Blanket approach-Entrepreneur’s Notebook

Blanket approach-Entrepreneur’s Notebook

If five people have to approve an invoice, send copies of the invoice to all five. If you know a company requires original proof of delivery, make sure they get it so the accountspayable person does not have to track it down.

Some business owners feel they don’t have the extra time to send invoices to five different departments, or follow up on proof of deliveries. However, if they calculated all the time and money they spend on delinquent accounts — contacting the accounts payable person week after week, collecting missing information — they would probably find it’s worth taking the time to expeditethat will result in expedited payments, especially when considering large receivables.

Write down the name of every person with whom you speak and ask them to spell it for you. Once employees know you have their name, they tend to pay more attention to your receivable because they know whatever promises are made can be traced back to them.

Another suggestion is to take the person in charge of paying to lunch and asking what you can do to speed the payment process. Keep in mind that very few people ask accounts payable people their opinion on anything, so they are usually flattered that you consider them important enough to seek their advice. The reality is their opinion is actually very important because they are in a position to tell you how to expedite payment.

Explain that your company has a new accounts receivable system in place and they are really coming down hard on you to get customers up to speed on paying invoices in a timely way. Put yourself in a position of enlisting their help, as opposed to just calling and asking them to start paying on time (which will not work).

Carol Frischer is a member of Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt in Los Angeles and author of “Collections Made Easy.” She can be reached at carolf@hcvt.com.

Entrepreneur’s Notebook is a regular column contributed by EC2 EC2 - Enroute Command and Control, The Annenberg Incubator Project, a center for multimedia and electronic communications at the University of Southern California. Contact James Klein at (213) 743-1759 with feedback and topic suggestions.

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