Now that its November the end of year count down is well and truly on. Businesses in Australia and New Zealand essentially start winding down (especially from a payments perspective) from about the second week of December which means there is approximately six weeks to get things in place to ensure you get the maximum amount of receipts during this time as well and as during the holiday season. Imagine returning to the office with more money in your account and less overdue invoices to chase in January … and the good news is that it is all very possible!
There are a number of initiatives you can take now that will ensure a better outcome for you, your firm and your clients. These include:
Ensure your clients can pay by card via your website
Your firm’s website is essentially your shopfront. Your website will therefore, amongst other things, describe to your clients and prospective clients what services you offer and the value you can add. It also makes sense that your shopfront should take payments. By ensuring that your website has the functionality to accept online card payments is a great start to get paid regularly and faster. Once in place your clients can pay you 24/7/365. If you have such functionality then why not insert a hyperlink on your Invoices and statements to allow you clients to click and pay from your website. If you don’t have this functionality, then contact FeeSynergy who can easily arrange this for you.
Review WIP and bill it out regularly
During the first 2 weeks of November, review WIP and determine what you might be able to invoice by Friday the 11th of November. In general, your firm should Invoice WIP more regularly by having a policy on progress invoicing. There is no need to wait until a job is complete to raise an invoice. The job may take months to complete so it would be perfectly reasonable to issue a progress invoice through this time to ensure your cashflow doesn’t suffer. Ideally, you would have discussed this with your client beforehand or otherwise a simple communication to your client will normally be met with understanding. Don’t wait until the end of week or end of month to invoice. In particular, if you have finished a job, get the invoice out today. Don’t wait!
Contact all clients that are overdue
During November make a concerted firm wide effort to call/email/mail/text all customers that are outside your payment terms and request that they “make payment of their overdue accounts by the end of the week”.
As part of this conversation ensure you offer multiple payment methods. For example, Credit Card, EFT, PayID & Fee Funding. Note: if a client has previously used fee funding this should make the conversation to put them on fee funding again very easy.
Identify Debtors who might benefit from a short term Payment Arrangement
Consider a payment plan for those that cannot pay the full amount now – you’d rather start receiving something than nothing.
If your client is unable or unwilling to pay, you should then discuss alternative payment arrangements such as part payments, direct debit and Fee Funding options. All of these alternatives can be arranged in FeeSynergy Collect.
Identify clients with cashflow strain and offer them a Fee Finance arrangement
Often clients will tell you about something that is preventing them from paying you in full this week. It might be they are waiting on payments they are expecting to arrive, or they have lost their largest client and it has impacted their cashflow or they are in the process of selling an asset. None of these challenges your client is facing is directly your issue unless you allow it to be. We recommend the following approach which demonstrates professionalism and understanding. Listen to your client and suggest that you might be able to offer a payment arrangement over a period of say 4 weeks or at a stretch 8 weeks (ensure your period is a timeframe that will ensure the invoices don’t get to age to 90+ days). If the client needs more time to pay then generate a fee funding quote and send it to the client and then give them a call to discuss how it will work for them and you. For example , “I have worked with our fee funding partner to be able to offer you terms that will mean the fee funding partner will pay us in full and you can repay them in 8 monthly repayments. Understandably, the repayments include interest but the benefit is that you can now take your time by paying a more manageable amount each month. If you wish to avoid paying interest then at least we (the firm) can still help by offering you interest free terms of up to 8 weeks. Which option would you like to take up? “
Check to see if you have a current Direct Debit Authority for any clients that might be in arrears
If your firm offers Direct Debit as an option to pay, check to see if any of your clients that are in arrears have a current Direct Debit Authority (DDA). If there is then a simple call/email to the client to confirm they are ok for you to utilise that authority to deduct the overdue monies from their nominated account is very easy and convenient way for the client to get their affairs up to date. If your firm doesn’t have Direct Debits available contact FeeSynergy who can arrange this for you.
Seasonal message on Invoices, reminder emails and statements
Letting your clients know of the period which your office will be closed is good practice. Sometimes clients can interpret this as you are not open so they will not pay you during this time. For this reason we recommend a message that serves both purposes. For example why not put a seasonal message on your Invoices, reminder emails and statements like the following:
We wish to extend our seasons greetings to you and your family and look forward to working with you in the new year.
Our office will be closed from December 23rd, 2022 and reopen on January 9th, 2023.
During this time payments can continue to be made using any of our preferred payment options.
If you would like to incorporate a seasonal message in you FeeSynergy Collect system please reach out to us.
