Chasing money from clients is probably one of the least desirable parts of owning a business. It takes away from many other tasks you could be doing – tasks that may grow your business rather than give you tedious or repetitive tasks to manage, but getting B2B payments is a part of doing business.
The pandemic has caused many companies to cut down on staff, and one of the first areas is always accounts receivable. This makes the average days of sales outstanding continually grow, and further hurts your business. Automating accounts receivable is one of the most important moves you can make.
Why is Automation Necessary
All businesses, no matter the size need automation today. It frees up the skeleton staff, enabling them to work on other tasks that keep the business running.
It’s like a double-edged sword. If you don’t automate AR, you could sit on unpaid bills for many months. Without the funds, you may not be able to continue growing or even operating because you’re low on capital. Without a full staff, though, it may seem impossible. It may have even seemed impossible when you had a full staff.
Automation takes the work out of it. When you automatically send notices, it’s not you or a staff member doing physical labor – no one has to take time out of his/her day to work on the A/R, make phone calls, leave voicemails, and send emails. Everything is done for you.
What Does Automation Look Like?
Accounts receivable automation for B2B payments will look different for every company. In general, though, expect:
- Send notices before an invoice is due. Pick a duration, such as 2 weeks before it’s due, and send an automated reminder. The hope is that the reminder before the bill is due is enough for the company to pay the bill on time.
- Send automated reminders at specific frequencies once a bill is past due. Whether it’s a few days, once a week, or every other week. Set up automatic reminders until they pay the bill.
- Combine an automated process with manual processes, but not inside your company. Have the salespeople jump on board. Let your salespeople know when the bill is late and have them follow up on the notices you send. Sometimes that personal touch is all a company needs to get the bill paid.
Don’t Let Accounts Receivable Fall Behind
Accounts receivable is what makes your company stay in business. Without it, you don’t have money coming in. Because of the pandemic, many companies are purposefully behind or forced to be behind because their own sales are down.
Stay on top of your A/R by automating the processes to avoid losing business. Automating the process takes the labor off your staff and still allows you to be profitable collecting B2B payments. In today’s pandemic, every business owner needs to think outside the box, and accounts receivable is a great place to start. Get your A/R under control and the rest will fall into place.
