience, impacting customer retention, and your business’s ability to grow sustainably.

As the AR landscape evolves, new entrants like Growfin bring new ands experimental features to the table. But when it comes to building a reliable, future-proof AR solution, innovation alone isn’t enough.

Foundational elements like real-time data integration, seamless customer engagement, and robust, reliable integrations are critical for success.

Growfin: A potentially promising future player, with current gaps in the basics.

Growfin has made a name for itself as an aggressive new entrant and a challenger brand in the AR space.

Their unique approach has been to prioritize a vast breadth of new, experimental features in their product to bring elements to market that others don’t have and differentiate in this way. Their tool is attractive to trailblazer profiles who are eager to break from the established standards and take a different, experimental direction.

But this focus on differentiation means nice-to-have, acquisition-focused features are prioritized over ensuring the delivery of a performant, comprehensive, dependable solution for finance leaders to improve outcomes while managing high-growth businesses.

Where Growfin falls short

1. Growfin’s lag in ERP data integrations increases risk of disconnected systems

   Growfin’s ERP integrations suffer from a minimum 20-minute sync delay. While this may seem minor, the possibility of error (and therefore negative customer consequences) is significant.

   Disconnected systems and delayed updates mean working with stale information, leading to potential errors and wasted time. Imagine sending payment reminders for invoices that the customer already paid, at scale. It’s critical to recognize that your AR processes are important customer touch points with real negative implicate on the relationships your business has invested in and built for the long-term.

   Upflow’s native integrations deliver real-time synchronization with a range of ERPs, billing tools, and accounting systems, ensuring your financial data is always up to date. This allows our customers to track key metrics and interact with their customers with complete confidence, knowing they’re always working with up-to-date information.

   “Our NetSuite and Upflow systems are really talking to each other. There's no double entry. Everything we indicate in Upflow gets transferred to Netsuite. Every time we get a client that pays into NetSuite, it automatically uploads and the information is in real-time in Upflow.” - Francis Poirier, President of Pedlex

   “Easy to use (for admin and user), fully integrated with NetSuite, and a top customer service (for the rare case we need it).” - Upflow user on G2

   “Data integration from SAP is slow, and navigation is also slow.” - Growfin user on G2

   “At times sync issues, data sync from our Zoho to Growfin takes time.” - Growfin user on G2

2. Growfin doesn’t have a DNS integration with Gmail

   Customer emails sent from inside Growfin are not set up via a direct DNS integration with Gmail. Not only does this mean the emails aren’t associated with your company’s domain, but also means emails are sent from alias addresses, which usually results in emails landing in spam folders and also that they are missing from your Gmail sent section. This reduces efficiency and, more importantly, damages your domain reputation and email open rates, and in turn, destroys your customer relationships.

   Upflow offers a seamless DNS integration, ensuring emails are delivered reliably and come not only from your company’s domain but are sent directly, 1:1, from your employee's real email addresses to your customers, rather than from a generic ‘finance@’ or ‘noreply@’ email address - almost definite leading to the Spam folder.

   Furthermore, our AR Inbox centralizes all inbound email communication within the platform, creating a single point of truth for collaboration, and making Upflow a true customer engagement tool that integrates payment processes with your broader customer experience strategy.

   Upflow merchants regularly outperform industry averages for email open rates of around 28%, and consistently achieve an average of 50-80% - ensuring their invoices are seen and addressed promptly by customers.

   This not only eliminates potential disconnects and delays, but fosters ‘person-to-person’ relationship & communication, and a positive payment experience for customers. The high open rate also reduces the need for reactive collection efforts from PlayPlay, saving them additional time and resources.

   “Growfin mail should be like Gmail so it will add more efficiency and frequency of use” - Growfin user on G2.

3. Lack of US support and sales hours

   Without US-based support or sales hours, Growfin leaves finance leaders in North America at a disadvantage when they need help or strategic guidance.

   Upflow, on the other hand, has customer teams physically based in the US and Europe, ensuring you have access to support and expertise when you need it most, regardless of time zone.

How Upflow delivers beyond flashy features

Upflow isn’t just about automating accounts receivable—it’s about transforming how businesses think about receiving payment and building long-term customer relationships.

1. A unique Vision for Accounts Receivables

   While many AR tools stop at simple automating collections, Upflow goes further. Our Financial Relationship Management (FRM) platform connects cash collection to both the bottom line and the customer relationships critical for business success.

   We empower businesses to transition from chasing invoices to engaging customers. Like a CRM for Finance, Upflow empowers you to speak to your customers as individuals, tailoring the payment experience to them and ensuring you're reaching the right person at the right time and place - specifically within the finance pillar of the customer journey.

   Find out more about Upflow Financial Relationship Management.

2. Real-time, seamless integration

   Upflow’s 3-click native integrations with ERPs, billing systems, and accounting platforms ensure you’re always working with accurate, up-to-date information. This enables effective decision-making, efficient resource allocation, and better cash flow management.

3. A human-to-human approach to cash collection follow-up

   Upflow ensures every communication is human-centric, with automated emails coming from a real, named person in your company to a real person on the customer side. This approach helps turn routine payment reminders into opportunities to strengthen customer relationships and improve retention.

4. Simplicity without compromise

   Upflow’s intuitive interface ensures teams can onboard quickly and start seeing value in days—not weeks or months. By removing unnecessary complexity, we’ve created a platform that works for both finance professionals and non-finance team members alike.

Choosing the Right AR Solution for Your Business

Growfin may appeal to someone eager to try a new direction and to be seen to break from the pack. But getting the collection's basics right and having a proven, reliable, and performant solution is invariably where the best results are unlocked. For finance leaders driven by results, Upflow is the clear choice.

With Upflow, you’re not just investing in software—you’re partnering with a service partner who understands the strategic role AR plays in your business. From real-time integrations to customer-centric workflows, Upflow is designed to help you not only get paid faster but to build stronger customer relationships for the long term.

Try Upflow for free with our Discover plan!