Introduction

Here you are, reading an introduction to a book about credit and collections and wondering whether to venture farther inside. While we don’t expect you to shout from the rooftops, “This is the greatest book ever!” the simple fact is, implementing good credit and collections policies in your business quietly and effectively improves your cash flow.

Making a sale is only half the battle. Unless you run a cash on the barrelhead business, a sale represents only the possibility of actually getting paid, regardless of the quality of your products or services. Whether you’re selling on credit or chasing down a bad check, your credit and collection practices and policies will convert your accounts receivable into cold, hard cash.

About This Book

From soup to nuts, this book explores the entire topic of credit and collections. Starting from scratch, we walk you through establishing sound credit policies and billing procedures to document creation and data handling to payment reminders, dispute resolutions, and full-out collection remedies.

In this book you find specific and reliable suggestions, tips, warnings, forms, laws, and sources of information as you’re coached by authors who’ve been there and done that. Step by step, you discover (or reinforce your existing knowledge about) the best ways to extend credit in your new customer relationships, review existing relationships, and try to recover payments on overdue accounts from broken relationships.

Conventions Used in ...

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