5 Ways to Get Paid First this Holiday Season
Avoid the post-holiday bump in overdue accounts receivable. How you handle invoicing and followup will determine whether your service business moves to the head of the line for payment. Here are the first five steps you should take. (#4, obvious yet often missed, will surprise you.)
Nov 24, 2015
# of Minutes to Read
There are a variety of reasons that the holiday through post-holiday season sees a bump in overdue accounts receivable. Consumers are paying off holiday gift giving. Small business owners may divert funds to year-end bonuses. Accounting staff and approving managers may be on vacation.
Invest a little time and energy in pre-emptive steps and your service business will move to the head of the line for payment. Your field management software may already provide the features required to implement the steps below.
- Instant Invoicing. Have your field techs deliver itemized invoices via email before leaving the job site. This gives your customer an opportunity to resolve any billing questions while the tech is still there. Businesses that have implemented this simple change report excellent improvements in the payment cycle.
- Job-site Payments. Equip your field staff with mobile card readers and have them encourage on-site payments. Invoices that might otherwise disappear under a stack of bookkeeping are instead cleared immediately.
- Self-Service Customer Portal. Empower your customers with a self-service portal, where they can view and pay invoices at their convenience. (An added benefit – if your portal also allows them to create service requests, they are more likely to become repeat customers.)
- State payment terms. Consider offering an early-pay discount rather than a late-pay fee. Customize your invoices so payment terms are clearly stated. How can a customer pay on time if there is no deadline?
- Stay positive. If a customer falls behind, call (don’t email) immediately with a friendly reminder. Ask when you can expect payment. Offer to dismiss late charges if you receive payment by an agreed-on date. Then set a calendar reminder to watch for the check or card payment. This velvet-glove approach increases the likelihood you will get paid and retain a customer.
At RazorSync our goal is to help small and mid-sized field services achieve their goals efficiently and effectively. We invite you to sign up for a live demonstration of our field management software.
