How many times have you wished you could contact customers easily and quickly to chase payment? Your sales ledger may produce statements but what about chase letters? And can you email them automatically?

Regular customer contact = improved cash flow - For small and medium-sized businesses cash flow is one of the biggest issues in the current econoic downturn. All business owners know that the secret to getting paid on time is to keep in regular contact with your customers, the problem is having the time and the resources to be able to do this. Chasing invoices only when they are overdue is never going to improve your cash flow over the long term - the secret is to avoid overdue invoices in the first place.

OK, so far so good. We know we need to check a customer has received an invoice and that there are no problems/errors with it. But we generally don't have time to do this. Invoice follow up gets put to the bottom of the ‘to do' pile whilst we go and chase new business. As a result we then have
business owners know that the secret to getting paid on time is to keep in regular contact with your customers
a negative conversation with a customer over an overdue invoice.

Technology is part of the answer - The internet is a wonderful thing. Not only can you tweet, chat, Google, advertise and network, but you can also access hosted invoice collections software to help improve your cash flow.

There was a time was that invoice collections software was expensive, required a PhD to configure and was reserved for big companies. Not anymore. There are a number of companies who now offer ‘pay as you use' invoice collection software which is internet based and consequently means that you don't need IT knowledge to access it.

Sounds complicated - is it? - In a word, no. You simply provide details of the invoices you've issued and the email contact addresses of your customers, and the software provider does the rest. Emails can be worded precisely to your requirements and because it is highly cost effective you don't need to issue a high volume of invoices for a provider to be interested in supporting your business.

Setting up a service is easy and should not require much in the way of upfront outlay. In today's climate of extended payment on invoices and cash flow squeezes it is certainly worth looking at as a way of helping your cash flow improve.

For more information visit http://www.optimarm.com/OurServicesEC.aspx