More Quick A/R Facts

December 7, 2010

Over the past couple of weeks, here at OpenView Venture Partners, I was able to witness firsthand the A/R inefficiencies in action. Given my recent blog postings on A/R Management, I figured I would share some of these key actions so it can help others implement best practices.

  • Make sure you send out your invoices on time. If you don’t take the effort to send out timely invoices, you probably won’t receive timely payments.
  • Follow up on past due invoices. If you don’t implement a dunning process, chances are the customer will not take the owed amount seriously and will potentially write it off.
  • Always include a total past due amount on invoices sent. Though you may have rendered additional services at some point following your initial invoice, be sure to capture past due amounts on any new invoices so customers know exactly what they owe.
  • If past due amounts persist for an extreme length of time, elevate the issue to the relationship manager involved with the customer.

The above are fairly basic items management teams should be able to easily digest as they are looking at their A/R processes and identifying holes in their accounting systems. Sometimes just doing the basics goes a very long way!

-KKF

General Partner

<strong>Kobie Fuller</strong> is a General Partner at <a href="https://upfront.com/">Upfront Ventures</a>. Previously he was the Principal at Accel Partners in San Francisco where he helped identify and work with entrepreneurs who were building category-defining companies. He has more than 10 years of experience in funding and building software companies.