CollectionLetterTemplatesandCallScriptsWhitePaper PDF

How to Develop Killer A/R Collection Letters,
Call Scripts and Email Templates

A Resource Guide for B2B Credit & Collections Professionals with
Sample Collection Letters, Email Templates and Call Scripts
How to Develop Killer A/R Collection Letters, Call Scripts and Emails
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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Step One: Research ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Who Are You? ........................................................................................................................................... 5
B2B or B2C ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Your Industry......................................................................................................................................... 5
Customer Size ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Customer Type ...................................................................................................................................... 6
What Are Your Problems?......................................................................................................................... 6
Invoice Problems................................................................................................................................... 6
Invoice Delivery Problems .................................................................................................................... 6
Bad Data................................................................................................................................................ 6
Resource Problems ............................................................................................................................... 7
Other Problems ..................................................................................................................................... 7
Your Results .............................................................................................................................................. 7
Step 2: Set Goals ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Identify Invoice Problems Earlier .............................................................................................................. 9
Send the Invoice Sooner ........................................................................................................................... 9
Remind Customer To Pay .......................................................................................................................... 9
Get Paid Faster ........................................................................................................................................ 10
Financial Results...................................................................................................................................... 10
Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 10
Step Three: Your Team ............................................................................................................................... 11
Resources ................................................................................................................................................ 11
Roles & Training ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Step Four: Define Procedures ..................................................................................................................... 12
Disputes .................................................................................................................................................. 12
New Customers ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Large Invoices.......................................................................................................................................... 13
Reminder Emails ..................................................................................................................................... 13
Past Due Emails ....................................................................................................................................... 14
First Calls ................................................................................................................................................. 14
Collections Emails ................................................................................................................................... 14
Second Calls ............................................................................................................................................ 14
Sales Notification .................................................................................................................................... 14
Third Calls................................................................................................................................................ 15
Certified Postal ........................................................................................................................................ 15
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Fourth Calls ............................................................................................................................................. 15

Final Postal .............................................................................................................................................. 15
Third Party Collections ............................................................................................................................ 15
Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 16
Step Five: Automation ................................................................................................................................ 17
Dispute Management ............................................................................................................................. 17
Invoice Problems..................................................................................................................................... 17
Notifications ............................................................................................................................................ 17
Escalation ................................................................................................................................................ 17
Email Communication ............................................................................................................................. 18
Phone Communication ........................................................................................................................... 18
Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 18
Step Six: Measure Results ........................................................................................................................... 18
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)................................................................................................................. 19
Disputes .................................................................................................................................................. 19
Communications ..................................................................................................................................... 20
Kill Them With Kindness ............................................................................................................................. 22
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 23
About e2b teknologies ................................................................................................................................ 23
Call Scripts ................................................................................................................................................... 24
Invoice Dispute Call Script....................................................................................................................... 24
New Customer Welcome Call ................................................................................................................. 30
Large Invoice Call .................................................................................................................................... 33
First Call................................................................................................................................................... 34
Second Call .............................................................................................................................................. 35
Third Call ................................................................................................................................................. 36
Fourth Call ............................................................................................................................................... 38
Email Templates .......................................................................................................................................... 40
Reminder Email ....................................................................................................................................... 40
Past Due Email ........................................................................................................................................ 40
Collections Email ..................................................................................................................................... 40
Sales Notification Email .......................................................................................................................... 41
Certified Email......................................................................................................................................... 41
Final Email ............................................................................................................................................... 41
Letter Templates ......................................................................................................................................... 42
Collections Letter .................................................................................................................................... 42
Open Invoice Letter................................................................................................................................. 43
Past Due Notice....................................................................................................................................... 44
Customer Statement ............................................................................................................................... 45
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Managing A/R Can Be Overwhelming
Introduction
Managing your accounts receivable is overwhelming for many businesses, but it can be very easy if you
have the right tools to help you and your staff. This article outlines some of the basics that youll need to
craft an accounts receivable credit and collections strategy to meet your specific business needs.
This document provides everything that you need to consider before you start building out email
templates, collection letter templates, and collection call scripts. Sample templates, documents, and
scripts are provided at the end of this document for examples to get you started.
The first section of this document outlines six steps to developing an effective credit and collections plan
that will drive-down your accounts receivable and bad debt write-offs. It is highly recommended that
you complete at least the first five steps before you begin using any of the credit and collections email
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and letter templates, or sample phone call scripts, as these steps will have a dramatic impact on your
success or failure.
Step One: Research

Before you begin, you should first conduct a little
research to understand where youre at today.
We recommend that you spend at least a day
doing some basic research, but its better to
spend much more time if you want to be even
more successful.
Who Are You?

The first thing you need to define in your
research is who you are. This seems like a
straight-forward question, but many businesses
start out serving a particular segment of the
market, and their business changes, so they
dont have a clear understanding of who they
have become over time. Some questions to ask
yourself include:
B2B or B2C
Do you serve business customers, consumers or
both? What percentage of customers fall into
each of these categories? What percentage of
credit and collections problems fall into each of
these categories?
Your Industry
How do you define your business? Are you in the construction industry? A distributor or manufacturer?
Do you provide consulting or business services? Or are you involved in another industry? This is critical
for you to understand as there are many industry-specific issues surrounding accounts receivable
depending on your particular industry. For example, construction companies may need to manage
mechanics liens for non-payment, and transportation companies need specific information regarding
deliveries and freight bills to effectively manage the credit and collections process.
Note that your business can be defined by more than one industry. This is very common, as a
manufacturer may also act as a distributor in certain product lines and could also provide business
services for the products they manufacture and distribute. Its important to understand what invoices
and accounts are represented in each of your defined industry segments before you start crafting a
credit and collections plan, since strategies that work in some industries will not be as effective in
others.
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Customer Size
Do you serve small, medium or large businesses? What is the distribution of these customer sizes across
your business customer base? Strategies that work for small companies may be less effective than
strategies you implement for larger business companies.
Customer Type
There may be other ways to get a clearer picture of your customers. For example, your business
customers could fall into one of three categories commercial, government and industrial. Each of
these three types of customers may have specific needs that should be addressed in your credit and
collections strategies. Spend some time understanding the types of businesses you serve and what
percentage of collection issues are related to each segment.
What Are Your Problems?

You can focus on identifying the major problems with your
current credit and collections processes once you understand
who you are and who your customer are. We suggest that
you try to identify the top three issues facing your credit and
collections today, and then return to this list periodically to
improve other areas. Below is a summary of the top five
credit and collections issues facing businesses that weve
uncovered through the years. You can use this list or create
your own list, but either way you need to understand whats
working and whats not working so you can fix it.
Invoice Problems
Most customers want to pay you on time, but they wont if there are problems with the invoice. Find
out why customers arent paying you on time. Are your invoices missing the customer purchase order?
Are they being sent to the wrong person or the wrong address? Is the billable rate or freight rate wrong?
Are they tax exempt, and you continue to charge tax? Review all late invoices, talk to your customers
and your accounts receivable staff, and identify whats wrong. Later we will discuss how to fix these
issues, but it will be very apparent to you how to resolve many of the issues with small changes in your
billing processes.
Invoice Delivery Problems
Are your customers receiving the invoices? Are they receiving them early enough to pay you on time?
Many companies only process invoices once or twice a month. If the invoice is created on the first of the
month with Net 30 terms, and you dont send the invoice to the customer until the 15th of the month,
youre only giving the customer 15 days notice to make a payment on time. Consider processing invoices
more frequently and sending invoices to customers electronically so they have more time to review and
to pay the invoices before the due date.
Bad Data
Most businesses do not have a formalized credit and collections process. As such, they are working with
outdated Excel spreadsheets, old Aging Reports, or they enter information manually into a CRM system
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to keep track of what theyve done or what they need to do. Inaccurate and outdated information is not
effective to helping you get paid on time. Understand what information is important to your credit and
collections staff. Later we will discuss how to utilize a credit and collections management software
application and help you get access to this information in a centralized system designed to make you
much more effective in your activities and customer communications.
Resource Problems
Do you have enough people working on accounts receivable? Do they have the proper training and
access to information to be effective? Do they have systems to help them streamline their processes?
Accounts receivable is likely your largest or second largest asset. Make sure that your team has
everything they need to be as effective and as efficient as possible, so you can get paid on-time, every
time. Identify your team members, roles and responsibilities, and solicit their feedback as they will be
able to tell you what they need, whats working well, and areas where they feel your business could
dramatically improve.
Other Problems
In most cases, businesses fail to get paid because the invoice has problems, is sent too late, or the
collector is working with bad data. But there are, occasionally, other reasons why business customers
dont pay on time. The customer may be experiencing cash flow problems and is otherwise unable to
pay, or perhaps they are in a very small minority of business customers that simply refuse to pay their
bills on time and are practicing cash flow management.
Your Results
Now that youve done a little research, you should have a handle on who you are, who your customers
are, and what types of problems youre facing, but what are the end results? How long is it taking your
customers to pay you? Whats the financial impact of late payments on your cash flow? What are the
associated financing costs for that cash? How much do you write-off annually in bad debt?
Most companies (on average) extend Net 28-30 day terms to their business customers but get paid an
average of 61 days after the invoice due date. This is a good benchmark if you want to be average. Best
in class companies get paid a minimum of 20% faster or 48 days after the invoice due date. There is a lot
of room for improvement here and many companies weve worked with have improved this number,
significantly getting paid on-time or shortly after the due date by simply implementing some very basic
strategies which well share later in this paper.
How much do you spend manually processing invoices, and how much could you save by implementing
an electronic invoice delivery system and customer self-service payment portal where your customers
could pay you online? Consider that it takes at least 2 minutes to process a single invoice (printing,
folding, putting it in an envelope, and affixing postage). Also consider that the cost of the paper, toner,
Most businesses write-off about 4% of accounts receivable

annually. Thats $400,000 for a $10 million business.
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envelope and postage is at least 50 cents per invoice. If youre paying someone $10 an hour, your costs
to process invoices can add up to a significant amount in no time.
The table below highlights invoice processing, material, and postage costs per month for companies
with various invoice volumes to help you understand your costs):
100 Invoices/Month
Labor Cost
Material & Postage
Total Monthly
Total Annual
$3.67
$50.00
$53.67
$644.04
1,000 Invoices/Month
10,000 Invoices/Month
$36.70
$500.00
$536.70
$6,440.40
$360.70
$5,000.00
$5,367.00
$64,404.00
Keep in mind that benchmarking your company to others will depend greatly on your industry, your
company size, and other factors. A great resource for benchmarking your accounts receivable against
your peers (same industry and company size) is the Credit Research Foundation. The CRF provides a lowcost report to help you understand exactly how you compare to your peers. You may qualify for a free
copy of this report by participating in the survey. More information is available here.
Summary
Most business executives spend time and effort understanding their markets, strategizing on sales, and
planning for product and services they provide to their business customers but few spend any time
whatsoever analyzing their accounts receivable. Given that A/R is often one of their largest assets and
most immediate forms of working capital, its imperative that companies allocate time to do some initial
research into their accounts receivable, credit management, and collections strategies. Small
improvements can reap huge benefits and cost savings by avoiding financing costs of borrowing cash
during lean times when cash is tight and by avoiding bad debt write-offs that could have otherwise been
avoided by simply being proactive in their accounts receivable processes.
Step 2: Set Goals

Have you finished step one yet? If not then please go back and do you research first! If youve
completed your research then youre ready to start setting some goals for improving your accounts
receivable credit and collections.
Too often we see businesses that are focused on the cash aspect of their credit and collections. While
cash is important, its simply the result of effectively managing your accounts receivable credit and
collections process. As such, your goals should not be based on cash improvements but rather, on
improvements in your invoicing and customer communications plan. If you set the right goals and you
attain them, the cash will come we promise.
So what should your goals be? This will depend somewhat on your research and your particular business
needs, but some examples of goals are provided below to help you understand what is possible. No
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matter what goals you set, each should be measurable so you know if youre reaching your goals or if
there are other things you will need to do in order to attain the results youve set for your business.
Identify Invoice Problems Earlier

One of the best goals you can set is to identify invoice
problems earlier in the process. If the invoice is incorrect,
missing a customer purchase order number, or sent to
wrong person or address, you are unlikely to get paid on
time. Its unlikely that you truly know how long it takes
you to identify invoice issues today, but you should be
able to set an easy goal to have someone review all
invoices that are past due the day they are past due to
ensure that they are correct.
Set this as an internal policy and the first step taken in your credit and collections process. You may even
want to break this down further so that large dollar invoices are reviewed before they are sent to
customers. After all, large invoices represent the bulk of your cash and the highest financial risk should
the customer refuse payment due to invoice problems. Large dollar invoices will vary by business and
should be clearly defined by your executive team. Some companies may consider a $1,000 invoice a
large invoice while others may consider a large invoice $50,000 or more.
Send the Invoice Sooner

Again, you may not know how long it takes you to send invoices to customers today, but you should be
able to set a goal to get invoices to customers a lot faster. This will be the result of processing invoices
more frequently (every day or week compared to once or twice a month) and by implementing an
electronic invoice system to send invoices to customers electronically via email, fax, or electronic data
interchange (EDI). The customer has to have the invoice as soon as possible in order for them to pay you
on time. Theres no excuse for late invoice delivery with todays technology options. In an ideal scenario,
the customer should receive the invoice the day that its processed but even small businesses should be
able to send invoices at least once a week giving the customer enough time to process payment before
the invoice due date.
Remind Customer To Pay

Very few companies have time to remind their customers to pay their
bills, but this is a great goal to set. If you dont have a credit and collection
management system you may want to focus reminders on larger invoices.
You should remind customers that they have invoices that will be due in
the next 3-5 business days that still have an outstanding balance. In most
cases, a simple reminder is all you need in order to get paid faster. Your
goal should be to remind every customer to pay when they have bills that
will be due in the near future. Adjust this goal to meet your specific
needs.
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Get Paid Faster

The overall goal for your entire credit and collections process is to get paid faster. Based on your
research, you should understand how long your customers are taking to pay you. You can now set a
reasonable goal to get payment faster. For example, if youre like most businesses, your customers are
taking you 60 days to pay on a NET 28 invoice. By implementing even modest systems and procedures
you should be able to improve this by 20%, getting paid 12 days faster. This makes sense when you
consider the first three goals ensure the invoice is correct, ensure they receive the invoice with enough
time to pay you by the due date, and remind them to pay before theyre past due.
Financial Results
While you shouldnt set financial goals, it is important to
understand how your goals impact your financial results. What
does it mean when you get paid 12 days faster? It means that
youre reducing financing costs for borrowing cash when you
have cash flow problems. Lets look at an example:
For every $1 million in credit sales the average business has
about $166,680 in current and outstanding accounts receivable,
meaning that youre getting paid in 60 days (Days Sales
Outstanding). If the cost to borrow cash from your financial
institution is 10% APR, then financing costs are $16,668
annually. By getting paid 12 days faster, youre avoiding about
$3,334 in financing costs annually.
Most businesses write-off 4% of accounts receivable. You should easily be able to reduce bad debt
write-offs by 20% by simply identifying invoice problems earlier, getting the invoice to customers
sooner, and reminding customers to pay. Again, assuming $1 million in annual credit sales, this means
that youre writing off $40,000 annually with a 20% improvement, saving you $8,000 every year.
Keep in mind that financial results in the previous example are based on a business selling $1 million
annually on credit terms. The financial impact to your business will be much greater if your business is
doing $10 million, $100 million, or more.
Of course there are other financial goals that can be set but these are just two examples. You may also
want to reduce invoice processing costs as discussed previously. Maybe you cant implement electronic
invoicing for all of your customers but cost savings for just half of your customers could be significant.
Summary
Set reasonable goals for improving your accounts receivable credit and collections by
implementing three basic goals to ensure that the invoice is correct, sent to the customer ontime, and customers are reminded to pay you on-time before their invoices are past due.
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Step Three: Your Team

You assign resources to sales, marketing, preventative maintenance,
customer service, and virtually every aspect of your business, but who is
responsible for managing your accounts receivable? In most businesses,
its a part-time, untrained bookkeeper or junior accounts receivable
clerk. Considering that accounts receivable is such as vital part of your
cash flow does this sound appropriate? Probably not.
The next step to improve your accounts receivable credit and collections
is to define your credit and collections team. We could spend hours on
this section but well keep it brief.
Resources
Depending on the size of your company, you will have various resources to manage your accounts
receivable. Smaller businesses may have a single, part-time employee, while larger companies will have
several levels of credit managers, collectors, and other resources involved in various aspects of the
credit and collections process.
It is safe to estimate that most companies should staff at least one full time credit professional for every
1,000 invoices created each month (or at least one part-time employee for 500 monthly invoices)
especially if they are not using software for invoice delivery or collections automation. The same
principle holds true if they are managing 500 to 1,000 active customers per month, assuming that each
customer has 1-2 open invoices each. More information on sizing your credit and collections team is
provided in our blog article How Account & Invoice Volume Effect Accounts Receivable Management.
Roles & Training

You should also define which available resources have authority to manage various aspects of your
accounts receivable, credit and collections policies, and procedures. Who can put a customer on credit
hold? Who determines customer credit limits? Who negotiates payment plans? Who makes the first
phone call? You should also ensure that resources have the proper training to be effective in their jobs.
You cannot expect a young accounts receivable clerk to know how to make collection calls if he or she
has never had training and doesnt feel comfortable talking on the phone. Keep this in mind as training is
as important as selecting the right resources for your team. More information on training options and
identifying roles and responsibilities can be found in our 6 Steps To Creating A Business Credit Policy
and Collections Action Plan white paper.
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Step Four: Define Procedures

By now youre starting to understand whats possible. You should have a solid understanding of what
youre doing right and what youre doing wrong, your goals for improving credit collections, and whos
responsible for managing the process. Now its time to talk about strategies that, beyond reminders, will
help you get paid faster than you ever imagined.
As mentioned previously, your business is unique based on your industry and the types of customers
you serve. Therefore, your credit and collections procedures will also be unique to your company. In
fact, weve found that most businesses should not treat every customer the same because every
customer is NOT the same.
Thats why we recommend setting up customers into different credit classes each with its own unique
workflow and different steps in the collections process. For example, you dont want to send a
threatening collection letter to a well-established, strategic customer, but you probably should if youre
dealing with a newer account that is less established and has already broken several promises to pay
you on time. Likewise, your government customers may tend to pay later than your commercial
customers, so you may need a separate workflow to manage those accounts.
Your policies and procedures will vary greatly between customer classes. Below are some suggested
business to business credit and collections procedures that you may want to consider for three types of
customers Strategic Accounts, Established Accounts, and New Accounts.
Keep in mind that for most businesses, strategic accounts represent less than 5% of their business
customers, established accounts likely represent the largest portion of their customer base (upwards of
80%), and newer accounts make up the remaining base with the highest potential risk.
Disputes
The first thing you want your collectors working on are
invoice disputes, and they should start with the largest
ones first. Any invoice that is in dispute means that
youre not getting paid until you resolve the dispute.
Segregate disputed invoices and use reason codes to
understand why the invoice is in dispute. Is the customer
claiming they already paid the bill? Are they disputing the
information on the invoice products or services billed,
freight charges, missing purchase order information, sent
to wrong person or address, incorrect product received,
product damaged, etc. Isolate invoice disputes, set a
policy for managing them, and track dispute reasons so
you can implement new policies and procedures to
prevent them from happening again.
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The earlier you identify the dispute, the faster you can resolve the issue and the faster youll get paid.
Credit and collections systems allow you to manage disputes, or you may want to manage these in a
special list which is available for multiple members of your team a hot issues list that requires team
collaboration in order to resolve the issue before it escalates too far.
New Customers
You should have a clear process for managing new customers. Do you require a credit application? How
do you determine credit limits and credit terms? And who is responsible for contacting the new
customer to explain your credit policies? Someone in your business should be responsible for
maintaining your relationship with your customers especially new and strategic customers.
You need to understand their internal procedures and who to contact when things go wrong. Some
companies require proof of delivery before they pay. Others require that invoices be sent a week or two
before they are processed for payment. Spend time in this area, and youll uncover dozens of areas
where you can improve your processes while building healthy and mutually-beneficial relationships with
your customers, which will improve customer retention, customer satisfaction, and potentially increased
sales. After all, a bad credit experience is likely to drive away customers while a great credit experience
will motivate them to do more business with you instead of your competition.
Large Invoices
As mentioned previously in this series, you need to establish a policy and procedures for managing large
dollar invoices as these have the greatest risk and the greatest reward for your business. Understand
who will manage the large invoices and when to start collection calls. We suggest that large dollar
invoices be called much earlier in the process and more frequently to ensure that everything is correct,
that the customer received the invoice on time, and the customer is willing and able to pay you.
Reminder Emails
You should remind customers to pay you a few days before the
invoice is due and that there is still a balance due on their
account. You may want to wait until the due date for strategic
customers but you may want to remind newer customers 3-5
days before the invoice due date. Reminder emails take a lot of
time if you dont have the right system in place to automate this
process.
Consider implementing a credit and collections system to assist
in these communications or off-load the responsibility to an
office manager, secretary, or other entry-level resource that has
available time to send the reminders. Reminders should be
friendly in nature and should reference the invoice or invoices
with information about the balance due with instructions on
how to make a payment. You should also resend the original
invoice along with the reminder just in case they cant locate
the original invoice.
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Past Due Emails

A past due invoice should be managed carefully. According to our research, you are likely to collect only
74% of invoices that age to three months; 30% of invoices that age to 6 months; and only 10% of
invoices that age to 12 months. It is easy to send a past due notice to customers that have past due
invoices. This email notification should be sent the day the invoice is past due, or within a few days of
the invoice due date. It can be friendly in tone and like the reminder email, should include a copy of the
invoice with the information the customer will need to remedy the situation
First Calls
Your first collection call will occur within two weeks after the
invoice due date. The call should be friendly in tone with the goal
to understand why the invoice has not been paid. In most cases,
you will find that there is a problem with the invoice or that the
customer never received the invoice. You can then remedy the
situation and set a follow-up to ensure that the customer has no
valid reason to delay payment.
Collections Emails
As the invoice ages you will need to adjust the tone of your communications with customers. Invoices
that have aged beyond two weeks are becoming a serious risk. A collections email should be sent
reminding the customer of the past due balance with a more serious tone than previous
communications. The customer needs to understand that this is becoming a serious issue for your
organization and that failure to remedy the situation will have negative consequences. Still, your
communication does not need to be hostile and can still reinforce your commitment to working with
them to resolve the issue.
Second Calls
A second phone call should be made within the first 3-4 weeks after the invoice due date. At this point in
time the customer should have received three emails a reminder, a past due notice, and a collections
email as well as a first phone call. The second phone call acts as a follow-up on the collections email
providing the collector with an opportunity to address the problem directly with the customer. Again,
the tone of the communication can be friendly but should convey to the customer that the issue is
serious and needs to be rectified to avoid future consequences for non-payment.
Sales Notification
You may need to involve the sales department if invoices continue to go unpaid. We suggest notifying
the customers sales rep of the issue when the invoice is 3-4 weeks past due. Consider that the sales rep
probably has the best relationship with the customer and they likely have a financial incentive to resolve
the issue so they can get their commission on the initial sale and they can continue to sell more to the
customer in the future. The sales rep should be in contact with your customers more than your credit
and collections team and can act as a resource to resolve more serious invoice disputes since they may
have more information about the products or services provided to the customer on the initial order.
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Third Calls
A third collection call should be made about 30 days after the invoice due date. At this point in time the
account is seriously past due and the customer is facing much more severe consequences for nonpayment. The call can be friendly in nature but should convey a much more serious tone with more
details about consequences and timelines, should the issue continue to go unresolved. Consequences
may include putting the customer account on hold, ceasing all product shipments or services, and
possibly more severe actions such as reporting the customer to credit bureaus, turning accounts over to
third party collections, or legal actions.
Certified Postal
B y now the situation has become very serious, and there is a high
probability that you will be faced with difficult decisions to take
legal action or to terminate a customer account. The issue should
now be escalated to a senior level executive with authority to
work with the customer on a payment plan or to rectify more
severe invoice disputes.
The next step in the process should involve the creation of a letter from your executive team to the
primary contacts immediate supervisor, CFO, Controller, or President, highlighting what has been done
to remedy the situation and the serious nature of the issue at hand. This letter should be sent when the
invoice is 30-40 days past due via certified mail with a corresponding email copy sent to all of the
contacts where email addresses are available.
Fourth Calls
The fourth, and final phone call will be made by a senior level executive around 40 to 50 days past due.
It is provided to give the customer one last chance to make a payment. At this point you should ask
directly for a wire transfer, ACH bank transaction, or credit card to rectify the situation. Failure to pay in
the next 5 days will result in the account being turned over to third party collections, a report filed with
credit bureaus, and possible legal action. There is no friendly tone in this communication. The issue will
be handled professionally but it is a serious matter with serious consequences.
Final Postal
You may want to send a second letter via certified mail and another email to all customer contacts when
the invoice is 40-50 days past due. This will be the final communication with the customer notifying
them that you will be seeking legal action and turning their account over to collections if payment is not
received in 5 days.
Third Party Collections

Youve emailed the customer 5 times and youve called them 4 times. The issue is still unresolved and
you now pursue the only options left to resolve the issue. Depending on the size of the invoice, you may
want to turn the account over to a professional, third party collections firm, sell off the invoice to a
factoring company to recoup a small portion of the balance due; or seek legal action which will be costly
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and time consuming. Final actions should occur between 45-60 days past due as a last resort,
understanding that it is unlikely that you will ever do business with this customer again.
The table below provides a suggested timeline for credit and collections actions for each of the three
primary types of customer accounts strategic, established, and new customers, as explained
previously. The table is organized in sequential order as the invoice ages. Large disputes and large and
medium invoice definitions will vary by company. The numeric values under each type of customer
represent the number of days from the invoice due date that the action should occur, assuming Net30
terms. Some actions such as identifying invoice problems and sending reminders will occur before the
invoice due date (represented by a negative numeric value).
Sequence
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Customer Action
Invoice Problems (Disputes)
New Customer
Large Invoice (Amount
defined by Customer Type)
Reminder Email
Past Due Email
Medium Invoice (Amount
defined by Customer Type)
First Call
Collections Email
Second Call
Notify Sales
Third Call
Certified -Postal
Certified - Email
Fourth Call
Final Postal
Final Email
3P Collections / Legal
Type
Invoice
Account
Strategic
-30
-30
Established
-30
-30
New
-30
-30
Escalate
Yes
No
Invoice
Yes
Invoice
Invoice
0
15
-3
10
-5
5
No
No
Invoice
15
10
Yes
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
Invoice
20
25
30
30
35
40
40
45
50
50
55
15
20
25
25
30
35
35
40
45
45
50
10
15
20
20
25
30
30
35
40
40
45
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Summary
The procedures outlined in this article represent suggested strategies for communications with
customers to resolve non-payment on past due invoices. You may need to adjust the timeframes for
each action for various customers, and you should always do the right the thing to protect your
customer relationships where it makes sense. As mentioned previously, most customers want to pay
you on time and there are valid reasons why they dont. Less than 1% of your customers should ever
reach the final collections stages where you need to send them to third party collections or seek legal
action. Utilize the email templates, letter templates, and sample phone call scripts included in the
appendices at the end of this document as a guide for managing your collections process, but make
these documents your own, as you know your customers best, and almost every company will need to
make adjustments to these documents before using them in their business.
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Step Five: Automation

Youve done your research, youve set goals, you hired and trained the right people, and youve defined
your credit and collections processes, policies, and procedures. The next step is to put all of this into a
system so that its manageable and so you optimize your efforts by using technology to streamline the
process.
Most companies couldnt afford a credit and collections management system just a few years ago. With
costs starting at $15,000 per user and implementations costing about as much, technology was simply
out of reach for most businesses despite the huge payback that companies can realize by reducing
financing costs and bad debt write-offs.
Thats why we developed Anytime Collect, the first accounts receivable credit and collections
management system designed specifically for business to busines s accounts receivable collections.
Unlike other systems, Anytime Collect is not designed for collection agencies. It is designed to act as a
virtual accounts receivable clerk and credit manager to help you identify what actions need to be taken,
when, and how, with built-in templates, automated email communications, and other tools to help you
get paid faster.
Below are just a few of the tasks that Anytime Collect automates:
Dispute Management
Mark invoices in dispute with reason codes and escalation to
appropriate resources to resolve the disputes.
Invoice Problems
Setup the system to notify your accounts receivable team
when invoices appear to have problems. For example, if a
customer requires a purchase order, then setup a rule to alert
the collector every time an invoice is created for the customer
where the purchase order is blank.
Notifications
Notify collectors when customers are over their credit limit, on credit hold, and when they have large
invoices that require their immediate attention.
Escalation
Automatically escalate disputes, large invoices, and severely delinquent accounts to credit managers
and senior level executives with a complete history of everything thats occurred with the account, and
the historical communications for the invoice in question, so they have all of the information they need
to resolve the issue before it gets out of hand.
Page | 18
Email Communication
Use the system to automatically send emails to customers with copies of invoices and predefined
templates and letters for each phase of the collection process reminders, new customer welcome
letters, past due notices, collections emails, certified letters via email, and final notifications.
Phone Communication
Collectors waste a lot of time reviewing aging reports, handwritten notes, and emails in their personal
inbox before they ever pick up the phone to call the customer. In fact, industry analyst Paystream
Advisors suggests that companies that automate systems like Anytime Collect spend 300% more time
soliciting customers for payment because they have all of the information they need to be effective in
their communications with a system to guide them through the process. Anytime Collect will schedule
calls for the collector as invoices age so they know exactly who to call, when, and why, with access to
information for the first through the fourth and final collections calls.
Summary
Anytime Collect is designed to help businesses to automate customer communication and to build
prioritized phone call lists for collectors so they can do more with less time. The system is very flexible
supporting built-in escalation, automated email correspondence, mass-mail templates, and much more,
so that collectors can focus on soliciting customers for payment and resolving disputes as opposed to
wasting time trying to figure out what to do and whats already been done. Contact us today to learn
more about Anytime Collect and how we can help you get paid faster.
Step Six: Measure Results

The final step in defining your accounts receivable and credit collections policies and procedures is
measuring the results. In step one and two you did some research to better understand what was
working and what wasnt working, and you set goals to improve several of those areas. Credit and
collections is a numbers game, and you can easily measure the results. Now lets discuss several key
performance indicators (KPIs) that you may want to measure along with suggestions to continually
Page | 19
improve on your business to business accounts receivable collections so you continue to reduce your
bad debt and get paid faster and faster year by year.
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

Most businesses dont know what days sales outstanding (DSO) is all about, but DSO is important
because it helps them understand how long its taking them to get paid on their accounts receivable.
A company extending Net 30 Terms would ideally like to see their DSO at 30, but this is a bit misleading.
There are reasons why you probably want DSO to be higher than your credit terms. For example, not all
past due accounts receivable are bad. In tough economic times, or times when you have excess
inventory or available service resources, you may want to extend payment terms or otherwise plan for
extended credit terms. Take for instance a consulting firm that has a consultant on the bench with no
billable work for them. They may approach a customer or prospect and offer them a discounted rate
and extended terms if they sign a consulting contract now so that they have billable time for the
consultant. Its better for the company to take a calculated risk than to waste perishable time. In this
case, the customer may still have NET 30 terms, but the company may extend 60 day terms on invoices
for this particular project.
Disputes
If you extend credit to customers you will inevitably end up with invoices in dispute. The key is to
identify disputes earlier in the process, to define each one with a reason code, and to analyze disputes
so you can do a root-cause analysis to prevent them from happening again. To measure your
effectiveness you need to first understand how many invoices are in dispute. This can be difficult
without a credit and collections system, but ask your collectors, and they should be able to provide a
rough estimate. Next, track both the number of invoices in dispute and the value of disputed invoices
over time. The goal should be to reduce both numbers as you gain more and more proficiency with your
processes and/or your credit and collections system.
Page | 20
Communications
How many times do you communicate with customers regarding past due invoices? This is an important
metric for you to understand. As mentioned previously, each past due invoice should be emailed and
called a minimum of 9-10 times through a standard collections cycle before the account is turned over
to third party collections and before you pursue legal action. You can setup simple or advanced metrics
to evaluate your communications. It can be as simple as communications per invoice across your entire
portfolio of accounts, or it could be very detailed, broken down by invoice aging bucket, by customer
type, or other criteria.
Something to consider is collector workload. It takes a minimum of 5 minutes for most people to draft
an email and to attach invoices for email-based communications and it takes a minimum of 20 minutes
for someone to call a customer, to conduct a phone conversation, resolve an issue, and note what
theyve done. This means that the average person can make just 3 phone calls per hour (assuming they
reach a live person each time) OR they can send 12 emails per hour assuming they have access to the
accounting system to create PDF copies of invoices.
As such, another metric you should monitor is how much time your collectors are spending on calls and
emails and whether theyre able to get through their task list or if there are tasks that they are unable to
complete because they simply do not have enough time. Consider evaluating a credit and collection
system to automate the mundane and routine email communications while presenting everything they
need in a centralized system so they can make more calls and focus on higher priority issues.
Communications metrics should correlate to your overall accounts receivable numbers. The more you
communicate with your customers the lower your accounts receivable. Financial executives including
CFOs, controllers, and credit managers will want to know if their collectors are efficient. How many calls
and emails are they completing, what are the results, are some collectors more efficient or stronger in
certain types of activities, and how can they train and manage their staff to be even more effective?
Anytime Collect includes a dashboard (below) providing top-line metrics to help you understand all of
this who has your cash, how long is it taking customers to pay you, whats in dispute, when can you
expect to get paid, and much, much more.
Page | 21
Page | 22
Kill Them With Kindness

The key to getting paid on time is to provide the customer with
quality products and services, to ensure that there is no reason
for them not to pay you on time, and to build a personal
relationship with your customers both at a business level and
on a personal level.
You spend a lot of time and money marketing to prospects and
converting them to profitable customers. The tool you use to
manage this process is called CRM customer relationship
management. Whats credit and collections but an extension of
these customer relationships? Companies that build
relationships are much more likely to get paid on time.
Years ago our company had very few credit and collection issues, and we didnt have a system to help.
Instead, we had Lynn our accounts receivable clerk. Lynn was one of those extraordinary people that
you only meet occasionally in your life.
Our president happened to step into Lynns office during one of her collection calls. She was on the
phone talking to someone about their children and laughing. The conversation went on for several
minutes and Lynn ended the call thanking them and confirming that theyd be sending a check overnight
in the mail to bring their account into good standing. Our president was impressed to say the least.
Unlike too many people involved in credit and collections, Lynn didnt see her job in light of credit terms
or credit limits. Instead, her mantra was Kill Them With Kindness. And it flat out worked. Customers
truly loved Lynn and wed often get emails thanking us for having such a wonderful person on staff.
Keep this in mind when youre hiring for accounts receivable, credit, and collections positions. Make
sure that you find someone that is personable. Someone who is not only good on the phone, but
someone that enjoys calling your customers someone who is very organized and someone who values
relationships and has that uncanny ability to turn a difficult collections call into an enjoyable experience.
The call scripts provided at the end of this document are designed to be used as a guide to help you craft
your own messaging for customers. They are not intended to be a verbatim call script for exactly what to
say to a customer during each call. A good accounts receivable professional will understand your credit
and collections policies and will convey them to customers in a friendly manner ensuring that you get
paid while continuing to build healthy relationships with your customers for many years to come.
Page | 23
Conclusion
Accounts receivable is one of the largest assets and sources of working capital for most businesses, but
few companies invest time or money into systems and processes to effectively manage it. They spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars on capital equipment and implement expensive ERP and CRM software
for their general business and sales operations but they rely on accounts receivable software that has no
workflow or automation to help them get paid faster.
Anytime Collect is one of the only accounts receivable credit and collection management applications
designed exclusively for business to business credit collections. It scales from small companies using
QuickBooks to large enterprises operating multiple companies across multiple ERP systems in multiple
countries.
Companies that implement systems like Anytime Collect realize a return on their investment in just two
months by avoiding finance costs; reducing bad debt write-offs; minimizing labor, material, and postage
costs for invoice handling and presentment; and gaining significant efficiencies throughout their
organization.
Anytime Collect is like hiring a professional credit and collections employee but one that always does
what theyre told to do, when theyre told to do it, and how you want them to do it and you dont
have to pay them benefits and they never get sick or take a day off work.
Join the legions of Anytime Collect fans gaining new efficiencies in their accounts receivable and find out
how your business can put accounts receivable on auto pilot today.
About e2b teknologies

e2b teknologies is the Chardon, Ohio-based publisher of Anytime Collect, an enterprise-class credit and
collections management (CCM) business application designed for small and mid-size businesses. The
Anytime Collect product is available through authorized resellers throughout North America. The
Company is a member of NACM the National Association of Credit Managers and has received
numerous awards and accolades including the Inc. 500/5000, Case Weatherhead School of
Managements Weatherhead 100. Lake-Geauga Fast Track 50 awards, and numerous awards for
customer service and sales excellence from our software partners including Epicor and Sage Software.
Page | 24
Call Scripts
The following call scripts are provided as examples of what you may want to communicate with the
customer during each phase of your credit and collections process. Every business is different and you
should tailor these scripts and email templates to meet your needs. Keep in mind that you may need to
have several variations of each script or template for different types of customers as well.
Invoice Dispute Call Script
INTRODUCTION
You
Hello. My name is <Your Name> from the credit department at <Your Company>. I am
calling to discuss Invoice <Invoice Number> that was due on <Invoice Due Date>. We are
showing a balance past due of <Past Due Amount>.
Customer Customer explains the reason for non-payment is a dispute with the invoice. See responses
below for common disputes below:
Forgot, Too Busy, On Vacation, Etc.
You
I dont see a payment in our system for this invoice. Can you help me
understand why it has not been paid?
Customer
Customer explains they forgot to pay it, were busy, were on vacation, the
person who pays the bills was unavailable or died, or whatever the excuse is
but they have the invoice, everything is correct, and there is no reason for
continued non-payment.
You
I understand. That certainly happens to the best of us. Proceed to Closing A

below.
Already Paid Invoice

You
I dont see a payment in our system. Did you pay via check, online bill pay, or
ACH and when did you process the payment?
Customer
Customer explains how they paid and when they paid.

Note: The payment could be pending in Anytime Collect if it was an online bill
pay via credit card or ACH transaction but the online bill pay transaction has
yet to be imported into the accounting system. Check the customer account
record to see if there is a pending payment. If this was a check then confirm
that they sent the payment to the correct address and ask if the check was
Page | 25
sent in the last 3 business days. There is a chance that it has yet to arrive. Set
a follow-up date for a few days out to see if the check has been received. If
the check was sent over 5 business days ago then tell the customer that you
have not received the payment and ask for the check number. Email
accounting with your notes and the check number and ask if they received the
check but did not enter it into the system.
You
Thank you for this information. It appears that the payment hasnt been
recorded in our system so Im going to set a follow-up date in a couple days to
see if its been received and processed. I will contact you if for some reason
we still have not received the payment as it would appear that there may be a
problem with the payment. Continue to Closing B.
Didnt Receive Invoice

You
I apologize for that. Can you verify your email address so I can resend the
invoice to you?
Customer verifies their email. If it is not the same as what you have in
Anytime Collect correct it. If its the same then resend the invoice and keep
the customer on the call until they confirm that they have received it. Note
that it could be blocked or held in their Spam filter. Ask that they check their
spam filter and add your email address to their safe senders list.
Customer
Customer acknowledges that they have received the email. Proceed below.
You
Thats great news. Proceed to Closing A below.

If they did not receive your email Proceed below.
You
Is there an alternative email address than I can send the invoices to or can I
fax them to you?
Customer
Customer verifies an alternative email address and/or fax number. Send the
invoices while you have them on the phone and verify that they received
them. If they did receive them then thank them and Proceed to Closing A
below. If they still did not receive them then proceed below.
You
Im going to mail the invoices to your attention today and will follow-up with
you in a few days to ensure that you received them. In the meantime, can you
check with your IT department and let me know if there is some reason why
you may not be receiving our email communications? Also, can you please
verify your mailing address?
Customer
Customer agrees to contact their IT department. Make sure that you followup on this on your next call to ensure that your email domain is not on their
Page | 26
black list for some reason and that future email communications are received.
Verify that you have the correct mailing address for the customer. If so then
mail the invoices and set a follow-up date in Anytime Collect. If the address is
incorrect then send a note to accounting to change the address and mail the
invoice to the correct address. Proceed to Closing A below.
Invoice Missing PO
You
I apologize. This appears to be a mistake on our part. Can you help me identify
the purchase order number for the invoice so we can get that fixed and
resend the invoice?
Customer
Customer gives you the purchase order number
You
Thank you very much. Ive made the change to the purchase order and I
changed the setting on your account so that future invoices will require the
Purchase Order number so we can avoid this issue in the future. I am
resending the invoices now. Continue to Closing A below.
Wrong Price/Rate/Tax/Freight
You
I apologize. Can you help me understand what should have been reflected on
the invoice?
Customer
Customer explains what was wrong.
You
Is the dispute is valid or invalid? If you do not know then tell the customer
that you will have to do some research on this issue and ask them when a
good time would be for you to follow-up with them. Create a follow-up
activity on the communication screen within Anytime Collect for this date and
time. Continue to Closing B below.
Valid Dispute
You
I see that this was an error on our part. I will correct this immediately and will
resend the revised invoice.
Mark the credit issue as resolved in Anytime Collect. If they were disputing
only a portion of the invoice, put in the amount that was in dispute. Make
sure that you mark the dispute reason code. Since this was a valid dispute,
check the Exclude from Aging check-box so that the disputed amount does
not trigger Anytime Collect to create new actions for you. Proceed to the
Closing A below.
Page | 27
Invalid Dispute
You
Im sorry but it appears that the invoice is correct based on information. I will
contact the sales department to clarify the information we have. Can you
provide some more information to help us understand why you feel the
invoice is incorrect? If this is an error on our part then we will correct the
issue but it appears that everything is accurate based on our notes. When
would be a good time for us to connect again to discuss this matter further?
Do not mark the credit issue as resolved in Anytime Collect. If they were
disputing only a portion of the invoice, put in the amount that was in dispute.
Since this was an invalid dispute, DO NOT check the Exclude from Aging checkbox so the invoice continues to trigger Anytime Collect to create new actions
for you. Proceed to the Closing B below.
Did Not Receive The Product

You
Check the accounting system to identify the shipment status. If the shipment
as not sent then apologize and tell the customer that you will investigate the
situation and will let them know when the shipment will be made. If the
shipment was sent but in the past few days, notify the customer that they
should receive the product in the next few days. If the shipment should have
been received by now then provide the shipment information to the customer
and tell them youll follow-up to track the shipment and will notify them of
the reason for the delay. Proceed to Closing B.
Product Damaged or Wrong Product or Wrong Quantity

You
Can you clarify the problem with the shipment? I need to understand if the
product was damaged, what product you expected, and what quantity you
ordered.
Customer
Customer explains the issue.
You
Im going to research this issue further. It seems as though there may have
been a miscommunication during the sales process or an error on our part. I
will contact the sales department to get more information. When would be a
good time for us to follow-up for a status update on this order?
If the product is damaged ask them to send pictures via email. If it was the
wrong product or wrong quantity then find out what they expected and crossreference to the sales order and involve sales if needed.
Customer
Customer provides date/time for follow-up call.
Page | 28
Document the results of your call in Anytime Collect and set a follow-up
activity for the date/time with the customer to speak about the issue. Make
sure to contact sales to identify the problem.
Missing Supporting Documents
You
I understand that you require back-up documents for payment approval. If I

send them to you today, when do you expect that you can approve and
process the payment?
Send the supporting documents to the contact while you are on the phone
with them to ensure they receive them. If you have trouble locating the
documents then tell them you will send them after the call.
Customer
Customer explains which documents are missing e.g., proof of delivery,

timesheets, bill of lading, etc. They should also provide an estimated payment
date which you can enter as an Expected Payment in Anytime Collect.
You
Proceed to Closing B
Unable or Unwilling to Pay

On a rare occasion youll find a customer that is unable or unwilling to pay.
They may have (in their mind) what seems to be a logical reason. There is no
call script to handle these types of disputes but below are some common
reasons why companies may be unable or unwilling to pay and some
techniques you may use to convince them to pay you.
Excuses:
We cant pay you until our customer pays us first
We have other suppliers we need to pay before we pay you.
Were having cash flow problems and cant pay the invoice now.
We are very unhappy with your product (or service) and will not be paying
our bill period.
Were changing banks and we dont know when well be able to cut you a
check.
Page | 29
CLOSING A (Issue Resolved)

You
Thank you so much for all the help today. It was great speaking with you again and we truly
value your business. Can you please help me with one last question? I need to know when
we can expect a payment for our internal cash flow projections.
Customer Customer provides you with a payment date and amount. Log this into Anytime Collect as
an expected payment with the date and amount expected. You may want to ask if they are
confident that the payment will be received by that date. If so then mark the expected
payment as a Promise to Pay. If that date comes and goes and you dont have a payment for
that amount, Anytime Collect will notify you that the customer has broken their promise
and you will be alerted to follow-up on the payment again. Enter any additional call notes
into Anytime Collect, mark the issue as resolved, and save the communication as successful
so that you can see that the call successfully resolved the issue.
You
Again, thank you for helping me today. I certainly appreciate your attention to this matter.
Please let me know if theres anything else I can do for you. Have a great day. Goodbye.
CLOSING B (Issue Unresolved)

You
Thank you so much for all the help today. It was great speaking with you again and we truly
value your business. As we discussed, I will follow-up with you soon to continue our
discussions about this important matter. Please contact me at <Phone Number> or <Email
Address> if you have any more information or questions about this issue. We will be in
touch soon. Take care and have a great day.
Enter your call notes into Anytime Collect, make sure that you set a follow-up date for the
next call, leave the issue as unresolved, and save the communication as successful since you
were able to discuss the matter with the customer.
Page | 30
New Customer Welcome Call

You
Hello. My name is <Your Name> from the credit department at <Your Company>. I am
calling to introduce myself and to review Invoice <Invoice Number> which appears to be the
first invoice that weve sent to your organization. We find that invoice issues typically occur
on the first invoice so we want to review the invoice with you to ensure that everything is
correct. Did you receive the invoice?
Customer If they received the invoice then continue below. If they did not receive the invoice then ask
for their email and resend it while you have them on the phone and continue below when
they confirm that they received the invoice.
You
Great. Lets review the invoice together. I just have a few questions for you.
Is your address correct on the invoice?

Does your company require a Purchase Order number on invoices? If so, is the
Purchase Order number on this invoice correct?
Is the invoice easy for you to understand or are there areas that you have
questions? We are always looking for ways to make it easier for customers to
understand our invoices.
Are the product or service and quantities correct?
Do you see any other problems or issues with the invoice that would delay
payment?
Customer
Customer will typically have no issues with the invoice but if they do, make sure that
you document these, correct them, and resend the invoice. Find out if this is an internal
issue that can be resolved. E.g., flag the customer as Requiring a PO on the Invoice or
change the billable rate if it was wrong, etc.
You
Thank you very much for this information. I see here that weve established a credit
limit of <Amount> for your company with credit terms of <Customer Terms>. Will this
be sufficient for your needs?
Customer
Customer will typically say yes but if they want to make changes to credit limit or terms
you may want to document this and handle this yourself if you have the authority or tell
the customer that you will have a manager contact them to discuss changes to their
account.
You
Great! Is there anyone else in your company that we should communicate with
regarding invoices? Many of our customers want us to provide a copy of the invoice to a
buyer or purchasing agent and some want copies sent to either a subsidiary or their
corporate parent. We like to have at least two contacts in our system for AP to ensure
that we are communicating effectively with your company.
Page | 31
Customer
Customer provides additional information regarding contacts. Try to get the name of
their supervisor, the controller, and CFO if possible.
You
Thanks! In order to serve you better, can you confirm if there are days or times of the
week that are better for us to contact you or specific days and times that are less
convenient?
Customer
The purpose of this question is to identify if the AP contact only works part-time or if
they have standing meetings or obligations where you will be less likely to reach them
via phone. Document anything you find in the customer notes in Anytime Collect.
You
Were almost done. I am going to send you a copy of our credit policy which explains our
credit terms in more detail. We ask all new customers to review this document to
ensure that we are all on the same page.
We simply ask that you pay on time and notify us of any issues or delays in payment.
Our goal is to provide you with great products and services and we understand that
communication is critical to providing you with the best possible experience whether its
during the sales process or after the sale as part of the billing and payment process.
Your credit terms are <Credit Terms> which means that invoices need to be paid
<Number> of days from the invoice date. The invoice due date is clearly marked on our
invoices. We ask that you contact us as soon as possible regarding any issues with
invoices or if you will not be able to make a payment by the due date for any reason. We
send reminder emails to customers if an invoice has a balance due and will be due in the
next <Number> of days. You will receive a past due notice <Number> of days after the
due date for invoices that continue to have an open balance due. I will contact you
<Number> of days after the invoice due date if we still have not received a payment to
ensure that everything is correct. Do you have any questions regarding this process?
Customer
Customer will typically agree to the credit terms and policy as explained but if they have
questions or concerns you need to resolve them before they become future issues. If
the customer has too many questions or concerns that you cannot address then
schedule a call with your manager to review the policy with the customer.
You
One last question can you help me understand your invoice approval and payment
process? Do invoices need to be approved before payment is processed and how often
do you process payments?
The goal for this question is to understand if invoices need to be approved and who
approves them. You may want to send a copy of the invoice to the approver directly if
its the same person each time. You should also find out how often the process invoices
for payment. For example, some companies only pay bills every other week or in some
cases only once a month. If you know that invoices received by the 15th of the month
Page | 32
will be paid on the 30th of the month then you can ensure that invoices are sent before
their internal cut-off date or else payment will be delayed to the next payment cycle.
Customer
Customer will provide information on their payment process. Make sure this is
documented as an Account Note for the customer in Anytime Collect. You may be able
to also setup custom workflow to ensure that invoices for this customer are handled
differently depending on the nature of their internal payment process. Contact your
Anytime Collect partner or e2b teknologies for more information on how to use custom
workflow and action messages.
You
I like to get to know our customers better. Business is business but life is too short and I
firmly believe that a strong business relationship starts by knowing people better.
Wouldnt you agree?
Customer
Customer typically agrees. If yes then continue below. If not then Proceed to Closing.
You
Create small talk but keep it brief tell them about your family, how long youve been
at the company, what hobbies interest you, etc. The goal for this conversation is not to
talk about yourself but rather, to find out more about them. Find out about their family
do they have children? Are they newly engaged or married? How long have they been
with the company? Are they going back to school? Etc. Take this opportunity to get to
know them personally and be sincere in your communication. Document as much as you
can in Anytime Collect about this contact. Continue to build on the relationship each
time that you speak with them in the future. At some point in the conversation you are
going to want to find out their birthday so you can send them a card or at least an email
on their birthday. One way that you may pose this question is using the following:
My horoscope today said Id have a call with a very interesting person that would lead
to a long-time friendship. Ive been wondering all day who this could be. Who knows
maybe its you! Whens your birthday? Ill read you your horoscope.
Customer
Customer will probably give you their birth month and day. If so then read their
horoscope and document their birthday in Anytime Collect. This information is helpful
so you can send them an email on their birthday and you can begin building a
relationship with them. If the customer is apprehensive about providing their birthday
then say that its ok and proceed to Closing.
Closing
You
It was great talking to you today. I look forward to getting to know you better. Try to leave
on a personal note something like Good luck with your daughters wedding. or
something related to the personal discussion you had with them. Well be in touch soon.
Please feel free to contact me if theres any way that I can help you in the future. Take care.
Goodbye.
Page | 33
Large Invoice Call

You
Hello. This is <Your Name> from the credit department at <Your Company>. I am calling to
discuss Invoice <Invoice Number>. The invoice will be due on <Invoice Due Date>. Im
calling to make sure that you received the invoice and if there are any problems with it since
its a larger invoice than normal?
Customer In most cases the customer will have the invoice and it wont have problems. If this is the
case then Continue to Closing below. If there is an issue with the invoice then refer to the
Invoice Dispute Call Script.
Closing
You
Thats great news. Can you help me with my cash forecast? I am required to let our
management team know when they can expect payment on larger transactions such as this
one. I just need to know what date we can expect payment.
Customer Customer will provide an estimated payment date. Document this as an expected payment
in Anytime Collect. Continue below.
You
Thank you so much for the help today. Please let me know if theres any way I can help you
further. Ill talk to you soon. Have a great day. Goodbye.
Page | 34
First Call
You
discuss Invoice <Invoice Number>. The invoice was due on <Invoice Due Date> but we
havent received payment yet. Can you confirm if youve received the invoice and if so, if
there are any issues that are preventing you from processing a payment?
Customer In most cases the customer has the invoice and there are no reasons why they shouldnt
have paid it. If this is the case then Continue to Closing below. If they didnt receive the
invoice or there is an issue with the invoice then refer to the Invoice Dispute Call Script.
You
Im glad to hear that. Can you help me with my cash forecast? I am required to let our
management team know when they can expect payment on past due invoices such as this
one. I just need to know what date we can expect payment.
Customer Customer will provide an estimated payment date. Document this as an expected payment
in Anytime Collect. Continue below.
You
Thank you so much for the help today. Please let me know if theres any way I can help you
further. Ill talk to you soon. Have a great day. Goodbye.
Page | 35
Second Call
Review call history in Anytime Collect for the invoice in question before making this call. A
second phone call happens only after the customer has been contacted once by phone and
several times via email with a reminder and a past due notice. If you had a call with them
previously then you will handle this call differently than if you were unable to contact them
the first time.
You
discuss Invoice <Invoice Number>. The invoice was due on <Invoice Due Date> but we
havent received payment yet. We need to resolve this issue to assure that it doesnt have a
negative impact on our business relationship going forward.
If First Call Was Successful
I reviewed the notes in our system and I see that we talked about this invoice on <Date> and
there were no remaining issues for non-payment. Can you help me understand why we
havent received a payment?
Customer will explain why payment hasnt been processed. This could be due to a dispute in
which case you can refer to the Invoice Dispute call script. If there is no reason for nonpayment and the customer says they will pay you then proceed to the Closing below.
If First Call Was Not Successful
I left you a message regarding this issue on <Date>. This matter is becoming increasingly
important. Can you help me understand why the invoice hasnt been paid?
You
Im responsible for managing our cash flow projections. Can you tell me when we can expect
payment on this past due invoice? I just need to know what date we can expect payment. I
also need to know if you are able to commit to this promise date.
Customer Customer will typically provide a payment date and most wont have a problem providing a
commit date for payment. Document this as an expected payment in Anytime Collect and
mark it as a Promise To Pay. If the date comes and goes and you dont have a payment for
the amount Anytime Collect will create a new action for you to follow-up on the broken
promise and it will identify the Broken Promise for analysis and reporting purposes.
Continue below.
You
Thank you again for your assistance. Please let me know if theres any way I can help you
further. Ive notified our accounting department to watch for your payment. Take care and
have a great day. Goodbye.
Page | 36
Third Call
third phone call happens only after the customer has been contacted twice by phone and
several times via email with a reminder, a past due notice, and a collections letter. If you
had a call with them previously then you will handle this call differently than if you were
unable to contact them the first time. Note this issue is now reaching a critical level. The
invoice is about 30 Days Past Due and the likelihood of getting paid in full is diminishing.
You
discuss Invoice <Invoice Number> due on <Invoice Due Date>. The invoice is now seriously
past due.
If Previous Calls Were Successful
I reviewed the notes in our system and I see that we talked about this invoice on <Date> and
there were no remaining issues for non-payment. Can you help me understand why we
havent received a payment?
If Previous Calls Were Not Successful
I left you two messages regarding this issue on <Date> and <Date>. This matter is becoming
increasingly important and we need to resolve this matter to ensure that we can continue
providing quality products and services for <Customer Name>. If we cannot resolve this
issue then it could lead to a disruption in your services. Can you help me understand why
the invoice hasnt been paid?
which case you can refer to the Invoice Dispute call script. Escalate this immediately to
senior management if there is a bigger reason why the customer wont pay the past due
balance. If there is no reason for non-payment and the customer says they will pay you
then proceed to the Closing below.
You
We understand that problems arise from time to time. I want to ensure you that we truly
value your business. I appreciate your prompt action regarding this serious matter. Cash
flow is critical to our business. We need to ensure that we are paid on time so we can
continue providing you with quality products and services at competitive prices.
I am authorized to accept a credit card payment today if that would be easier for you. Or
you can provide me with a check number and payment date which Ill need to notify our
accounting team when to expect payment. Which method of payment do you prefer?
Page | 37
Customer Customer may be authorized to pay via corporate credit card. If this is the case and you have
authority, process the payment in Anytime Collect. If the customer says they cant or wont
pay by credit card then ask for a check number. They will probably not be able to provide
this information while theyre on the phone with you. If this is the case then ask them to
commit to sending an email with the check number and a photocopy of the check within the
next 1-2 business days. Set a follow-up activity to verify that they have followed through on
this promise. Continue to Closing below.
You
Thank you again for your assistance with this urgent matter. Im directly responsible for
managing our cash flow projections and this issue has emerged as a significant matter that
our management team expects me to resolve. I assure you that we value your business but
we must receive payment on this invoice in the next 5 business days to avoid any disruption
in shipments or service for your account. We want to avoid this at all costs. Again, thank you
so much for the time today. Take care. Goodbye.
Page | 38
Fourth Call
fourth and final phone call happens only after the customer has been contacted three times
by phone and several times via email with a reminder, a past due notice, a collections letter,
and a copy of a certified letter threatening legal action. The certified letter should have been
received by the customer in the past few days as well. The invoice is now 40 to 50 Days Past
Due and the likelihood of getting paid in full is a very critical issue.
NOTE: This call should be made by a senior manager, Controller, CFO, or President/CEO as
a last attempt to get paid. You may want to negotiation a partial payment at this time to
resolve the issue and part ways with the customer or you may want to discuss other
options to preserve your business relationship. This is NOT a call for most accounts
receivable clerks or collection representatives. Also note that you may want to escalate
this issue beyond the accounts payable contact at your customer. You may need to place a
call to their immediate supervisor or perhaps to their CFO, Controller, Owner, or President
directly. If this is the first time youre speaking with the senior-level contact then you may
want to proceed with a friendly tone unless youre faced with opposition.
You
Hello. This is <Your Name>. Im the <Your Title> here at <Your Company>. I normally dont
get involved in accounts receivable calls but I need to talk to you about a serious matter
regarding Invoice <Invoice Number> due on <Invoice Due Date>. The invoice is related to
the following products and services we provided to your company as authorized by <Name
of Customer Contact who Authorized the Purchase>.
Our accounts receivable staff has contacted <AP Contact at Your Customer> several times
and weve sent several emails and a certified letter trying to resolve this past due issue.
I understand that issues occur from time to time that prevent companies from paying on
time but weve been ensured that there are no outstanding issues and that payment should
have been processed by now. Can you please help me understand what we need to do to
resolve this issue? Youve been a great customer and I personally dont want this matter to
prevent us from continuing our business relationship in the future.
Customer Customer will explain why payment hasnt been processed. Keep in mind that this may be
the first time that this person has been made aware of the severity of the problem. In most
cases, the contact will be able to resolve the issue and you can Continue to Closing A below.
Consider offering a discount if they bring their account into good standing within 5 business
days. Consider extending payment plans and other creative means for them to remain a
customer in good standing. The next step in the process will result in the end of your
business relationship with this customer a decision that should not be taken lightly. If the
customer is adversarial or refuses to work with you to pay their bill then proceed to Closing
B below.
Page | 39
Closing A (Executive Agreement To Pay)

You
We understand that problems arise from time to time. I want to ensure you that we truly
value your business. I appreciate your prompt action regarding this serious matter. Cash
flow is critical to our business. We need to ensure that we are paid on time so we can
continue providing you with quality products and services at competitive prices.
Can we settle this outstanding balance with a credit card payment today or you can provide
me with a check number and payment date?
Customer Customer executive contact should be able to pay via credit card or should be able to
provide a check number. If youre speaking with the president or owner they may need to
have their CFO or Controller process the check. Ask them to send a copy of the check to
your email.
You
Thank you again for your assistance with this urgent matter. I assure you that we value your
business but we must receive payment on this invoice in the next 5 business days to avoid
any disruption in shipments or service for your account. We want to avoid this at all costs.
Again, thank you so much for the time today. Take care. Goodbye.
Closing B (Executive Refusal To Pay)

You
Im sorry that we were unable to resolve this matter today. If we dont receive payment in
full in the next 10 business days we will have no other option but to terminate your account.
Remaining shipments and services will be put on hold and your account will be reported to
credit bureaus, the Better Business Bureau, and we will turn your account over to third party
collections. You will receive a final notification via certified mail before we seek legal action
to remedy this situation.
Again, youve been a valued customer of ours for a long time and I hate to see our
relationship end this way but we provided the products and services you approved and we
deserve to get paid on time. Please contact me if you change your mind and can bring your
account into good standing in the next 5 to 10 business days.
Goodbye.
Note: You have to say what you mean and mean what you say. If you say youre putting
their account on hold, reporting them to credit bureaus and the BBB, turning them over to
collections, and seeking legal action then you need to follow-through on this statement.
Page | 40
Email Templates
The following email templates are provided as general guidelines for common email-based
customer communication. You can use these templates for manual communication or as
automated communications sent from systems like Anytime Collect.
Reminder Email
Attached are invoices that are due in the next <Number> of days that have an
outstanding balance of <Amount>. Please notify us if there are any problems with the
invoices in question and let us know when payment will be processed.
You can also CLICK HERE to pay your account with a credit card in our secured, selfservice online customer portal. You can make a note on invoices in the portal should you
have an issue that requires our attention.
Kindly disregard this email if payment has already been processed. We realize you have
many choices and thank you for your business and look forward to serving your future
business needs.
Past Due Email
Attached are invoices that are due today that have an outstanding balance. Please
notify us if there are any problems with the invoices in question and let us know when
payment will be processed.
You can CLICK HERE to pay your account with a credit card in our secured, self-service
online customer portal. You can also make a note on invoices in the portal should you
have an issue that requires our attention.
Kindly disregard this email if payment has already been processed. We will contact you
in a few days if payment has not been received.
We realize you have many choices and thank you for your business and look forward to
serving your future business needs.
Collections Email
Attached are invoices that are several weeks past due. Please contact <Collector Name>
at <Phone Number> to discuss this issue.
You can also CLICK HERE to pay your account with a credit card in our secured, selfservice online customer portal.
We will contact you in a few days if we do not receive your phone call and payment has
not been received.
Page | 41
We realize you have many choices and thank you for your business and look forward to
serving your future business needs.
Sales Notification Email
Attached are past due invoices for your customer <Customer Name> that require your
immediate attention. These invoices are now several weeks past due. Please review the
collection and communication notes in Anytime Collect by CLICKING HERE and contact
<Collection Representative> to discuss this matter further to avoid any further actions
for your customer that may affect future sales and your commissions.
Certified Email
Attached is a letter regarding a serious past due issue related to your account. This
letter has also been sent to you via certified mail.
Also attached are invoices that require your immediate attention. Please contact
<Collector Name> at <Phone Number> to discuss this issue.
We will contact you in a few days if we do not receive your phone call and payment has
not been received regarding this serious matter.
Final Email
Attached is a letter regarding your final notice to bring your account into good standing.
This letter has also been sent to you via certified mail. Attached are invoices related to
this matter that require immediate action.
This is your final notice to pay your account in full to avoid termination of your account
before we report this matter to business credit bureaus and the Better Business Bureau
and to avoid unnecessary legal action. Please contact <Senior Executive at Your
Company> at <Phone Number> to discuss this urgent issue.
Page | 42
Letter Templates
Collections Letter
Page | 43
Open Invoice Letter
Page | 44
Past Due Notice
Page | 45
Customer Statement

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How to Develop Killer A/R Collection Letters,

Call Scripts and Email Templates

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Fourth Calls ............................................................................................................................................. 15

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Managing A/R Can Be Overwhelming

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Step One: Research

Who Are You?

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What Are Your Problems?

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Most businesses write-off about 4% of accounts receivable

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Step 2: Set Goals

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Identify Invoice Problems Earlier

Send the Invoice Sooner

Remind Customer To Pay

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Get Paid Faster

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Step Three: Your Team

Roles & Training

and Collections Action Plan white paper.

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Step Four: Define Procedures

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Past Due Emails

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Third Party Collections

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Step Five: Automation

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Step Six: Measure Results

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Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

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Kill Them With Kindness

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About e2b teknologies

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Invoice Dispute Call Script

I understand. That certainly happens to the best of us. Proceed to Closing A