Effective Ways to Optimize Accounts Receivable for Trucking Company Owners

Any trucking company owner has little leverage over how soon customers will pay. Even so, there are methods to shorten the payment cycle. One of them is to study and improve the accounts receivable process. In the event that your organization’s receipts are seriously undermined by long payments for services, it’s in your power to create a fine-tuning of your accounts receivable flow.

Worth Paying Attention to!

When analyzing accounts receivable the owner of the business in the field of cargo transportation should understand a few important points:

How Long Does it Take to Invoice?

Once the service is rendered, the payment cycle begins. All the processes associated with an invoice increase the length of the payment cycle. Therefore, there should be a minimum of them. In addition, when receiving an invoice, customers decide on the timing of payments independently, optimizing their cash flow. Therefore, it is ideal to send the invoice on the day of completion.

Are Clients Interested in Paying as Quickly as Possible?

You need to be able to push your clients to pay on time, and maybe even faster. One of the surest ways is to remind them that a payment is available before it is overdue. If customers know that you’re collecting accounts receivable with all your might, they’re likely to pay on time. Beyond that, you can think about incentives for early payments. You don’t have to reduce 10 percent or more of the bottom line. But your company will definitely benefit if small discounts result in faster payments.

Are Your Terms Clear?

You should understand that all company requirements, policies and procedures should be made clear to ordinary people as well. It’s also worth providing flexibility in the accounts receivable process for special circumstances. If your regular or very valued customer is having some difficulty paying on time, you should allow for the possibility of adjusting certain terms to meet the customer’s needs. Such actions will help ensure that at least a portion of the payment is received. 

Is There an Opportunity to Streamline Internal Processes?

If it takes several days to issue an invoice, or if clients transfer money in 60 to 90 days, it’s worth thinking about streamlining internal processes. Don’t be afraid of changes within the company and stricter rules.

Payment Should be an Easy Process for the Customer!

One last thing. The process of working with accounts receivable should be as simple as possible. It should meet customers’ expectations of receiving an invoice and making payments. These days, more and more companies are incorporating sophisticated software into their projects that allows payments to be made with a couple of keystrokes. If you are just starting out in business, assess your target audience and their ability to interact with computer technology.