Almost 20 years ago, Coast to Coast Financial Solutions Inc. was founded, bringing together 65 years of experience in debt collections by some of the industry’s best professionals. We base our business on the theory that all our clients have unique needs for collections, and cash flow is critical to any business. To that end, we offer customized and seamless strategies to provide each of them maximized recovery.

The size of a business doesn’t matter when it comes to unpaid invoices. It is inconvenient, and it can create a slippery slope if not handled right. A strategy is essential in collecting these invoices, so how can you get unpaid invoices paid without jeopardizing the customer’s relationship with your company? We offer the following tips:

8 Important tips to Deal with Overdue Invoices:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 1. E-mail Reminders
• 2. Require Advance Payment
• 3. Keep Positive
• 4. Monthly Statement
• 5. Follow Up with a Phone Call
• 6. Know When Escalation Is Needed
• 7. Refer to Your Staff
• 8. Charge Interest on Overdue Invoices

1. E-mail Reminders

Everyone is busy and on the go, but e-mail is something we all still have access to from our mobile devices. Send e-mail reminders about unpaid invoices, including details how past due and breakdown of the invoice amount and late fees and interest. Set your system up for automatic reminders after 30 days as gentle reminders. Reminders can help ensure payments are timely.

2. Require Advance Payment

Advance payment isn’t unusual for businesses today, especially if you’re going to be out of money upfront to fulfill the order. You can demand a percentage of the total payment upfront. Prepayment can assure that overdue invoices are a thing of the past. The advance payments and credits are straightforward to manage with the online invoicing portal’s credit management feature.

3. Keep Positive

Keep a confident and positive attitude while dealing with the client. Letting them know you are concerned about your payments isn’t going to help. Ensure they can’t give you any reason for a longer delay in payment, keeping a confident tone with the client about getting paid.

4. Monthly Statement

Send monthly statements to clients with unpaid invoices. Monthly statements will ensure that your clients see the open invoices, with the original date, amount, and late fees and interest.

5. Follow Up with a Phone Call

To keep a positive relationship with your clients, make a follow-up phone call after ten days if you haven’t received a payment or they haven’t researched out to you. A friendly follow-up chat can explain why they haven’t paid the invoice yet and reaffirms that the matter is a priority.

6. Know When Escalation Is Needed

Remember that not all clients are alike in their personalities. Every client runs their business differently and makes payments on a different schedule. Knowing this will give you the knowledge of how to handle past due invoices. Clients pay invoices at different times. They may pay 30 days from the date of invoice, every 30 days by calendar dates, some pay invoices every 45 days.

When you know their schedule for paying invoices, you can send a reminder five days ahead of their schedule. Knowing your clients better can eliminate unnecessary pressure on your clients and not strain your relationship. If they are continuously late with payments, you may need to adopt a more conscientious strategy.

7. Refer to Your Staff

When your routine invoicing, statements, payment follow-ups, and reminders aren’t working, you can delegate the task to the account manager. Keeping an account current is essential to the company representative as it is the company itself, so having them contact the client may is a smoother contact.

8. Charge Interest on Overdue Invoices

We’ve mentioned it a few times already: late fees and interest. When a client is consistently late paying invoices, charging late fees and interest can be an eye-opener for many clients, especially if the past due invoice is about to turn into a legal matter. Consider the relationship you have with the client before pursuing this and discuss it with the account manager.