Put the Ho Ho Ho in your Christmas Cash-Flow

We’re whispering it quietly but the festive  ‘C word’ is on the horizon.

Yes indeed, Christmas is coming and love it or hate it, as a business you must be prepared for it.

The invoices you raise now, will in most cases fall due at the end of November. This means that the monies you raise from October invoicing will be your ‘Christmas Cash-Flow’.

December is notoriously a troublesome and expensive month.

Bills and wages are not the same as in ‘normal months. Add seasonal factors such as Xmas bonuses, parties gifts etc and suddenly your expenditure is higher than usual.

Couple this with the fact that most businesses close for a period over the holidays and you’re quickly faced with the perfect storm of having to fund an increased four-week expenditure period whilst perhaps only having a three-week working period to raise revenue.

Suddenly the actions you take now become so much more important.

As both clients and contacts of ourselves will know, there is no cast iron way of guaranteeing that an invoice won’t be paid late but there are ways that you can minimise that risk.

1. Make sure that your invoice holds the correct written information.

• List the customer’s information correctly. Make sure any description of goods/services provided is accurate. Ensure the price is as quoted and the invoice is dated correctly.

2. List on the invoice the payment information the customer needs to pay you.

• Make sure your complete bank details are on your invoices : bank name, sort code and account number. Include your payment terms and most importantly, the date for payment.

3. In December, have a ledger to hand to see what invoices are owed…. and action it !

• In most cases businesses will only be trading for three weeks in Dec. Be proactive with your ledger, don’t delay when an invoice is overdue. If the invoice is fair, it deserves to be paid.

Help is to hand if needed

If you don’t have a plan to action your debtors, or struggle to implement your processes, then don’t delay, use your peer support network and contact us for all the help, advice and guidance you’ll need to enjoy a stress free end to 2019.

For more helpful hints to aid your credit control please review our other blogs.

Merry Christmas Folks, have a good one. From all the team at Corp & Comm (01535) 65 45 94.