A Guide to Faster Payments and Better Cash Flow

Table of Contents

1. Understanding the Psychology of Payment Acceleration
2. Actionable Strategies for Getting Paid Faster
3. How to Get Paid Faster for Invoices
4. How to Match Your Payments Quickly
5. How to Expedite Business Transactions
6. Effective Ways to Request Quicker Payments
7. Tools for Faster Payments
8. Payment Methods That Ensure Quicker Transactions
9. Best Practices for Sending Invoices for Quicker Payments
10. Investing in Invoicing Pays Off

Key Takeaways

• Digital invoices and automation accelerate payment collection.
• Early payment incentives and customer communication improve AR processes.
• Automating collections and alerts streamlines invoice tracking and reconciliation.
• AR software enhances visibility and speeds up cash flow cycles. 

For accounts receivables (AR) teams in every organization, how to get paid faster is a priority for a faster cash flow cycle. Following up on overdue invoices and updating accounts is essential no matter what your company sells.

However, chasing late payments can be frustrating. Planning before a payment is late is crucial, especially for customers who frequently fall behind. Thankfully, there are some simple ways to get invoices paid faster. We compiled a list of tips that have helped our customers so you can do the same.

Understanding the Psychology of Payment Acceleration

Understanding the psychology behind payment behavior is essential on how to get paid faster. Human behavior significantly affects how clients prioritize and manage their payments. One key psychological concept that influences payment behavior is loss aversion.

Loss aversion refers to the tendency for individuals to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring equivalent gains. In the context of payments, clients may prioritize settling invoices promptly if they perceive late payment as a loss. By framing early payment as an opportunity to avoid a loss, businesses can motivate clients to prioritize timely payments.

Businesses can leverage loss aversion by emphasizing the negative consequences of delayed payments and highlighting the benefits of early payment. Communicating the potential risks of late payment, such as late fees or damaged relationships, can prompt clients to take action to avoid these losses. Conversely, presenting early payment incentives as opportunities to prevent these losses can encourage clients to pay promptly.

Understanding the principles of loss aversion and other psychological factors enables businesses to tailor their payment strategies to align with clients' behavioral tendencies. Strategies that appeal to clients' desire to avoid losses while presenting opportunities for gains can effectively accelerate payment timelines. Incorporating psychological insights into payment practices enables businesses to cultivate stronger client relationships and enhance cash flow management.

Actionable Strategies for Getting Paid Faster

1. Chose Electronic Invoices

Sending invoices through traditional mail doesn't speed up payment; it takes longer, risks loss, and adds costs to collections. Invoicing your customers electronically can quickly solve all these challenges. By using electronic invoices, you can reduce processing costs by 81% and get paid 77% faster.

2. Automate Customer Collection Plans

Financial teams often send reminders to customers to encourage payment of unpaid invoices. Our power users approach late payments very differently. Instead of waiting for accounts to become overdue, they proactively put all their customers on automated collection plans. These plans clearly outline the steps to take when there is a slight indication that a customer may pay late.

When do you send the invoice? When does a reminder get sent? How often should you follow up by email or phone? Automated collection plans are great because they ensure you won't have to review an account and wonder what to do next.

3. Digitize Your Receivables ASAP

Digital AR software is vital for faster payment times. You can use it to create and change receivables and easily record essential data. Your team can track it and see related payments or messages in one place. A better view helps you find problems that may make your invoices unnoticed, unprocessed, or unpaid.

4. Set Up Early Payment Incentives

A common way to get paid faster is to offer customers discounts for paying early. This works exceptionally well if you use net-30 terms. Customers usually receive a 2-5% discount for paying invoices immediately. However, a 5% discount may not be ideal for collecting larger sums of money. Fortunately, there are other ways to encourage early payments. You may need to think outside the box.

• Customers who sign up for auto-pay or recurring billing receive special advantages and save money.
• Get your sales team's help by offering bonuses or delaying commission until payment. This makes your sales team a collections partner, not an adversary.
• You can incentivize customers to reduce their DSO by extending payment terms.
• Reward your collections staff with individual bonuses for improving their assigned accounts. If the entire team achieves its goals, increase the incentive.

5. Maintain Customer Communication

Regularly contacting customers is an underrated shortcut on how to get paid faster. After helping more than 120,000 businesses make payments, we have found that customers often forget about invoices they have not paid. A simple gesture can be the gentle nudge people need to get a payment on its way.

To ensure your invoices aren't ignored, meet your customer's expectations, even if they're not stated in the agreement. When you communicate regularly with your customers, they become more interested in paying you on time. Best of all, you can automate these communications using cloud solutions like Paystand.

6. Send Pre-Invoice Reminders

To get paid faster, send customers a friendly reminder email before sending them an invoice. This gives them time to prepare their payments if they’re prone to forgetfulness or fall behind schedule. Ideally, you want to send this about a week before you send them an invoice. To be polite, it's better to warn them instead of asking about the unpaid bill. To make it easier, ask if they're satisfied with the product/service and if payment is on track.

7. Use Alerts to Automate Collections

Alerts are helpful tools that can simplify your AR processes and save time by automating repetitive tasks. Create "if/then" scenarios for tasks such as following up on late payments or transferring funds between accounts. This will help you save time and focus on more important tasks instead of moving work through your pipeline.

• Handoffs. Manually approving one task and starting the next can add delays and bottlenecks to the AR process. How many hours could you save monthly if a form field automatically triggers the handoff?
• Status Updates. Once payment has been received, there's no reason you should have to update the invoice status in your ERP system. How much time would you save if your system automatically updated and communicated completed tasks? How much faster could your monthly close happen?
• Reminders. If you're a business with a handful of high-paying customers, sending communications or updates is extremely fast. However, automating reminders for approaching or past due dates can save much time for most businesses.

Here is just a sample list of tasks you can quickly automate:

• Preparing and sending invoices
• Adding payment links to invoices and emails
• Writing and sending pre-invoice reminders
• Accepting payments from customers
• Tracking payment settlement
• Verifying customers have made a payment
• Sending late payment reminders
• Setting routinely late customers on collection plans
• Reconciling payments
• Sending payment receipts
• Running financial reports

It's crucial that your software sends the invoice and accepts payment from your client automatically. This lets you and your customer focus on work instead of sending and paying invoices.

How to Get Paid Faster for Invoices

• Send invoices electronically to reduce processing delays.
• Automate collection plans to ensure proactive follow-ups.
• Set up early payment incentives to motivate timely payments.
• Maintain consistent customer communication to prevent invoice neglect.

How to Match Your Payments Quickly

• Implement AR automation tools for real-time reconciliation.
• Use smart payment matching systems to reduce manual intervention.
• Ensure invoices and payment records sync automatically within your ERP.

How to Expedite Business Transactions

• Offer multiple digital payment methods to reduce barriers.
• Use pre-invoice reminders to prepare customers for upcoming payments.
• Automate follow-ups with alerts to eliminate delays in collections.

Effective Ways to Request Quicker Payments

• Send friendly reminders before due dates to encourage early action.
• Clearly outline payment terms and late penalties in contracts.
• Provide multiple communication channels for invoice follow-ups.

Tools for Faster Payments

• AR automation software to digitize and streamline collections.
• Cloud-based invoicing platforms to manage transactions in real-time.
• Automated alerts to notify customers of due and overdue payments.

Payment Methods That Ensure Quicker Transactions

• ACH payments for cost-effective and fast B2B transactions.
• Digital wallets like PayPal or Apple Pay for seamless payments.
• Virtual credit card payments for secure, immediate transfers.

Best Practices for Sending Invoices for Quicker Payments

• Use e-invoices to minimize delays caused by paper-based processes like paper checks.
• Include click-to-pay links for instant transactions.
• Send invoices immediately upon service delivery to avoid postponements.
• Offer discounts or bonuses for early payments to encourage prompt action. 

Investing in Invoicing Pays Off

Optimizing accounts receivable is key to maintaining financial health. By automating invoicing, implementing digital payment methods, and strategically managing customer communication, businesses can improve cash flow and reduce manual effort.

To implement these strategies, learn more about our collections automation solution. If you’re interested in seeing how our solution works, check out this interactive demo.