Collection is the control of receivables that occur due to a financing agreement. The purposes of collection include, among others, making sure that the payment of the customer or customer is on the due date, minimizing losses on overdue bills, and exercising the company’s rights related to terms and conditions that have been agreed with the customer.
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Collection officer’s responsibility
The duties and responsibilities of collection in a company are:
- Monitoring invoices for current and overdue customer contracts.
- Submitting the results of bills that have been done in the form of cash or demand deposits to the finance department
- Create and provide reports to the head collection about the performance carried out both regarding problems or cases experienced and those that were successfully handled
- Negotiate with customers
When is collection needed?
In controlling customer or customer bills, there are several types of existing contracts, namely:
- Current Contract
Active Contracts that do not have arrears in installments are usually less than 3 days. - Active Contract
Active contracts with arrears of more than 3 days on separate cut off - NPL (Non Performing Loan)
Contracts whose collectibility is doubtful or the payments are in default so it takes one action to get the optimal rate of return. The number of bills that are billed to the customer is still the same according to the calculation results of the scheme. It used to be said to be a Non Accrual or bad dab contract - WO (Write-Off)
Contracts that have been written off from the company’s books, even though operations are still being billed to customer.
3 ways to do an effective collection
Often, collection becomes a scourge that is feared by the collection team. In fact, this is the main obligation that they must carry out. How can I do a successful billing? Here are 3 important tips that can help the collection team from the company.
Pay by credit card
Accepting credit card payments will be able to relieve pressure from buyers who are having cash difficulties. When your company accepts credit card payments, the credit card issuing bank will send payments on behalf of their customers and not require them to pay immediately, the card issuing bank will usually give you 30 days. And when the supplier accepts credit card payments, it extends the buyer’s credit window for 30 days. This will lighten your buyer’s burden but will make your buyer pay on time.
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Send automatic notifications for overdue accounts
The world of accounts payable is as full of complex and manual tasks as the world of accounts receivable, and due dates can slip by. Usually the collection department will send an email or call to remind the buyer to pay the bill that is due. However, sending an email will take up a billing specialist’s time. The solution that can be used is to automate reminders for customer or customer billing. With automated contacts, the entire receivables portfolio can be maintained by the collection team and, hopefully, there will be fewer outstanding invoices.
Automatic daily to-do list
There are many things to keep in mind when one becomes a collection. Tens or hundreds of contacts are made every day. There are promises to pay, partial payments, disputes that need to be escalated and prior behavior to consider. The collector must keep a lot of records which will hinder the collection task. New software solutions promise a better way to do everyday collection work. The automated collection software serves as a repository for information about accounts and encourages them to log their progress and generate insights for management.