Tag: internal collection tips

The holidays are almost upon us once again! For most of us, this is a time of year for family and friends, gathering together, and enjoying good food, good company and football! As the summer fades and fall begins, it’s also a good time to begin planning your end-of-year strategy for past-due accounts and the collections department in general.

Professionals in the credit and collections business point to certain key elements that improve overall collectability of accounts once they reach the point when they are placed into collections. The factor that is nearly universally agreed upon is age of the account from date of last sale at the time when it’s placed into collections. There are, however, other important factors that should be considered, many of which begin before a sale ever takes place.

Since the beginning of the economic downturn several years ago, many companies have been trying to do more with less people as a way to compensate for depressed sales and increased bad debt. Often times, this creates a work flow gap, especially in the accounts receivable department. As staff count decreases, companies quickly reach a point of diminishing returns where there is not enough staff to adequately cover all the tasks required to meet internal credit and collection policies. As a result, accounts that should have been recovered in-house prior to going to an agency age past the point of collectability and cause a greater loss of profit.

Sometimes it happens. It could be a long-time client with whom you have a great relationship or a new customer you hardly know. They miss their due date, they break promises and now they are not even responding. What do you do? In today’s business environment, you don’t want to risk losing any client – but are they really a client if they are not paying you?