Credit control accountancy services

Unless you agree a payment date with your customer, they must pay you within 30 days of getting your invoice or the goods or service.

Setting up your own payment terms, such as discounts for early payment or upfront payment can help if you have any cashflow problems.

The best solution to debt collection is to be proactive. It is all too easy for a customer to ignore emails, so in cases where this is happening, pick up the phone and give them a call. It is much harder to avoid a topic of conversation on a call than it is an email and once you raise with the customer, you may well find they are more than happy to settle shortly after.

If you continue to have issues, don’t be afraid to reduce the payment terms or request payments upfront for future products/services. It shows you aren’t willing to continue with the payment relationship as it is and helps reduce your exposure to risk, should that customer become a bad debt in the future.

There are two primary ways to reduce time spent on your billing process:

1) Technology – Cloud software can save you plenty of time if used effectively, e.g. repetitive fees can be automatically raised and emailed on a periodic basis. Spending a little time to set them up now can save significantly more time down the line.

2) Process – If the process feels too cumbersome, then it probably is. Go through the process and critically view each step and it’s importance to identify which areas aren’t necessary and better yet, which tasks can be better managed through use of cloud technology platform and automation.