Late payments are a frequent problem for many businesses but effective credit control can help. For example, in England and Wales you might have to pay around £242 in fees before you can send bailiffs to collect the money. Legal action probably won’t work if your customer has no money or assets, or a lot of bad debts. Even if a court orders them to pay, action to make them pay (enforcement) will be difficult.

Although you’ll pay for it, invoice finance can provide a good cash flow solution if 소액결제 미납 is a problem for your business. Invoice finance can enable you to quickly raise cash against the value of your unpaid invoices. Typically, you receive up to 90% of your unpaid invoice straight away from a lender, then get the balance, minus the lender’s fee, when your customer pays the invoice. If you use invoice discounting, you remain in control of collecting payment from the customer, so they’ll never know that you’re using invoice finance. With invoice factoring, the lender collects payment from your customer. Plus, offering to accept payment by installments—such as three equal interest-free payments—would be a modern and flexible approach to providing financing options.

When all else fails, it might be time to hire a debt collection agency, which specializes in recovering payments that are typically more than 90 days past due. The service handles the task of following up with the customer, using tried-and-true tactics to get the individual to pay. Many small business owners struggle to find the best way to ask for payment on outstanding invoices without being rude. However, regardless of the circumstances, an unpaid invoice hurts your business.

Our guide on when to hire a debt collection attorney can help you make the right choice. “Use an opportunity to check in on a customer’s satisfaction for your services, and then discuss any approaching or past-due invoices,” Waldorf said. One of the benefits of using SMS messages is they have higher open rates than email (98%, compared to 20-30% for email), meaning your customers are more likely to see open your payment reminder message. This is why the Victorian Small Business Commission (VSBC) is urging businesses to follow the Victorian Government’s lead by making an ongoing commitment to pay small businesses within 10 business days.

Your state will have specific laws about how much the client has to owe for you to be eligible to go to court. Sooner or later, manually tracking the status of every invoice and dunning notice becomes unfeasible. At this point it makes sense to automate how and when you interact with customers. Our best expert advice on how to grow your business — from attracting new customers to keeping existing customers happy and having the capital to do it. If nonpayment has been a real issue for your company, you may also want to institute new policies to protect yourself.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure all your communications with the client are polite, professional, and non-threatening. Just like your customers likely evaluate your company before doing business with you, you should research your prospective clients before offering them your services. Also, officially document your credit policies and procedures to define how creditworthiness is determined and monitored. You can make non-payment less likely to happen by answering these questions and being proactive. You can then begin to mitigate your A/R risk by following cash flow best practices.