Improving Relationships Through Strategic Accounts Receivable Management

Ever heard the saying “Cash is king“? Well, it’s true! Let’s dive into how to manage your accounts receivable management effectively to keep the cash flowing in your business.

As the phrase goes, “CASH IS KING,” and controlling a business’s cash flow should be a key focus. Effective accounts receivable management is a vital component of cash flow management.

Accounts receivable (AR) refers to the money your customers owe you for goods or services given on credit. While this may appear a simple task, every business owner understands how difficult it can be to collect outstanding payments.

This article will explore the term Accounts Receivable Management (ARM), its challenges, and strategies for optimising AR management.

So let’s get started.

What is Accounts Receivable Management?

Accounts receivable management is the process of tracking and regulating the money consumers owe a company for goods or services acquired on credit. It encompasses crucial operations such as invoice administration, payment collection, credit risk assessment, and dispute resolution.

For B2B organisations, effective accounts receivable administration is critical to sustaining a good cash flow. It includes various responsibilities, including initial customer onboarding, creditworthiness assessment, invoice issuance, and payment collection.

Furthermore, it is a careful procedure of reconciling collected payments with corresponding invoices and correcting any errors or deductions requested by clients. This complete methodology ensures that accounts receivable are managed smoothly and efficiently throughout the customer’s lifespan.

Common Issues That Affect Your Accounts Receivable Management

Inefficient cash flow management, insufficient customer assistance, and an overemphasis on cash applications can all have a negative impact on your team’s performance. This negative effect is particularly visible in the inability to meet payment obligations to suppliers, which jeopardises the timely delivery of goods or services and may tarnish your reputation.

So, let’s look at the most typical concerns affecting accounts receivable management.

1. Misalignment of Sales and Finance Goals

Conflicts can arise when the sales and finance departments’ goals differ. While the sales team strives to boost sales, the finance team works to reduce bad debt. This imbalance is apparent when the sales staff provides credit arrangements to customers that the finance department may not approve of.

2. Inefficiencies Caused by Manual Processes

Numerous gaps in present processes need extensive manual labour. Without automated accounts receivable processes, the team must devote substantial time and resources to manual work in all areas. These inefficiencies ultimately lead to poor accounts receivable management.

3. Impaired Collaboration Due to Data Fragmentation

The absence of a unified data system and information silos impedes successful collaboration. Customer-facing teams like sales and collections struggle to cooperate effectively without real-time access to centralised data. This data fragmentation impedes their capacity to collaborate effectively towards common goals.

4. Lack of Empirical Data Causing Negative Outcomes

The absence of a method for utilising empirical data limits the ability to foresee probable negative repercussions. Failure to capture previous data makes it extremely difficult to predict when a customer’s financial condition may change negatively, perhaps resulting in significant losses if they cannot meet their future payment obligations.

5. Disruption Due to Changing Team

Consistent documentation is required for efficient credit transaction management, particularly about invoicing and payment processes. Inadequate streamlining of accounts receivable processes can cause disruptions and gaps in the AR workflow, impeding the smooth continuation of operations.

Effective Strategies of Accounts Receivable Management

Effective Accounts Receivable Management involves establishing methods and policies to handle past-due client invoices or non-payments. This technique guarantees that clients will pay their invoices regardless of the conditions. It ensures that one’s cash flow is consistent and that one’s business stays afloat. Receivables are amounts due to you legally by your customers. As a result, it is only prudent to take all necessary precautions to ensure that clients pay on time. The 5 Receivable Management Tips below might help you increase your accounts receivable efficiency.

1. Establish Transparent Payment Terms

Establishing the terms ahead is the most effective strategy to ensure that payments are done smoothly. It is critical to establish consistent payment conditions between one’s firm and the client that specify precisely what is expected of both sides. After everything has been presented and agreed upon, all parties should sign to confirm that all details are clear and understandable.

2. Switch to Digital Accounting

It is critical to save time and ensure consistency in one’s process by automating client account communications and minimising manual processes whenever possible. Considering this, accounting software can help automate a wide range of accounting operations. When invoices are sent electronically, they are quickly delivered to the customer’s email rather than sitting in heaps of paperwork waiting to be discovered. When one has a digital record of what they transmit, it is easy to refer to if any questions arise.

3. Ensure Quality Customer Experience

Over-automation will quickly irritate and turn off your customers. Avoid creating several automated payment reminders via form emails.

Instead of impersonalised automation, adopt a receivable management platform that systematises your process to save time internally while personalising workflows to provide clients with a one-on-one experience.

Personalising communications allows you to communicate directly with your clients, allowing you to uncover the root cause of non-payment and maintain a positive customer relationship. That should determine how you approach collections, not a strict, mechanised procedure.

4. Offer Discounts and Payment Instalments

Offering simple payment choices will help you prevent late payments and time-consuming collecting processes. Create early-payment discounts to encourage clients to pay early.

You can also provide payment instalments to clients with persistently inadequate cash flow, establishing a systematic approach to collecting payments without disrupting the process.

Setting up early-payment discounts is one technique, but it’s best to provide discounts to consumers who agree to make an upfront yearly payment rather than monthly instalments. This will incentivise them while also securing extra revenue for your organisation. It will also lessen the amount of invoices you need to process or chase each month.

5. Establish and Enforce Clear Credit and Collection Policies

AR collection strategies allow you to address overdue accounts proactively while optimising your operations. Your collecting policy should emphasise proactivity rather than reactivity. Instead of chasing late payments, send many payment reminders before the due date.

6. Set Up Automation

You may save time and improve consistency by automating account communications with your clients and decreasing manual processes as much as feasible.

The key to AR automation is to automate the most laborious jobs in the process. This often entails preparing emails (reminders, follow-ups), retrieving bills, etc. Automate anything repetitive, time-consuming, or adds little value. Instead, your finance staff should focus on personalising your customer interactions to the proper tone and sending invoices and reminders at the right time.

This is what makes the difference in receiving payment on time.

An account receivable management software will handle this for you—you can set up a form email to send along with an invoice and a thank-you email to send payment reminders.

Is it Good to Outsource Your Accounts Receivable Management?

An alternative to developing your processes and tools in-house is outsourcing AR management to an accounts receivable management company.

That would give you more time to focus on other elements of the business. However, paying a service provider is likely significantly more expensive than hiring a worker or contractor or using in-house software.

• The primary goal of accounts receivable management in your business is to maximise cash flow while reducing costs and maintaining positive customer relationships.
• Moving to electronic billing and payments is an important step towards streamlining client payments.
• Create automated workflows using AR software to free up your finance team’s time to focus on higher-value duties.
• Monitor your critical AR metrics. They’ll let you know if your collection strategy is effective and where you may make adjustments. Dedicated AR software allows you to track these parameters in real-time.
• Cash collection requires collaboration from multiple teams. To increase client payments, use your sales and customer success teams’ distinct customer touch points for payment reminders and follow-ups.
• Outsourcing AR management will not necessarily solve your business’s problem of not getting paid on time. The problem is often related to your process; only your company can resolve it. However, outsourcing can improve your AR process.

How Outbooks Effectively Manage Your Accounts Receivable?

Our expert accountants, including industry leaders such as Xero and QuickBooks, use cutting-edge accounting software to ensure high-quality work and data security. Trust us with:

• Ensuring 360° Robust Data Security
• 60-70% reduction in overhead costs
• Top-Notch Team of Certified Australian Accountants
• Compliant with Confidentiality & Tax Legislation

Contact us now to take the first step towards stress-free accounts receivable. We’re eager to discuss how Outbooks can improve your cash flow and Accounts Receivable Management.