Collecting Overdue Customer Accounts
Unfortunately, it is inevitable that most companies that issue credit to their customers find it necessary to actively seek payment from a number of slow paying and overdue accounts. Built for Sales has the tools to make your collection efforts not only easier to carry out, but it also allows you to track those efforts.
You can access Collections Management from the Main Menu or the Menu Guide. Once there, you'll see that you have a wide range of tools available to you. Really, the collections module is more of a customer account management utility. It does have strong support for collecting overdue accounts, but it also allows you to do much more than that. It allows you to manage credit requests and credit checks on new accounts, send regular monthly statements, update customer contact information and even allows you to re-establish contact with customers who have become inactive.
Collection Management Main Menu
The collection's main menu lists all the forms you will need to manage your customer accounts. These forms are divided into three main categories: Collections, Credit, and Assorted. We'll take a closer look at these forms and how they work a little later.
First, let's go to the Collection Manager and have a look at the functions there. It is in the Collection Manager where you will record the actions you've taken to collect on outstanding accounts and much of the information you enter here will automatically be inserted into the collection forms for you to send to your customers.
The Collection Manager
There are four separate windows for the Collection Manager. You can navigate through these four windows by selecting one of the four tabs at the top of the window.
The first window that appears when you select the Collection Manager button will display the Customer Account Contact Information. If you have filled in the information in the Customer's section, the name of your customer's Accounts Payable contact will appear here, along with the phone and fax number. There is also a field for notes at the bottom of the window.
To bring up a customer, simply select the CUSTOMER NUMBER field and select the name of the customer from the drop-down list.
The next window in the Collection Manager is Action Required. Here you can indicate what kind of action is being taken by selecting one of the radio buttons for the appropriate action. Below the choice of actions is a section for recording NSF checks and the corresponding fee involved.
In the Record Details window you can record the details of the actions you take towards delinquent accounts. The field boxes are for recording the date of the specific action taken and the amount of the payment promised. Use the radio buttons to indicate the method of contact, and whether a follow up is required. Again, there is a field for entering notes at the bottom of the window.
The fourth tab, Letter Guide, provides you with a listing of the forms found on the main collections window. The difference is that here they are listed with an explanation of the purpose for the forms.
The business letters are interactive with data supplied throughout the modules. This will make correspondence with your customers a smoother operation and less repetitive. If the information is not found, the letters will leave that section blank.
NOTE: An error will appear if you do not select CUSTOMER NUMBER found in Collections menu. The letters section is set up to find a specific customer in order to produce the correct information.
Example of information automatic input by the letters modules: