Posted by reba on 8/8/12 11:09am
Msg #429775

Timeline for collections

Currently my timeline for payment is 30-45 days. I am curious of what some would consider a "reasonable" followup AFTER that time. 60 days--call? send invoice w/ copy of confirmation and Past Due stamp? send out final request letter? At what point, or what response merits further action. Fortunately, the one 60-day issue I did have was resolved (SS said they sent it weeks ago, but immediately sent via PayPal). With there being so many "here today,gone tomorrow SS" Looking for insight should the need arise.

Reply by SharonMN on 8/8/12 11:36am
Msg #429781

I don't start sending out inquiries until 60 days unless the company has stated that their payment schedule is sooner. In most cases I email the confirm back to them asking when I can expect payment and whether they need any further information from me, such as an invoice or W-9. If no response after a week or so, I then call or resend email with "2ND REQUEST" "3RD REQUEST" etc. in the subject.

I try to balance the time spent on trying to collect with the potential payoff. I'm not going to call or fax every day for 30 days, because my time spent will exceed the value collected. If I have more than one invoice past 60 days, I make my collection attempts once a week or so and do them all at the same time.

Reply by RickG/CA on 8/8/12 1:36pm
Msg #429801

31-35 days: Friendly call to confirm receipt of billing statement

45 days: Email with copy of billing statement and/or confirmation

60 days: Email as above w/phone call

This is my SOP, however I haven't the need to practice this in a while. My average/median days til paid is 10/15. There's only 1 SS that I work regularlyand she pays like clock work. Mostly get paid at closing - yeah, it doesn't suck.

Reply by Jessica Ward on 8/9/12 9:24am
Msg #429860

I follow the same schedule here

Thinning out the slow-payers really, really helps. Until I've got a bit of payment experience with a company, I don't extend more than three closings of credit--that way if they are a slow-payer I don't have to chase a whole lot of money.

My average days to collect is 27, and I have two companies that pay slow, I'm currently working on eliminating from my workload.