In past blogs, we’ve talked about best practice of accounts receivable. Unfortunately, from time to time, we do have to send emails to remind people that they owe us money. The wording on that is really up to you, and how you want to do things. But as time goes on, those emails need to be more and more serious.
Now I’ve got a serious tone of voice here, because it’s a very serious matter. Your original invoices could be, “Hey, Bob, looks like you forgot to pay us today, any chance we could have some payment by the end of the week”. Then the emails need to get more and more serious to the extent of “Dear Mr. Smith, we issued you an invoice on the first of January, with the seventh of January due date, it appears it’s still unpaid. If we do not receive payment, within 48 hours, we will unfortunately be sending you to a debt collector. If you are having issues with our service, please contact our office immediately.” Always give the customer the ability to dispute the service.
Now, I’m not saying the customer is always right. Sometimes you’ve got to stand your ground and say no, I provided this service or I sold you this and you need to pay for it. And if that’s the case, then you do need to take the next step and escalate it.
My suggestion to you and this is relatively new thing, get on Chat GPT and ask her to write you a debt collection letter because it’s probably going to say much better than I’m going to. But also make sure that if things are dragging out, do some research, find a debt collector that can help you.
Here in Queensland there’s also a system to do with the small business debts which can be done through the courthouse where a bailiff will go out and issue a demand or someone for payment. And if payment isn’t done, then basically they get called to court It’s called QCAT and it may be a cheaper option than debt collection. If you do want some details of a debt collection agency, just ring the office we’ve got a few on hand that we refer.