Collection

For any commercial organisation, it would be good to post the following slogan: ‘Something has only been sold when the money is in the bank’.

This is completely true. Even though the contract has been signed and the service provided, if the end customer ultimately does not pay (in full) for it, then the effort has been wasted. That is why the ‘collection’ part – via the Abillity® Accounts Receivable module (AR) – is a very important final piece of the order-to-cash process. This module ensures an efficient process for literally ‘converting‘ the output of the previous steps in the chain into money in the bank. In other words: data are turned into revenues.

Why do collection with FIQAS?

Optimal cash flow

Properly setting up the collection processes leads to a reduction in the DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) and thus to optimal cash flow.

Efficiency

Due to the high degree of automation, self-care and ease of use, the AR process can be completed with minimal effort. That can be done by your own employees or by ‘bonus employees’ of FIQAS via our managed service.

Right tone of voice

Ranging from 'in the name of the King...' to quite social debt collection: depending on the industry and product, sometimes one and sometimes the other may be needed. Abillity® adapts.

We arrange the Accounts Receivable for these customers

hollandsnieuwe

As a challenger in the telecommunications market, hollandsnieuwe aims to keep operational costs low by outsourcing and streamlining non-primary processes.

More about hollandsnieuwe

Adevinta

Adevinta is globally the largest in online advertising, with twelve brands spanning across the world. Through a Managed Service, FIQAS manages invoicing, monitors and processes payments, handles reconciliation, and conducts comprehensive accounts receivable management, including the collections process.

More about Adevinta

Simpel

Simpel offers budget-friendly SIM-only subscriptions, serving nearly a million customers on the modern T-Mobile network. FIQAS manages the execution and monitoring of billing and collection processes for Simpel within a Managed Billing Service.

More about Simpel

Collecting with Abillity®

The Abillity® AR process can be divided into 3 steps: payment processing, reconciliation and reminders (‘dunning’.

Payment processing

The AR process starts with amounts to be collected, often with an import of invoices (whether or not generated by Abillity® itself).

For each amount to be collected, there is always a running balance, which is reduced when payments are received or credits are applied and is increased with, for example, fines or interest applied. Via a ‘timeline‘, the development of this balance sheet can be viewed in real time per invoice at any time.

Of course, there is also insight into outstanding balances at the total level, for example via an age analysis in what is called an ‘aging report’

Various payment methods

To get invoices paid, Abillity® initiates collection processes based on the debtor’s payment method. Due to the international nature of our customers, Abillity® supports a variety of payment methods, such as direct debit via SEPA or Bacs DD and online payment with iDEAL or, for example, PayPal.

In order to optimise the chance that payment succeeds, you can take into account a collection date preferred by the customer. For private individuals, for example, this might be just after receiving a salary payment.

As much automatic reconciliation as possible

Payments can be the result of automatic, possibly bulk, collection processes or the actions of individual debtors, for example by clicking on a payment link offered via Abillity®.

For bulk processes, we read out bank files, and we are of course familiar with the common formats such as MT940 and CAMT.053. We also maintain working relationships with representative banks domestically and abroad.

For individual payments, we can seamlessly integrate with APIs from Payment Service Providers, such as Adyen or Braintree.

Manual reconciliation is also possible

The received payments are automatically linked to (or reconciled with) the correct invoices and/or debtors as much as possible, based on predefined ‘rules’ (business logic).

The aim of course is to automatically reconcile the highest possible percentage of payments. However, if payments cannot be linked automatically, manual linking is possible. And if clear new patterns are discovered, the user can easily create additional automatic rules. You can also choose to refund payments that cannot be automatically linked or that are in excess.

In view of the nature of the AR processes, relevant actions are recorded in an audit trail, and approval steps can also be built in (for example, a four-eyes principle).

Reminders

If a debtor unexpectedly does not (or does not completely) pay an invoice, workflows will be activated to remind the debtor that an amount still needs to be paid. The steps can be determined flexibly, such as reminder emails, call lists or text messages.

The content of the message is of course tailored to the target group, whereby we can brainstorm with you about the right content and ‘tone of voice‘ based on our years of broad experience. After all, it is about your customers, whereby the debtor’s profile (and whether the non-payment is incidental or structural in nature) can also be considered in the communication.

Complete control

As soon as invoices are paid in full, the reminder processes stop automatically.

In the event of a dispute with a debtor, the reminders for invoices (or even the collection of new amounts) can be temporarily blocked.

For example, you can also offer a debtor a payment schedule, so that the debt can be paid in instalments. This is then monitored by a separate workflow

Or transfer to a collection agency

If all actions ultimately do not lead to the desired result and a debtor is in default, Abillity® can transfer the claim to a collection agency. Any amounts received via that route will be visible in the running balance for the debtor in question.

All in all, Abillity® thus offers ultimate support for optimising your AR process. And after some time, you will no longer need to have the slogan posted. 😊

More information?

Keen to find out if our platform is right for your organisation? Would you like to find out more about our transformation module? Any specific questions? Then get in touch. We’d love to talk!

 

 

Willem Lemmers

Senior Consultant

+31 297 382323