Chasing down late payments is no one's idea of fun. Have you considered making it easier for your clients to pay what's owed to you? To protect your cash flow and increase working capital, it may be time to consider some updates to your accounts receivable and invoicing process.
As more people quit their jobs for better benefits and work-life balance, 32% of Americans have turned to entrepreneurship. Many entrepreneurs started their businesses alongside their full-time jobs, consulting or providing services to friends or businesses in their professional network. If you're looking to take the leap in the next year, allow us to offer some valuable advice and lessons learned.
If there's any solid business advice I could offer to anyone, it would be this: Always follow up.
For many reasons, a follow-up email or phone call is essential in achieving results. Often, however, some people don't feel comfortable reaching out again after a meeting, discussion or event. They're worried their ask is a chore or they're being too pushy. In fact, a friendly follow-up may just be what's required to seal the deal.
If you're looking for a positive way to reach out to your clients, a survey may be the way to go. There's lots of available survey research but this post will narrow it down to some best practices and questions to include.
When entrepreneurs are growing a business, they may often use the phrase "wears many hats." Employees are often taking on many different tasks to remain agile on the path to profitability. As more employees are hired for specific duties, small teams develop. While these teams focus on the demands of their responsibilities, success is found when they continue to work together.
With the holidays quickly approaching, it can be easy to fall under the notion that your customer payments will arrive as usual. In reality, some businesses will shut down for weeks during the holiday season, narrowing the window for paying invoices. Instead of watching your working capital fall short, you can prepare in advance.
When your business needs to make a call to get invoices paid, make sure your accounts receivable and collections specialists are using the right language and abilities. Successful calls are handled by skilled collections specialists with the qualities of persistence, confidence, great listening skills, and training. When emails aren't bringing those late payments current, these call script examples may help.
When you think of the phrase cash flow, you may have a vision of money flowing into and out of your business. In this vision, your clients are seamlessly paying their debts to you and you're paying all of your bills and expenses. Cash flow management is the process of maintaining that flow of money, hopefully increasing positive cash flow, where more money comes in than goes out.
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.
