Keeping a positive cash flow is always a struggle for many businesses. Here’s how you can get customers to pay faster.
In a perfect world, customers would receive their invoices from you and remit them immediately.
You may have a diligent few who operate that way, but probably most everyone you do business with delays payment to improve their own cash flow.
There are steps you can take to speed up your incoming revenue. QuickBooks Online incorporates numerous ways to accomplish this.
Institute a prepayment policy. This is best implemented if you provide services and/or perform large jobs. You could, for example, require that all sales that fall above a specified dollar amount will require a deposit up front.
Recording a customer deposit in QuickBooks Online is tricky. There are a number of ways to do it, but some will result in bookkeeping inaccuracies. If you’re going to begin collecting prepayments, please let us go over your options and the steps required.
Pull out the stops when it comes to supported payment methods. If you’re still only accepting cash and checks, this is clearly affecting your cash flow in a negative way. Intuit offers services that allow you to:
- Send invoices online
- Accept credit and debit cards
- Scan checks for quick deposit, and
- Make sales even when you’re not in the office.
We can go over the options with you. There will be some additional fees to add to your processing costs, but these methods provide the easiest, fastest path to healthier accounts receivable.
Invoice immediately. This should be a no-brainer, but it’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day operations and neglect money that’s waiting to be collected. Set up a check-and-balance procedure that becomes a regular part of your end-of-day work. Using QuickBooks Online reports can help. If you don’t know which reports to generate, we can identify them for you.
Use QuickBooks Online’s invoice automation tools. Here, too, you may want us to walk you through the process of setting this up. Automation is great when it’s defined properly; but you could end up affecting your cash flow in a negative way if this isn’t done correctly.
Perhaps you’ve tried these methods and still find yourself with under-the-wire or overdue electronic payments and paper checks. We can help you explore some additional ideas after looking over your company file and learning about your workflow.
We are here to help in all your accounting and QuickBooks needs, system review & configuration, training and general support.
Thank you and please contact us if you need any additional information or got questions for us.
Ben Derebie, MBA, CMA
Certified Management Accountant
Advanced Certified QuickBooks &
Enterprise Solutions ProAdvisor
