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Most
small businesses greet the collections process the same way they would
greet a venomous snake in their kitchen. No one wants to deal with it
until their life is at stake-or in this case their business. With some
preparation and a little courage, you can charm the snake right out of
your business.
You
may want to keep your records yourself, hire a third party or invest in a
software program. To get started, consider these important
questions:
How
will I keep track of overdue accounts? There are a number of
bookkeeping software programs on the market that will help keep track of
customers (each with different terms) buying on credit throughout the
month. You can also create a report by hand, but manually keeping records
of this magnitude may be a liability to your business when software
programs are cheap and user-friendly.
How
often should I review my accounts? Exercise some flexibility. You may
want to review some accounts that are 30 days overdue on the 35th day and
some on the 40th day. Doing this will prevent 40 files one day and none
the next. This is also a task that can be handed to a team member to
do.
How
do I verify that the accounts on my report are still overdue? You will
need to coordinate your account files with the record-keeping system that
tracks your sales and payments-whether it is a ledger or a software
program.
To
discuss any of these ideas or for assistance implementing an organized
collections process, please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to
assist you. |
