Late payment is a problem for too many businesses. But if you’re a QuickBooks user there are tools in the product that can help you get paid quicker.
But before we look at QB, here are two things you could do immediately to speed up payments in the future:
- Use a direct debit service such as GoCardless and be wary of any customers who won’t sign up to pay by direct debit. The interface between GoCardless and QuickBooks is excellent, by the way
- Take extra care to identify potential bad payers and don’t sell to them in the first place
Why credit control matters for your business
“A sale is a gift until it’s paid for” is a great maxim to spur you on to get paid on time.
Businesses run much more smoothly if cashflow is positive and they fail if they run out of money. Getting paid on time is a big part of having a strong cashflow and the benefits include:
- less stress about paying suppliers and staff on time
- low or no costs of borrowing which improves profit
- having funds available to invest in new products, services and markets
- you can pay yourself more!
It makes sense to get paid quicker so, if you’re a QuickBooks user what tools are available?
Invoicing in QuickBooks
Raise all your invoices promptly, accurately and send them as emails with the PDF document as an attachment to make them easier for your customer to process.
There are various settings you can use (from the company cog in the top-right corner) to enhance your invoices:
- preferred payment terms (e.g. 30 days)
- include your bank details on the face of your invoice
- default delivery method
- customise the email message when your invoices are sent
Pro tip: You can set up invoicing to be recurring if you send the same value invoice to the same customer every month. Recurring invoices can be emailed automatically on the same date each month.
Automated payment reminders
Switch on automatic payment reminders (from the company cog in the top-right corner).
You can create up to three automatic reminders to be sent to debtors, choosing the timing and the content of the emails to suit your business.
For example, you could time yours to go out ten days BEFORE the due date and five and ten days AFTER the due date with an email message that becomes progressively tougher.
Pro tip: Make sure you include your bank details in the email text and make sure your customer details are set up to include, where you can, a first name as this can be pulled in to the automated emails.
See who owes you money with credit management reports
QuickBooks has twelve standard reports to help you get paid quicker.
Take a look at them to see which ones will be helpful then customise the useful ones and save them as Custom Reports. Customisation lets you:
- Change ALL reports so they start with the largest invoice / debtor balance at the top and the smallest (which could be negative) at the bottom
- Display all negative values in (red and in brackets) so they jump off the screen at you
- Edit the report title so it’s immediately clear what it’s about (“Debtors list” instead of “A/R Ageing Summary Report”)
In the Related Links at the bottom of the blog are two great examples of how to customise QuickBooks reports to help you get paid quicker.
Pro tip: You can schedule reports to be emailed to different people in your business so send the credit management reports to the management team and to everyone who can help chase customers for payment.
How Blue Dot Consulting helps clients with QuickBooks and getting paid quicker
We’ve been using QuickBooks for over twenty years and have helped scores of businesses make the best use of it for their bookkeeping, financial management and, yes, credit control.
We can take you through all the steps mentioned here from invoicing to reporting and help you automate as much as possible so QuickBooks does the heavy lifting.
On our half-day QuickBooks training sessions we work with QB users on their live QB file and show them how to use the functionality that best suits their business. We also focus on reports, how to customise them and share them across your organisation.
Let’s book you in! Call Michael Austin on 020 7125 0270 or email info@bluedotconsulting.co.uk
Michael
People also ask:
Should I use credit control apps and add-ons such as Chaser?
Every business is different and will have a unique profile of customers to collect money from. Establish the credit control tools and workflows that are right for your business first and use the tools already available to you in your chosen accounting software.
Then, if an app or add-on would make everything more efficient, you can look at adopting one. And you know what it needs to do.
What about a good old-fashioned phone call?
Always chase your biggest debtors with phone calls. No ifs, no buts – get on the phone!
Do we need a cashflow model?
There are two types of business. Those that do NOT need a cashflow model and all the others! If you’re one of the others then get cracking as soon as you can. This blog might be a good place to start:
A gory cashflow model is a useful cashflow model – the bloodier the better
Related links:
Customer timeline report – a window into the soul of your customers
Create a bespoke Aged Creditors report in QuickBooks
Why two bank accounts are better than one
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