One of the most important parts of being an accounts receivable collector is finding a prioritization flow to your day. In order to collect as much of your accounts receivable as possible, you need to determine which accounts need to be contacted first and in what order. Your workflow can make or break how well your accounts receivable team does, and how well your company does based on cash flow.
Many companies have different methods to deciding which accounts to tackle first. You may be reaching out to your customers who tend to have a bad reputation at paying on time or the customers with the largest account balance due. However, these strategies can leave some accounts receivable dollars behind. When you’re only focused on reaching out to a specific bucket of customers, you tend to neglect the rest of your customers.
AGING BUCKETS
The best strategy to starting your day and getting paid faster is by putting your customers into aging buckets on who is the latest past due for 31-60 days, 61-90 days, 91-120 days and 121 plus days. Work your way backward by reaching out to the customers that are in the 121 plus days bucket. By working down through a list, you are most likely to reach out to the most accounts. You can continue down your list until each customer is touched. After reaching out, you can schedule follow ups to be sure the customer follows up on their promise to pay.
Find the best and most efficient method to start your day in accounts receivable can be tricky. You want to put pressure on the riskiest accounts, especially those that owe you a lot, but can’t simply ignore the rest of those that owe you money. By working through an aging list, you can be sure to hit all accounts, not just those that need the heat. This method helps you to collect from everybody.
