11 Ways to Get Paid Quicker

Cashflow is king and if you don’t have good debtor strategies in place, then you may find that you are struggling with late payers and poor cashflow. Follow our 11 MUST HAVE debtor strategies:

1. Invoice as soon as you have completed a job

2. Ensure your invoice is correct first time and sent to the correct person

3. Go digital with online invoices i.e. Xero

4. Make it easy for customers to pay by using a PAY NOW button and have options to pay via credit card

5. Have your terms outlined (big and bold) on your invoices

6. Use an automatic email follow up program i.e. Debtor Daddy or Xero Invoice Reminders

7. Email statements at end of month

8. Ring clients if the first reminder has not worked, and keep ringing until they have paid

9. If it’s a quoted job, request an upfront payment or deposit

10. Offer incentives for early payment and/or charge interest for late payment – if charging interest, have the system automatically do it

11. If a client has queried an invoice, deal with it straight away – don’t put it in the too hard basket

The two most common mistakes that we are still seeing are:

1. Invoicing left until the end of the month

2. Clients are not followed up with either emails or phone calls to remind them their invoice is overdue and confirm when they will be paying

It really is important to ensure you have proactive control and management of your debtors, or else you will end up in the position where you are managing lots of overdue invoices and pretty much becoming your clients bank. Remember, it is your money and they are in the wrong for not paying you on time. But you really need to get it right from the beginning i.e. invoice straight away and ensure you have invoiced correctly etc. If you take two months to invoice a client, do you think they will put priority on paying you?

If you need help with any of the above, call Lisa on 03 928 4277 or Kelly on 03 928 4066