Collections expert offers advice to help businesses and entrepreneurs get paid on time.
Indian Wells, Calif. (Vocus) November 19, 2007 -- Timely advice for business owners, published today at settling a past-due invoice can be a frustrating and time-consuming part of running a small or medium-size business. But what many business owners often do not realize is that the procedures they put in place before they start work with a new customer can mitigate conflict and make it easier to later collect on a past-due account.
"Make sure you're clear about how you're expecting to be paid, and when," says Ryon Gambill, a collections professional and founder of the company that sells Bill Collector In A Box™, software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners collect past-due invoices. "It's also important to get personal information that can later prove invaluable if you need to track someone down."
To reduce the need for collections measures, Gambill advises business owners to implement the following into their billing and credit policies:
- Always obtain a Social Security Number (SSN) or an Employer Identification Number (EIN) for those invoices with credit terms, or for customers whose dependability is in doubt.
- Offer credit terms that work for your customer but that also meet your cash flow needs.
- Include a sentence at the bottom of your invoice or receipt that reads: "All past due accounts xx days or greater past due may be reported to the major credit bureaus as an unpaid collection account."
- If it is a mail-order purchase, make certain that you require a signature or delivery confirmation from the customer.
- Offer a prepayment discount on invoices with credit terms.
- Set credit extension guidelines and limits based on the risk that you are willing to take, and always stick to those guidelines.
- Big sales are exciting, but be wary of new, unknown customers that seek large orders on credit terms or with unsecured funds such as a personal check. Fraudsters know that a big order will get them past some of the normal scrutiny applied to smaller orders.
To help businesses deal with past-due invoices, Gambill's company offers Bill Collector In A Box, a comprehensive billing and debt-collection software application designed by collection agency professionals. Bill Collector In A Box centralizes the management of past-due accounts, from initial contact to resolution of the outstanding invoice.
For businesses that already have debt-collection problems, the software pays for itself within months. Bill Collector In A Box runs on Windows PCs and complements popular accounting and personal-finance software such as Quicken®, QuickBooks®, Microsoft® Money and Microsoft® Accounting Professional.
Bill Collector In A Box includes many valuable features that automate every phase of debt collection:
- Automatic printing of professional-quality legal letters that warn a debtor of impending legal action unless they settle the invoice promptly. The software also includes numerous debt-collection letters that comply with state and federal laws.
- One-click reporting to SCAN (Shared Check Authorization Network)--the same central bureau used by major retailers and banks to identify people who write bad checks.
- Credit bureau reporting. Reporting a bad debt to a credit bureau is an effective way to convince debtors that they need to quickly settle their invoices. With one click, Bill Collector In A Box reports a bad debt to the major credit bureaus for up to 7 years.
- Skip Tracing. If a debtor has left town with no forwarding address and has disconnected phones, one click instructs Bill Collector In A Box to engage a professional investigator who will track down the debtor. 25 basic skip traces and 1 advanced skip trace are included with the software.
- Processing of credit card and ACH transactions (through PPI, Inc.) to enable fast settlement of invoices.
- Recording of court information to provide fast access to details of litigation or small-claims actions.
- Comprehensive report generation as well as importing and exporting of .CSV files to/from popular accounting software programs.
"Small business owners frequently deal with chronic late payment and bad debt issues, and this costs their business time and money," says Ryon Gambill, president and CEO of Marauder Corp. and a collections professional. "We designed Bill Collector In A Box so that small-business owners can take the right steps to resolve past-due accounts, and turn debts into revenue."
Bill Collector In A Box lists for $99 and is available at Amazon.com, J&R Electronics, Micro Center, OfficeDepot.com, PCnation.com, and Shopblt.com. Unlimited technical support, including an initial familiarization walk-through of the software, is included.
About Marauder
Marauder Corporation designed and developed Bill Collector In A Box for small to medium-sized businesses. Marauder is one of the nation's leading collections agencies and specializes in small and medium-sized businesses. Its management team has more than 50 years of combined experience and services the collection needs of thousands and companies, coast to coast. For more information, visit www.billcollectorinabox.com or call 1-800-650-5118.
Media contact: Tim Cox, Zing Public Relations, +1650-369-7784, tim @ zingpr.com
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