Collecting payments is essential for business operations, but it's often not a top priority for business owners who are juggling numerous other tasks and demands daily.
Luckily, payments technology has come a long way in the past few decades. It's now easier than ever to automate processes and simplify payment collection so business owners can focus their limited time and energy on growing their businesses, knowing that their payments are taken care of.
Here are five ways CPA firms can level-up their processes to improve how they get paid:
Make sure there is a clear path for invoices to get paid online
Have you ever received an invoice from a business that didn't include clear steps for how to pay it online? Sure, you knew what was owed and to whom, but not how exactly to submit a payment. This resulted in you having to reach back out to the business with questions before finally connecting on the phone to give your payment information or send a check, instead of just paying the invoice on the spot.
CPAs should reduce friction by finding an online invoice solution that includes built-in payments so clients simply open the invoice, enter their payment information, and click pay. No more back and forth and the business gets paid right away. As obvious as this solution is, you would be surprised how many accounting firms still send invoices without a direct way to pay online.
Give clients more payment options
Writing checks is becoming more of a pain every day, and so is having to disrupt your workflow to go deposit them. Clients expect flexible payment options so they can choose to pay using their preferred method. If your firm is serving business clients, you'll most likely notice a split between those who want to pay by credit card and those who are looking for ACH payment solutions. Finding payment solutions that allow customers to pay by credit card is straightforward and should be considered table stakes in today's business environment. You can go a step further and offer even more flexibility by allowing customers to choose at the checkout if they would like to pay by credit card or ACH.
Giving the option puts your client experience first and as an added bonus to your business the ACH payments should be processed with lower transaction fees, lowering your cost of doing business.
Send automatic payment reminders
Business moves fast. It's not uncommon for a client to review an invoice on their phone then forget about it, or to snooze something for a later date but hit the wrong follow up time. For these reasons and many more, sometimes payment dates slip past people or come around faster than expected.
Instead of having to keep track of which invoices are outstanding and who has paid, leverage payment software to create automatic reminder notices for due and overdue invoices. While an initial invoice might remain unactioned, an automatic reminder closer to the date can quickly motivate the recipient to submit payment. Particularly if that invoice reminder links to an invoice that can be paid online and using the individual's preferred payment method (see the two points above).
Set up recurring payments
For any recurring services offered by your firm such as monthly bookkeeping, advisory services or annual returns for longstanding clients, it can be easier to create automatic recurring payments for these plans. This removes the administration required to create and send invoices at the beginning of each month and ensures your incoming cash flow remains consistent.
Payment providers will offer additional tools alongside recurring payments, like dunning management, to help keep client payment information up to date by notifying customers when their credit cards are expiring and letting them update their own payment and billing information.
Keep credit cards and bank accounts on file, securely
Finally, store payment information securely so you can access it when you need to bill a returning client. Properly updated customer files, including their payment information, gives you peace of mind that you can charge clients when you need to and you can review their payment history and details if there's ever a discrepancy or question about previous purchases.
Use the five tips above to streamline your payment processes, get paid faster, and deliver a better client experience with each payment interaction. Using the latest payment tools and processes helps ensure that clients don't have negative interactions around missed payments or having to track down where their payments are at. Using online payment tools, providing different payment options, and automating as many processes as possible will pay dividends to both your business and your client relationships.
