Challenge

Before PATPOST was developed, Orix employees struggled with finding data files on their internal online storage platform. They initiated a project aimed at solving this problem. Also, due to the revision of the Electronic Books Maintenance Act, Japanese businesses are now required to save documents exchanged in digital format – such as invoices, estimates, receipts, and account books – as electronic data. Orix began to design a service with the assumption that other companies were also encountering difficulties managing large quantities of electronic documents.

“Managing and searching documents consumes a large number of work hours and affects both productivity and revenue. We hope to have as many companies as possible using PATPOST to work toward achieving their own digital transformation,” said Chisato Ushio, digital strategy promotion office manager of Orix’s corporate sales headquarters. “We insisted on developing it with a simple UI that anyone can easily operate at a low cost, and without developing large-scale systems or significantly changing the workflow on-site.”

During the development of PATPOST, Orix conducted a comprehensive search for a payment system, comparing approximately 10 different services until it ultimately chose Stripe.

Solution

The business had three important criteria for a payment system: low credit management costs, an ability to completely automate the collection of service fees and the payment of referral commissions, and low payment costs.

“PATPOST’s value lies in its compliance with laws relating to business documents, particularly electronic transaction data related to federal taxes and such. We were also looking at automating the payment of commissions for introductions to corporate clients from tax specialists and accountants, something that we’re able to do with Stripe Connect,” said Ushio.

One major component of the decision to use Stripe was that it would generate considerable customisation costs using other services. Also, the ability to send reminder emails for outstanding debts as part of the standard service was another important benefit for PATPOST, which focuses on cost reduction.

Stripe’s solutions also made the contract process more efficient. According to Ushio, Stripe has eliminated the need to conduct preliminary reviews of companies applying to use PATPOST, speeding up the contract process. Stripe also conducts thorough reviews of parties receiving payments through customer referral contracts, which saves Orix money.

The partnership between Stripe and Orix began in April 2022, and the service was released in May 2023 after a development period of approximately one year. During this time, Stripe provided support for the following:

• Scheduling payment of funds
  
• Collaborating on the review of applications when concluding customer referral contracts
  
• Collaborating on trial periods, the addition and removal of IDs, and the annual renewal process
  
• Collaborating on the display of invoice history and payment history for referral commissions on a management dashboard
  
• Organising the requirements for recognising revenue
  

Stripe’s professional services team provided Orix with ongoing expertise and support through workshops and Q&A sessions. These enabled Orix to build the structure for its platform business model, helping it consider not just payment systems, but also introductory prices and flexible subscription pricing to match different customer types, as well as taking advantage of paid support after service releases.

Stripe’s support team helped navigate several issues, from handling the regulation around the invoicing system and the Electronic Books Maintenance Act to operational tasks such as bank transfers and revenue recognition. In particular, when defining the requirements for revenue recognition services, Stripe took time to conduct careful recognition matching and dealt with every problem that arose while building the system.

Since invoices are paid on an annual basis, it’s important to recognise revenue proportionally over the time period that the service is provided (the term of service). “The professional services team at Stripe provided support for everything from conducting tests on both regular and irregular sample data to putting together the operation of the actual processing method,” said Ushio. “This was a major contribution to our ability to properly account for and process a large number of transactions going forward.”

Results

Through the introduction of Stripe’s payment system, PATPOST has been able to provide efficient services while reducing payment fees and removing the need for most manual operations.

“In the future, we expect to expand services and functions – such as compatibility with the invoicing system – to be introduced in October 2023, including a function that enables identification and comparison of the registration number of the qualified invoicing entity listed on the invoice,” said Ushio. Orix is also looking into ways to quickly propose useful financial services to companies using the service based on data stored in PATPOST, such as invoices and receipts. It’s also exploring adding new payment plans and billing systems to match these changes, such as optional fees and pay-as-you-go billing.

The product continues to be developed while searching for the right market fit, and billing systems are being optimised to fit these changes. Stripe solutions make this all possible with minimal configuration, and Stripe’s support helps Orix grow its subscription business.