Setting up and using an accounts receivable process can make a world of difference in your day to day collection efforts. Without one, the collection process becomes unorganized and chaotic. It’s hard to keep up with who needs to be called next, who has already received an email or who still needs their invoice sent out. This leads to late paying customers sometimes flying under the radar. Coming up with a consistent accounts receivable process helps to keep your collection representatives on track and increases the likelihood on collecting on all the open accounts.

Here are some tasks that your accounts receivable process should include.

SENDING OUT CONSISTENT EMAILS

Every time an invoice goes late, an email should be sent out reminding the customer to pay. This should be done consistently after 30, 45 and 60 days until the customer pays. Without consistency, the customer may completely forget about the invoice. With constant reminders, they may even begin to pay without needing an email.

FOLLOW UP CALLS

Sending emails is not always enough. Spam filters can block certain emails from ever even making it into a customer’s inbox. This is why you should always include follow up calls to customers in your accounts receivable process. After sending an invoice or reminder email, give the customer a call and make sure they received it. A customer is much more likely to responding and react immediately with a call, as opposed to an email.

REGULAR CREDIT CHECKS

Set some time aside to look through accounts and see how customers are doing. If it seems like their payments are slipping, maybe it is time to reconsider their credit limit or credit terms. By conducting regular credit checks, you can catch a problem account before an issue even arises.

AUTOMATED ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE SOFTWARE

Trying to add all the above tasks into your already busy schedule can seem very daunting. How will you keep up with even more emails to send or more calls to make? Using automated accounts receivable software takes away the stress of reaching out to every customer. Automated emails can be scheduled to go out to any customer that is past 30, 60 or 90 days due. Collectors can work through a call list and make phone calls right from the system that are recorded and transcribed. This takes the manual tasks off your list of things to do.

The key to a good accounts receivable process is being consistent. You never want the customer to forget about you and you do that by following up often. Although it seems like a lot of work, using an automated accounts receivable software takes off a lot of the pressure by doing the simple tasks for you. All you have to worry about is collecting your cash.