If you're a Zoho Books user, then you know that it's a great accounting software for small and medium businesses (SMBs). But did you know that there is an add-on called Chaser that can help you improve your Zoho Books accounts receivable process?
Chaser is a powerful tool that can help you get paid faster and reduce the amount of time spent on receivables management. In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits of using Chaser with Zoho Books and provide some tips on how to get started.
Zoho Books users can get invoices paid faster and save time on their accounts receivables process with this best practice guidance and the Chaser software.
Be polite and personalize
For any business, the relationships you build with your suppliers and customers are paramount. However, maintaining those positive relationships when you're not getting paid on time can be difficult.
As a business owner, you're chasing money that someone else owes you and that is vital to keeping your company afloat, but it's important to be polite and professional in your communication, as well as personalized where possible.
Chaser can help you save time on receivables management by automating follow-ups with personalized templates. Chaser's templates can be edited to reflect your brand voice and appear to have been handwritten by you. Even better, all emails appear to have come from your personal or business email address.
This way, you can focus on building and maintaining relationships with your suppliers and customers, while still getting paid the money you are owed.
Chaser's combination of automation and the human touch has allowed our customers to save 15+ hours per week on their accounts receivable process!
Encourage faster payments
Proactive invoice chasing schedules are the foundation of good accounts receivables. But, what if you could encourage customers to pay even sooner?
Chaser's automatic email and SMS payment reminders can be set up to send at any desired interval, for example, every day, week or month. This will help to remind your customers of the payment due date and prompt them to take action.
Taking an omnichannel approach, using both email and SMS invoice payment reminders, Chaser gives you the best chance of getting paid on time.
Even if you don't have an accounts receivables automation system integrated with your Zoho Books account, there are still steps you can take to encourage after payments.
For instance, offer early payment discounts for customers who settle their invoices within a certain number of days.
Support your customers when they struggle to pay
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that the economic situation can turn downhill very suddenly, and even when things aren't on such a global scale, small and mid-sized businesses often lack the cash reserves to deal with sudden crises.
With this in mind, it's often a positive step to offer support to customers if you think they are genuinely struggling to pay. Not only does this show that you care about your customers as people, but it also demonstrates to them that you are understanding and willing to work with them.
One easy way to support your customers is to offer a partial payment option, which ensures you get at least some of your invoice paid on time and allows the customer to avoid having to pay in one large lump sum.
A more stratified option is to offer a full payment plan. Payment plans break the invoice total into several installments, which spreads out the cost for customers and makes it easier for them to pay.
Both partial and full payment plans can be set up in Chaser integrated with your Zoho Books account. Partial payments are simple - you just specify the percentage of the invoice that needs to be paid by when. Full payment plans are more detailed, as they require you to specify how much each instalment will be, and when it will be due.
The good news is that Chaser supports a payment plan option. Payment plans can be set up and installments chased automatically on the days and time you choose in Chaser.
Chaser's payment plan feature makes it easy for customers to pay overtime, without having to worry about lump sums. In addition, Chaser can help you keep track of your receivables so that you always know what invoices are due and when.
Discourage late payments
While it's not the most enjoyable task, sometimes you do have to take steps to discourage customers from consistently poor payment behavior.
Chaser's features can help you send out automated email reminders to customers who have yet to pay an invoice. You can even set up a series of reminder emails, each with escalating urgency until the customer either pays or late fees are imposed.
Have an effective policy
A foundational part of ensuring the Zoho Books debts are kept to a minimum and your Zoho Books accounts receivables are as healthy as possible is to have clearly defined payment terms that are shared with your customers.
This will discourage customers from waiting until the last minute to pay an invoice and hopefully result in more prompt payments.
Zoho Books is a great tool for managing your accounts receivable, but it's only as effective as you make it. With careful attention to detail and some basic best practices, you can keep your Zoho Books debts down
Having a single comprehensive accounts receivables policy offers a number of benefits, including:
- The ability to stay aligned on how to deal with issues
- A more streamlined collections process
- Greater transparency into the status of receivables
If you're struggling to build your own credit control or accounts receivables policy, we have a template that you can use to get you started.
Make it easier for clients to pay you
The best way to get paid is to make it as easy as possible for your clients to pay you. Chaser's Payment Portal does just that, by giving your clients a simple way to pay you online.
In addition, offer multiple payment options, and make sure you’re clear about when payments are due. You can even automate reminders so your clients never have to think about when a payment is coming up. Link customers directly to their payment portal to make payments instantly from their email or SMS payment reminder messages.
Accurately track your debtors
Keeping track of who owes you and how much can be a full-time job in itself. Chaser takes the hassle out of debtor management by automatically keeping track of all your invoices and payments.
You can easily keep track of your accounts receivables; who owes you, how much they owe, when the payment is due, and any relevant communications in one central location. This information is presented in an easy-to-read format so you can quickly see who your top debtors are.
Chaser integrated with Zoho Books also offers you access to a range of debtor data reports, so you can keep on top of your accounts receivable at all times.
If you're not currently using Chaser to track your debtors, you can use our invoice tracking template for google sheets and excel to get started.
Reduce human errors
The primary benefit of automation is the ability to reduce human errors. With Chaser seamlessly connected to your Zoho Books account, you can save significant time through automation and presenting accounts receivables data in an easy to access manner, that lets you stay on top of your debts and keep track of your accounts receivables easily.
Implement credit checking
Credit checking during the onboarding process for new customers is a great way to mitigate risk. By using Chaser, you can automate the credit checking process and get peace of mind that your business is only extending credit to those who are able to pay.
However, you can also use Chaser to conduct regular credit checks on your current customers. This will help you stay on top of any changes in their credit rating and make decisions about whether or not to continue doing business with them accordingly.
Use debt recovery where necessary
For many SMBs, debt recovery services are not an option because of the complicated nature of their services, and the negative impact they can have on those hugely important customer relationships. By navigating the debt recovery landscape correctly and choosing the right provider, you can recover bad debts whilst avoiding negative impacts on your business or customer relationships.
Thankfully, Chaser offers a workable solution by allowing you to track and manage customer debt in a simple and easy-to-use software.
Using polite persistence and an easy one-click escalation process, you can quickly recoup any outstanding payments without damaging your customer relationships. Escalate customer debts to Chaser’s friendly collections team in just one click and view an instant no-win-no fee quote before going ahead.
Using mediation, our professional teams help to recover debt that otherwise would simply have been written off, without damaging your chances at future business.
Zoho Books and Chaser: the perfect match
When it comes to managing your accounting and bookkeeping process, Zoho Books is a powerful tool. By following some best practices, paying careful attention to detail, and integrating Zoho Books with Chaser as an add-on, you can make sure that you're getting the most out of your Zoho Books account and optimizing your accounts receivables process.
Improve your accounts receivables with Zoho Books and Chaser today with a 14-day free trial.
