When clients aren't paying their invoices on time or at all, many businesses will write it off as bad debt simply because of the resources involved with collections. Some business owners are concerned about using a commercial debt collections agency because of the cost or complexity. There may also be apprehension due to mistrust of proper handling the client relationship. Depending on the agency, commercial debt collections doesn't have to be complex or costly.
Here's how your business can send commercial customer accounts to collections.
What You May Not Know About Commercial Collections
Collecting from commercial entities differs from consumer collections, which involves business to consumer relationships. Consumer collections is heavily regulated to protect consumers from abusive collectors. The focus of commercial, business-to-business (B2B), collections is to help businesses recover debts owed from another business. As an example, Enterprise Recovery works with corporate or enterprise businesses to collect on invoices owed to them. A sister company to Enterprise Recovery, BYL Collections, works with businesses who need collections on outstanding debt or bills from a consumer.
While the number of accounts sent to commercial collections may be smaller, the average amount collected for businesses is much higher. A commercial collections agency may also take in only one account per year from a business, as opposed to consumer collections.
Other factors in commercial collections, as it relates to Enterprise Recovery, are:
- The minimum invoice amount that we can recover is $500.
- If your business sends only one account per year to Enterprise Recovery, as long as it meets the minimum amount, we can help you!
- Commercial collection agencies should be bonded and licensed to work in all 50 states.
- Collection fees are contingent on account recovery. This means that if we are unable to collect, your business owes us nothing.
- Your business has 24 hour per day access to your account for reporting and and status.
- We understand that client retention is important. The commercial client sales process is much more challenging and hard-fought. We take a firm but fair approach to collecting.
See also: What makes Business-to-Business (B2B) Different?
What Information is Required to Send Accounts to Collections?
To be successful at collecting on business invoices, commercial collections requires any information as it relates to the contract or agreement, invoicing, and efforts to collect. This data will assist the collections specialists with understanding the account and tracking down reasons for non-payment.
The documents needed to begin the collections process are:
- Purchase Order(s) OR Service Contract(s)
- Outstanding Customer Invoice(s)
- Customer Aging Report
- Any relevant notes or correspondence with your Customer
How to Get Started with a Commercial Debt Collections Agency
Are you ready to get started? Remember it costs absolutely nothing to send an account to collections unless we're able to collect for you. Here's how to sign up:
STEP 1: Go to enterpriserecovery.com (or scroll to the top of this screen) and click the 'Sign-up' link in the main menu.
STEP 2: Complete the registration form and check your inbox for a link to our 30% agreement.
STEP 3: Upload your outstanding customer accounts and track our progress online.
It really is that simple. The purpose of this blog post is to remove any doubts that commercial collections is, at the very least, something to try for those problem accounts that aren't paying their invoices. Enterprise Recovery can also help clean up accounts receivable and pursue the claim through legal means, if needed. Contact us to answer any questions or leave a comment below if you still have concerns.
