Managing Payments and Receivables

For entrepreneurs big and small, accepting credit cards has become essential. As we move to a cashless society, not accepting credit cards could prove to be a big mistake.

Factoring receivables can get you out of a cash flow crunch in a hurry. For the peace of mind of knowing that you have money in the bank, the cost of factoring receivables is well worth the price.

Online invoicing and billing solutions have come of age. We take a look at BillMyClients.com, a web-based e-invoicing solution that provides a powerful yet elegantly simple billing solution that is perfect for small business owners and freelancers.

Collect slow, pay fast? Have we got it backwards? No. Sometimes you can do well by ignoring conventional business wisdom.

Electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) is all the rage. Instead of sending out paper invoices in the mail, why not send invoices by email directly to your customer?

Invoicing is the lifeblood of small businesses. Getting invoicing wrong can result in cash flow problems at best, and business failure in the worst case.

While it's not one of the most enjoyable parts of small business ownership, collecting receivables is one of the most important.

Often small businesses suffer from a crunch in cash flow because some of their customers dodge payments. Here is how you can make your customers pay up on time.

While many businesses go under for lack of customers and for a consistent inability to make useful profits, there is a third reason for business downfall that lurks behind the two. This reason is negative cash flow and it is that situation where a business' operation costs are always greater than the payments being received.

Does your small business accept payments via cash and checks? If so, be sure to establish payment and collection policies, and make sure you understand the laws that regulate them.

If you're having trouble staying on top of accounts receivable, your revenue stream is in serious jeopardy. Keeping a detailed account record for each of your customers can quickly turn things around.

It's painful to hear, but your business could have avoided writing off a large percentage of no-pay customers. All you needed was a customer credit analysis process.

Extending credit to customers is a common small business practice. But without a new credit approval form, you'll have a hard time keeping track of your credit accounts. We'll tell you the key elements to include in your company's credit approval forms.

Making the sale is only half the battle. The other half comes down to your ability to effectively invoice and collect customer payments.

Think traditional paper invoicing is good enough for your small business? The numbers tell a very different story and make a strong case for migration to an automated invoicing system.