You might initially think getting your invoice paid faster in the transport and logistics sector is impossible. But you do have some advantages as a company. These four tips will help you get the most out of your credit management and achieve faster payments and better cash flow.
Perfect your e-invoicing
Companies in the transport and logistics sector are gradually taking the first steps toward e-invoicing and digital planning systems, but there are still massive amounts of physical paper doing the rounds. Documents are lost, forgotten, and don’t reach the right people, meaning invoices are often not paid on time.
Fortunately, this problem can be easily remedied. You can always make copies of your invoices and other documents available digitally (or send a copy of the invoice as standard). Your customer can then consult these at any time and you avoid having to deal with the same question over and over again.
Save unnecessary work and wasted time by linking your debtor monitoring to both your financial software and your transport (TMS) or warehouse management system (WMS). This ensures you receive all the information in one central place and have an overview of the complete file. The outcome? A much more manageable mailbox and one less reason for customers to delay payment.
Opt for easy invoicing
Make payment simple. Perhaps it states the obvious, but adding a payment link to your invoice works wonders. Ask yourself, which invoice do you pay the quickest? Is it the one that requires you to open your banking app and manually enter the recipient’s bank account, amount, and explanation? Or the invoice you can pay with a few clicks through a direct link? Obviously, you quickly opt for the latter option.
You increase the chances of a quick payment by offering a payment link or QR code in reminders and demands combined with different payment methods. Or opt for rapid processing of SEPA e-mandates so that payments will eventually arrive even faster.
Automate your payment procedure
Transport does not stop at national borders. More and more companies are part of international groups or consolidations, which creates quite a challenge for credit management. Some customers want to receive a single invoice for all branches, while others want separate invoicing for each branch.
So, automation is not a luxury. You can define specific preferences for each customer ranging from invoicing and reporting to dunning processes and personalisation.
When your company accommodates preferences, it plays a huge role in a customer’s willingness to pay and do so quickly. For example, not accommodating preferences can make it difficult for customer software packages to process the invoice. This necessitates time for manual adjustments before payment. And first translating an invoice that arrives in the wrong language also causes delays.
Make invoice follow-up a priority
Following up on your invoices is also essential. So, you are well advised to set up a well-thought-out plan for your credit management. You improve this administration by improving how you follow up on outstanding invoices, clearly defining procedures, and implementing automation.
You can use software, such as Billtrust Collections, to automate different parts of your accounts receivable and credit management. This allows you to set up very efficient workflows for your teams.
You become proactive and send out payment reminders (including copies of invoices) even before the invoice due date. Quite often, customers have simply ‘forgotten’ to pay and a friendly reminder encourages them to fix their omission as soon as possible. If they still cannot pay immediately, the proposal of a payment arrangement or repayment scheme may bring relief.
Depending on your software, a short, one-off preset is sufficient to correctly set all settings and prepare the templates for the different languages. This means you do not have to repeat the same work for each invoice.
