Cash flow
Chasing and collections
In a professional services company the invoice arrives after the work, and the client is often still mid-engagement. Chasing is as much a relationship matter as a cash matter, so nobody does it consistently. The follow-up lives in a spreadsheet, chasers go out when someone remembers, and the genuinely late files surface at the moment cash gets tight.
An illustrative example, not client work
Who it is for
Every firm and professional services company
What the problem costs
The average client payment term is 43,2 jours of revenue, and the average delay 13,4 jours beyond the due date. Without those delays, French small businesses would have had 13 milliards d’euros more cash available.
The process today
- Pulling the aged balance from the invoicing tool
- Sorting overdue invoices by hand
- Writing chasers case by case, depending on how sensitive the client is
- Follow-up in a spreadsheet, rarely current
- Late escalation, once the delay has become hard to recover
The approach we take
An assistant tracks the due dates, prepares the chasers according to a graduated plan you have written, and proposes them for sending with the account history in view. Sensitive clients are handled separately and always escalated to a partner. Nothing goes out automatically to a client mid-engagement without approval: that is the point which decides whether this case is adopted or abandoned.
How it works
4 steps, and a human who decides at the end.
Tracking due dates
Overdue invoices are sorted by age, by amount and by how sensitive the account is.
Chaser prepared
The message follows your graduated plan, with the account history attached.
Approval
Sensitive accounts and live engagements go to a partner before anything is sent.
Escalation
Beyond the threshold you set, the file is prepared for a formal notice.
Before, after
What changes in your teams' day.
Today
Chasing depends on the workload and on the awkwardness. Delays surface when cash gets tight.
With the solution
Every due date is tracked, every chaser is logged, and the overdue balance is visible at all times.
Expected benefits
- The overdue balance is visible at all times, not at the year-end close
- Chasing becomes regular without resting on anyone's goodwill
- Sensitive accounts are handled by a partner, not by an automatic send
- Disputes surface early, while they are still negotiable
No figure is shown: a gain is not promised before it has been measured at your company.
Prerequisites and limits
- A chaser sent without judgement to a client mid-engagement costs more than the delay. That is why human approval is non-negotiable on this case
- A graduated chasing plan has to be written and owned by the leadership, otherwise there is nothing to apply
- This is neither a collections package nor a legal service: the formal notice stays your decision and your counsel's
Systems involved
- Invoicing tool
- Accounts receivable
Related service
Adoption & change
See the service
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