dealing with debts!

Chasing up outstanding invoices and customers who don’t follow your invoice terms is one of the inevitable challenges of being in business. Once you’ve done the work and sent the invoice, it is so important to enforce the payment conditions you have stipulated, because this will have a significant impact on your ability to manage your business and maintain strong, positive cash-flow. If your money is not in your bank account, you can’t spend it on the things that your business needs. 

Here are some tips for following up late payers:

• Make it a part of your everyday job – it is an important part of your business and needs to be a specific part of someones day to day role. A Bookkeeper can help to follow up your customers payments for you, alleviating the stress and load.

• Schedule debt collection calls during the working week (not on the weekend when people are less likely to answer business calls).

• Come up with payment terms that work for both you and the customer paying late i.e. paying regular instalments rather than receiving a large bill.
  
  

If you have a current Xero subscription, there are multiple ‘add-on’ debtor management software programs that you can utilise to help make this process simpler and more streamlined for you, ultimately saving you time and allowing you to invest that saved energy into your business and building positive customer relationships, rather than chasing debts and unpaid invoices.

Some examples include:

• Xero – Debtor Daddy, ezyCollect, debtograph
• MYOB – DEBT Collect Plus, InvoiceSherpa, ezyCollect

Debt collection is something that will start the moment you have money owed to you. It must be a priority as it can have a large effect on your business. 
Laguna Bay Bookkeeping are experienced in helping to chase debtors. If this is something we can help you with, visit our website or email hello@lagunabaybookkeeping.com.au
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