Why is chasing for payments so awkward and what you can do about it? Asking to get paid for your work shouldn’t have to feel awkward...
@chaser_hq
Sonia Dorais, Chief Executive Officer, Chaser With nearly 20 years of experience working in fastgrowing businesses, Sonia is the CEO & CMO of Chaser. Prior to this role, Sonia led the growth of numerous fintechs in both Canada and the UK that specialised in the digitisation and automation of finance and accounting tasks and functions.
No one wants to chase their customers for payment. Most people don’t relish conflict and, if you’re a business owner, you’ve probably got better things to be doing.
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nfortunately, chasing late invoices is just part of running a business that sells on payment terms. Cumulatively, UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are owed a combined £50 billion in late payments. The average business is wasting time and money chasing eight invoices, each worth around £8,500 each. Thankfully, there are ways you can overcome the inherent awkwardness of asking for the money you’re owed and get paid faster and more punctually. Set clear payment terms The first step in implementing effective credit control is to be proactive. Since most business transactions start with a contract, you need to have firm payment terms in place. Having a clear payment date and setting out what happens if the customer pays late is the best way to avoid miscommunication. If your payment terms are watertight, then it leaves your customers very little wiggle room when it comes to paying you. Remember, if you’re in the UK, you have the statutory right to levy both late payment interest
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and claim compensation on late invoices. If you do have doubts about your client’s ability to pay on time, you could always ask for a deposit. If both of you are dealing in a fair and open manner, then a deposit shouldn’t be an issue. A customer immediately refusing the idea of a deposit is usually a red flag. Take advantage of the benefits of automation Chasing for payment is both time-consuming and awkward. Thankfully, by taking advantage of the benefits offered by automated credit control platforms like Chaser, you can significantly reduce the time spent administering to your accounts receivables. Chaser allows you to automate the credit-control process, sending proactive upcoming invoice reminders and a range of scheduled late payment reminders. Instead of filling your calendar with set dates for invoice chasing and handcrafting emails you can simply adapt one of Chaser’s email templates and schedule it to send in advance. We fully understand how easy it
is to ignore obviously automated emails, which is why Chaser’s platform combines the benefits of automation with the human touch. All your chasing emails appear to come from your personal email account and easily adaptable templates reflect your brand voice. You can schedule different invoice reminder templates to send at different times before the invoice is due, once the invoice is overdue and even on the date it is paid. If one customer has multiple overdue invoices, Chaser automatically groups and chases these together for you,, to avoid the batch sending that is such a red flag for automation. Through the use of Chaser’s automated credit control, Xero and Chaser users are able, on average, to save 15-hours per week on chasing late invoices, get paid 16 or more days sooner, and have a 25 per cent reduction in days sales outstanding. Make it as easy for your clients to pay you as possible The best way to get paid is to make it as easy for your clients to pay you for your work as possible. Each Chaser invoice reminder includes a link to your customers’
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