Payments followed up on schedule, every time

• Keep a rhythm for each customer

  A courteous note before the due date, a reminder on it, firmer ones after: the cadence your team sets for each kind of customer, kept for every invoice, large or small.

• Write as your team would

  In Arabic or English, on WhatsApp or by email, with the invoice, the delivery note and the statement attached, in the tone you use with that customer.

• Hold the customer to their word

  A promise to pay is recorded with its date and amount. On that date the bank is checked, and a promise that slips is followed up the same morning.

• Hand over with the whole thread

  An account that stops answering, or owes more than your threshold, goes to the person you name with every message, promise and document in one place.

An invoice for a caterer in Muscat falls due; the agent sends the reminder in Arabic on WhatsApp with the invoice and the delivery note; the customer promises payment on Thursday and the agent records it; on Thursday the bank shows nothing, so the agent follows up and the credit controller is told; the promise and its follow-up are on the account.

Invoice falls due

A caterer in Muscat

Agent

Reminder

• Writes in Arabic, on WhatsApp
• Attaches the invoice and delivery note
• Records the promise for Thursday

Thursday, nothing in the bank

The agent follows up that morning

Followed upController told

On the account

Every promise and what happened to it

• Read the bank every morning

  Transfers, cheques cleared and card settlements are read from your bank feeds, with the payer's name as the bank shows it, which is rarely the name on the account.

• Match one transfer to many invoices

  A customer who pays a month's invoices in one transfer, or part of one invoice, is matched line by line, using their remittance advice when they send one and asking for it when they do not.

• Find whose money it is

  A payment nobody can place is matched from the amount, the reference and the customer's history, and asked about before it sits unapplied for a month.

• Close the loop with the customer

  The customer is told what their payment was applied to, so their statement and yours agree before the next reminder goes out.

A transfer arrives from a contractor in Dubai with no invoice numbers; the agent reads it from the bank feed, finds the four open invoices it adds up to and matches them in your ERP; the accountant confirms the one with a short payment; the customer gets a note of what was paid.

Transfer, no reference

A contractor in Dubai

Agent

Matching

• Reads it from the bank feed
• Finds the invoices it adds up to
• Matches them in your ERP

Accountant confirms one

A short payment on one invoice

ConfirmedLogged

Customer told

What their payment covered

• Find the paper behind the complaint

  A short delivery, a price that differs from the order or a missing purchase order number is checked against the signed delivery note, the order and the price list.

• Fix the cause, not only the case

  The same complaint from the same customer, branch or route, month after month, is shown to the person who can fix it at the source.

• Put it with the person who can settle it

  Sales, the warehouse or the driver gets the dispute with the evidence, and a date by which an answer is due.

• Close it with the right document

  A credit note against the original invoice, a replacement delivery or a corrected invoice, issued once and sent to the customer with the outcome.

See orders and confirmations→

A pharmacy chain replies that a delivery was short; the agent finds the signed delivery note, confirms one line short and sets that line aside; the sales manager approves a credit note; the rest of the invoice is paid and the dispute is closed on the record.

Delivery was short

A pharmacy chain, by email

Agent

Dispute

• Finds the signed delivery note
• Confirms one line short
• Asks for the rest of the invoice

Sales manager approves

A credit note for the short line

ApprovedCredit note issued

Rest paid, dispute closed

On the record with the evidence

• Register what you hold

  Post-dated cheques, promissory notes and guarantees are entered with the customer, the bank, the date and the invoices they cover, the day the salesman hands them in.

• Present each one on its date

  The cheques due each day are listed for the bank run, and each is matched to its invoices when it clears.

• Act the day one comes back

  A returned cheque reaches credit control with the account, the other cheques that customer has given and what your policy says to do next.

• Keep guarantees in date

  Bank guarantees and credit limits that rest on them are listed before they expire, so the customer is asked to renew while there is still time.

A salesman hands in post-dated cheques from a workshop in Sohar; the agent registers each with its date, bank and the invoices it covers; on its date the first is listed for the bank run; when it clears it is matched, and the register shows what is left to come.

Cheques handed in

From a workshop in Sohar, by the salesman

Agent

Register

• Records each date and bank
• Ties each to its invoices
• Lists them for their day

Presented on its date

In the morning's bank run

ClearedMatched

Register up to date

What is held, and what is still to come