Janet Barton 01254 777394

Not sure if it can work for you?

Sounds too good to be true?

Just try some or all of these Top Tips, and when you see the improvement in your cashflow, just think how much your business could benefit from all the rest of the knowledge and experience that comes from outsourcing your credit control to Janet Barton.

Don't wait till it money is overdue!  It may sound wierd, but you can ring up before the money is due.  About a week before is best.  Say that you just want to check that they received the invoice and that its ok to be paid.  This will remind the customer that you have an invoice, and give you time to sort out any reasons they may give for it not being ok to be paid.

Don't be fobbed off with excuses or 'I'll sort it out'.  It does take years of experience to deal with every excuse for late payments and to get a payment date out of even the vaguest accounts staff!   If you struggle with the fobbers and excusers then you need to give me a ring!  Alternatively, if someone is vague you can ask them to be more specific about when they will be paid, and how and when the payment is coming. 

Never feel awkward about ringing round for money.  Most businesses DON'T PAY until you have phoned.  A growing number now don't even process your invoice for payment until you phone.  So don't look on ringing round as an unecessary chore, look on it as you fulfilling your part of the customer's payment process.

Get regular payments coming in by standing order.  If you supply services or goods on a regular repeat basis then take payments by standing order.  Set up the standing orders at the selling stage and you'll never have to wonder when they will pay.  It also takes a lot more effort to cancel a standing order than to just not pay a cheque.  Standing order payments are great for cashflow.

Send out invoices as soon as the goods or services are supplied.  The sooner a customer receives your invoice, the sooner the 30 days starts to run and the sooner you can phone up to see when you can be paid, then the sooner you'll get paid.  Invoice weekly ideally, but never later than the end of the month.

Get to the bottom of queries on invoices.  If payments are delayed because invoices need credits, investigate what is going wrong that is making the order/delivery/invoice wrong.  If its a recurring problem then get it fixed to remove excuse for late customer payments.

Give the customer everything they need.  If they need a signed delivery note or goods received note, or any other form of signed confirmation of delivery before they process the payment, then make sure they get this with the invoice.  Don't wait for them to phone up and ask for it... because they won't.

Remember that a sale isn't a sale until the money is in the bank.  If you were waiting for an order to come in, you'd keep contacting the customer to try and gee it along, yet once the order is in, too many businesses are too busy chasing the next sale and don't pay attention to when the money comes in.  Businesses with good cash flow give accounts receivables the same attention and status as sales - without money coming in there is no sale.

Sounds Interesting and Useful?  There's an awful lot more - get in touch for a no-obligation, no cost informal chat.  01254 777394