Within an accounting department, a credit manager's job is to determine the creditworthiness and credit risk of clients. By setting up clients in this way, along with the implementation of a credit policy, your accounts receivable department can be more successful, cash flow is boosted and the risk of non-paying clients is reduced.
After the sales team closes the deal and the goods or services have been delivered, the accounts receivable department ensures that your customers meet their payment deadlines. Receiving timely B2B payments reduces potential cash flow issues, ensuring vendors and employees are paid and the business continues growing. An accounts receivable specialist has certain defined responsibilities within the department.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts an above-normal hurricane season. Unfortunately, we've already witnessed the power of Hurricane Ida across the country with much of its impact still to be determined. Just as we've discovered with the COVID-19 pandemic, asking for money during this time seems precarious.
When your customer accounts become delinquent, they may have a number of reasons for not paying on time. Some of these excuses may be perfectly reasonable and others, not so much. If your in-house accounts receivable or collections department is fielding some of these excuses, here are some tips on how to handle them.
The last thing a business owner wants to think about is why their clients or customers aren't paying. It should be a straightforward process - you do the work or supply the goods and they pay their bills. With a little examination of your payment process, you might be able to determine the problem with those slow or late payments.
While it's true that no one could have predicted the pandemic, entrepreneurs started 4 million new businesses in 2020. E-commerce and other online services saw a boom as brick-and-mortar businesses shut down. Then, just as it seems like the world would reopen, the Delta variant has business owners trying to decide what to do next.
While this question will put off sales reps, collections teams may be cheering in their seats. If a sales representative works hard to land the ideal client but the invoice goes unpaid beyond the due date, who should be responsible for connecting with that client? Is a sale really complete if the invoice isn't paid? Do you have a solid process for who follows up and when it becomes necessary for your organization to move the account to collections?
If you've been putting off the headache of collections, you've likely also been asking, "how can I improve my cash flow?" The two go hand-in-hand. When you're not following up on invoices that are getting older, your chances of collecting on them go down. That means you're working for no pay and that's no good.
As if we needed another reason to cheer for Team USA, CEOWORLD Magazine's Entrepreneurship Index for 2021 ranks the United States as the world's most entrepreneurial country. With Forbes magazine noting that nearly all the American billionaires are self-made and a 13-year high in the number of Americans starting their own businesses, the pandemic seems to have inspired new entrepreneurs.
As global markets reopen, inflation is causing corporations of all sizes to reexamine their rates. Supply chains are being affected by higher costs and increased demand for raw materials and labor. According to economists, the inflated costs aren't expected to abate until well into 2022, cutting into profit margins. CEOs are saying that higher costs will last longer than that. If your business operating costs are going up, have you considered charging more for the products and services you offer?
