My Top 3 tips to make sure you are prepared as the Credit Crisis comes to an end:
- Look into e-invoicing or emailing your invoices and statements to customers that are open to receiving them this way. An alternative is to offer a secure portion of your website where a customer can log in and download any invoices and statements and make a payment online.
- Start calling late paying customers more often. Calling customers is the most effective way to collect more money.
- Start putting past due customer on credit “hold” – when someone is past due hold their order until they are current and maybe re-evaluate their credit limit, or how you want to be paid moving forward.
Doing one or all of these things can help your business stay in business as the economic crisis comes to an end. You can continue with these practices moving forward and it will help you to protect your businesses biggest asset, it’s cash flow. “Almost two-thirds of the A/R professionals we polled told us that 2009 was worse than or about the same as 2008 financially,” said IARP CEO Tom Bohn. In view of this now is the time to focus on your credit department and make sure it is strong moving forward. Once you streamline your collection efforts, you will be in a much better position as we go through 2010 and into 2011.
Tags: collect, Credit Crisis, invoices, money, payments, Recession