Commercial Collections Billing Practices Advice

Swiftness is the key to collecting past due commercial accounts because commercial accounts depreciate more faster than consumer accounts.

In creating and implementing a billing system, a credit grantor should recognize that time is the safest refuge of any debtor. The more time they are given, the less likely they are to pay. Hence, sales documents should be explicit about payment terms, return privileges, interest charges on overdue accounts, guarantee and service costs.

Various Commercial Collection Programs Used

A series of letters used together with an account aging sheet or data printout will help to track slow-paying accounts.

All systems should have an organized and mechanical follow-up of accounts at regular intervals, for instance, 30, 60 and 90 days past due.

It is essential to establish regular billing and commercial collections procedures. Follow up on every account to the point where contact-or lack of contact-with the customer indicates some alternative action should be taken.

Help Commercial Collections From The Beginning

Built-in commercial collections controls at the time of sale often assist in receivables recovery and help avoid delinquencies. These include such items as sales contracts or a well-defined vendor's purchase order with conditions of sale clearly spelled out. Appropriate terms should be printed on sales documents (contracts, invoices, statements) clearly and without fail. Such terms will include notice of interest charged on overdue accounts and discounts granted for prompt payment.

Internal control of receivables should include an aging which permits periodic evaluation. This should fit together with commercial collections routines. The time for referral to a professional commercial collection agency should come from the aging at 60 or 90 days past due, and sometimes sooner.

After a first statement has gone unheeded, start your commercial collection procedure. Any program that permits three statements-or a two to three month time lag-before the first collection step is taken will result in a lower recovery ratio.

Any procedures for handling slow-paying accounts should emphasize speed in contacting the delinquent bill payer. A company with a past-due account on your books is probably in the same condition with a number of other suppliers. The debtor may be on the verge of serious financial trouble, and the creditor who moves first is most likely to recover their money.

Get free information and advice on commercial collections.

---

A Comprehensive Sarbanes Oxley Act Summary

Individual and corporate security stand in the center of the... Read More

Avoiding The Sheep Dip

It is a sad fact that many employees are still... Read More

ISO 9001, What Next?

The overriding goal of ISO-14000. (History 1995)As ISO-9000 becomes a... Read More

Leading Meetings: The Top Three Challenges

What do people really find challenging about leading meetings? Here... Read More

Money, Motivation, Success and Who?

It was 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and I was... Read More

Business Leadership Skills - Managing the Human Being Behind the Business

Managing the Human Being Behind the Business It's... Read More

Balancing Power in Outsource Contract Agreements

The practice of outsourcing business processes has long been subject... Read More

IT Expenditure - Why Businesses Spend Huge Amounts on Ineffective IT Investments

Another IT White Elephant!It seems that almost every day we... Read More

The Top 10 Requirements for Your Business to Become and Remain Profitable

We live in a relentlessly competitive world. The daily pressure... Read More

The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - Competitive, Not Complementary Action

A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that... Read More

Big Company Intelligence on a Small Company Budget

Information is the lifeblood of the economy. That's especially true... Read More

Time Management Tip: Stop Micro-Managing Employees

If I was a fly on the wall what would... Read More

Data Delivers Credibility

Over the past couple of days I've been setting up... Read More

Cheat Sheet; Understanding The MSDS and Your Obligations In The Workplace To Employees

MSDS SHEETSMSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheets. MSDS sheets... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: The Organizational Structure of Our Growing Business

This article relates to the organizational structure competency, commonly evaluated... Read More

How to Meet Quality Standards with ISO 9001

In today's hectic business environment, it is vital that we... Read More

How Managers Can Turn Failures Into Successes

Although there are real, external reasons for managerial difficulty ?... Read More

Quick Tip - Effective Meetings Earn a Profit

Most people treat meetings as a free resource that can... Read More

Credibility - A Golden Key to Becoming More Influential

You have been named a new leader in your organization,... Read More

Choices in Appointing International Managers

Globalization is requiring companies to make important choices about how... Read More

Better Management Performance - The Easy 3-Step Way

Managers make three mistakes when they try to run businesses.... Read More

Nine Steps to Help You Develop Your Potential

Go into any bookstore and you will find a big... Read More

Get Out Of The Stone Age: Give Leadership Talks

160 years ago, the newly invented electric telegraph carried the... Read More

Communication: Managements Responsibility

I've just watched, again, an episode in the Back to... Read More

Finding Common Ground Through Consensus Decision-Making

It's clear to me that a workplace is a better... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management: Goal Setting

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

The Three-Dimensional Communication System

Human communication is always three-dimensional. No spoken or written message... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management ? Motivation and Management Layers

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Working with Hearing Impaired Employees - Giving Them a Fair Go

Hearing impaired people often encounter difficulty at work because their... Read More

Quality Hiring: Are You Doing It Right?

Quality hiring is more than running ads, screening, interviewing and... Read More

Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk Part 3

To develop and deliver a great Leadership Talk, you must... Read More

Choosing the Right Corporate Training

According to a Gallup Poll, 80 percent of employees said... Read More

Five Days to More Effective Inventory Management

The litany of headaches related to the implementation and on-going... Read More