{"id":251,"date":"2020-05-19T15:46:26","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T15:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/?p=251"},"modified":"2020-06-09T17:48:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T17:48:43","slug":"getting-a-handle-on-payment-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/getting-a-handle-on-payment-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting a Handle on Payment Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/GettyImages-922726070.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-252\" src=\"http:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/GettyImages-922726070-300x194.jpg\" alt=\"Roe CPA\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/GettyImages-922726070-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/GettyImages-922726070-1024x662.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Most small business owners love what they do. But that&#8217;s not to say things can&#8217;t get a little difficult, especially when customers don&#8217;t pay their bills on time. Even one or two slow-pay or no-pay customers can be enough to throw your company&#8217;s finances off.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding what might be going on with your customers and being proactive can help you keep your accounts receivable on steady ground.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Purchase Order Predicaments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not all customers use purchase orders, but those that do rely on them to coordinate ordering and accounts payable functions. If there&#8217;s a mix-up involving a purchase order and your invoice doesn&#8217;t match up with the customer&#8217;s purchase order, your invoice could end up on the &#8220;problem&#8221; pile instead of the &#8220;pay&#8221; pile. Be proactive by verifying that the purchase order numbers on your invoices are correct before they are sent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strapped for Cash <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lack of money is a common excuse for not paying. One reason your customer may not be able to pay you is because your customer&#8217;s customers haven&#8217;t paid <em>their<\/em> bills. Regardless of the reason, be the squeaky wheel and keep communicating with your past due customers.<\/p>\n<p>You can help reduce your exposure to customer cash shortfalls by tightening your credit requirements.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Disputes, Dilemmas, and Other Disappointments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Misships, damaged goods, late deliveries. Plenty of things can go wrong during the fulfillment process. Rather than make a phone call, customers may just &#8220;file&#8221; your invoice at the bottom of the pile.<\/p>\n<p>Follow-up e-mails or phone calls to find out if your customers are satisfied will help smooth any ruffled feathers and could improve how quickly you get paid.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vanishing Invoices<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We never received your invoice&#8221; is a weak excuse, but you still have to find a way around it. Once again, early follow-up is key. Paperless billing and the potential to monitor whether e-mailed invoices have been opened can also help eradicate this excuse.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t get left behind. Contact us today to discover how we can help you keep your business on the right track. Don&#8217;t wait, give us a call today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most small business owners love what they do. But that&#8217;s not to say things can&#8217;t get a little difficult, especially when customers don&#8217;t pay their bills on time. Even one or two slow-pay or no-pay customers can be enough to throw your company&#8217;s finances off. Understanding what might be going on with your customers and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-best-business-practices","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}