Whether you're managing a growing accounts receivable department or you're an A/R department of one, it's important to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Is your A/R team doing all of the right things to get paid consistently and on time? Read further to evaluate your department's effectiveness and considerations to get even better.
Chasing down an unpaid invoice can take away time and resources that could be better served elsewhere in your business. It's important to understand when and how to follow-up on invoices. Obviously you don't want to appear too needy but you don't want your clients getting away with paying late or not at all, either. And when should you get help from a professional collections service?
If you're in sales, and we all are, you've heard the expression that it's cheaper to retain a customer than to get a new one. Sales and marketing is expensive and retention is easier because the relationship has already been established. Instead of losing customers, especially SaaS customers that have been working with you for months or years, let's try to understand why they're leaving.
As if the month of December isn't blurry enough, your accounting department is working on year-end activities. Whether your business is a single-person shop or an enterprise corporation, the end of the year may also be the end of your fiscal year. Common activities during this time will provide insights into your business' financial situation including:
It's time to take a closer look at some of these numbers to figure out exactly how well you're following up on those accounts receivable invoices.
As we've said before, time is money. With that in mind, the last thing you or your sales reps want to do is spend time with a client who:
Timing is also everything. Your salespeople need to be able to identify if the client meets all of your qualifiers and is ready to buy.
Yesterday, the LA Times reported "'Work from Anywhere'" is Here to Stay" noting that tech companies are leading the way to making remote work permanent for their employees. IBM's CEO also stated that even with a predicted COVID vaccine, remote work would continue. It's not a surprise that for technology or digital marketing companies, remote work will be the norm, even after the pandemic. What was a bonus for employees before, has now turned into cost savings for these businesses.
Small businesses and startups must think on their feet, and that includes getting their accounts receivables paid quickly. Business relationships are an integral part of the success and growth of these companies. Protecting these relationships should be a part of the collections process as well.
Communication, especially in the time of remote work and virtual meetings, has never been more important. As a freelancer, agency or business owner, you may also feel distracted or overwhelmed when juggling work, clients and working from home. If you've found client communication especially challenging recently, we've created a few example scripts that we hope will help you.
Does your business suffer from late paying customers? Are you a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants A/R department of one? Do your clients get away with paying your business late or not at all without any consequences?
If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, an accounts receivable collections policy can help you:
Get paid on time
Organize your accounts receivable process so you can handle the job alone
Feel like you have some power if your invoices aren't paid
A recent report by Freelancer.com revealed that freelance jobs increased over 25% in the 2nd quarter of 2020. With the continuation of uncertainty in the pandemic, employers are looking for a more flexible and remote workforce, even replacing some full-time positions with independent workers. Striking out on your own can be daunting but it can be done, and quite successfully.
For this post, we turned to the freelancers on Twitter to learn some hard-earned advice.
