By Paul Barnes, Founder of Cloud Accounting Support Services (CASS)
If you run a business that invoices for your work, the chances are you know exactly what it feels like to wait. You’ve done the job, sent the invoice, and then… nothing. Days turn into weeks. You chase once, maybe twice, feeling awkward about it. And all the while, that money is sitting somewhere it doesn’t belong.
In the UK, 64% of SME invoices are paid late. The average small business loses around £22,000 a year to the knock-on effects of that. And for many, it’s not just a numbers problem, it’s a stress problem, a time problem, and often a confidence problem too.
I’ve been working with small businesses for decades. And one of the things I see most consistently is this: the businesses struggling most with late payments aren’t struggling because their clients are bad people. They’re struggling because they don’t have a proper system.
The problem with doing it yourself
Most business owners handle their own invoicing and chasing… at least to begin with. And it works, sort of, until it doesn’t. Volume increases. The list of overdue invoices gets longer. Chasing starts to feel personal. You don’t want to upset a good client. You let it slide. And before long, you’ve got a meaningful chunk of money tied up in invoices that are 60, 90, even 120 days old.
The other issue is that chasing payments is genuinely not the best use of your time. You’re running a business. Every hour you spend following up on an unpaid invoice is an hour you’re not spending on the work that generates new revenue.
What your accountant or bookkeeper can see that you might not
Here’s something that not everyone thinks about: your accountant already has a complete picture of your cash flow. They can see exactly what’s outstanding, how long it’s been sitting there, and what it’s costing you. In many ways, they’re better placed to manage your credit control than anyone.
That’s why I was really pleased to be asked to contribute to a new playbook, developed with Adfin, that helps accountancy and bookkeeping firms offer credit control as a proper managed service. It’s a resource designed for practices like mine and for the clients we work with.
The idea is straightforward. Rather than just reporting on a cash flow problem, the accountant steps in to actually solve it. Setting up payment collection, automating the chasing process, and managing what needs managing on the client’s behalf. The client gets paid faster, with less stress, and the accountant becomes genuinely indispensable.
“You’re not just filing accounts, you’re making sure they get paid. That changes the whole nature of the relationship.”
What does a managed credit control service actually look like?
It can look like a lot of things, depending on what you need. At the lighter end, it’s a one-off setup: getting you onto the right payment platform, connecting it to your accounting software, and configuring automated reminders so that chasing happens without anyone having to think about it.
Further up the scale, it’s ongoing management: your accountant monitors collections, handles exceptions, sets up instalment plans for larger debts, applies late fees where appropriate, and reports back to you regularly on how things are looking. For businesses with real aged debt problems, it can be genuinely transformative.
The platform we use (Adfin) handles the automation side. Direct debit, card payments, bank transfers, Apple Pay and over the phone payments. Personalised reminders. Real-time visibility on what’s been paid and what’s outstanding. It means the heavy lifting is done by the system, and we focus our time on the things that need a human touch.
Is this right for your business?
If any of this sounds familiar… late payers you don’t know how to chase, invoices written off rather than followed up, time spent on payment admin that you’d rather spend elsewhere, it’s probably worth a conversation.
The most useful starting point is usually a look at your aged debtors report. How much is sitting there? How long has it been outstanding? Often, just putting a number on it is enough to make the case for doing something differently.
Getting paid shouldn’t be the hardest part of running your business.
If you’d like to explore what a managed credit control service could look like for your business, get in touch with the team at CASS.
Pictured: Paul Barnes (Founder, Cloud Accounting Support Services)