I have had some slow payers in the past. I will usually follow these steps:
30 days - send 2nd notice
45 days - call accounting dept to find status.
60 days - call client contact (one who originally hired me).
After this time there seems to be a problem so you should assess the reasons why you want to keep this client. Depending on the dollar amount I would write it off (less than $500) or pursue it in small claims. Either way, I would drop the client at this point.
The sales reps get a weekly report, from the accounting department, listing customers & their overall practice of bill paying & what percentage of each customer is how much overdue in paying, and which are our 10 worst customers from this perspective. This is part of a larger effort so that when our people visit our customers, they have a directory of all the on-going problems that any of our departments might have with any customer, and any known complaints coming in the other direction & what the status of them is.
Quality, Accounting, Contradictory Requests, Lead Time Violations, Cancelling Orders & leaving us holding the bag on costs to work on those orders.
All I can tell you is what we do at a different kind of industry. I am IT manager for a manufacturing JOB SHOP which means we engineer & manufacture to the specifications of our customers.
Many customers - we want to keep their business - but some are very slow to pay the bills.
The accounting department asks the customer service department to contact the customer buyer & customer accounting department to ask what the problem is in paying the bills ... this is usually done via letter that lists some statistics provided by the accounting department regarding vintage of bills overdue. This puts the buyer on notice that we are concerned about the issue & usually gets some formal statement in writing from the customer when to expect payment.
When that date comes & goes, our CFO calls their CFO to quote from their promise & ask what the deal is. All of these conversations & new stories are documented & referred to in later contacts.
The sales reps get a weekly report listingcustomers & their ov
What's the best method of obtaining paym