With half of small businesses in the UK failing in just a few years, chiefly because they can’t keep their cash flow in a healthy state, doing everything you can to get payments in and on time has become critical. Direct debits and proper management of them allows you to do just that.
If you’re running a small business in the UK (or anywhere else, for that matter), you’ll no doubt be constantly on the lookout for ways to increase productivity while slashing costs, possibly by using direct debit collection software. After all, what business, no matter the size, isn’t trying to reduce overheads?
And if you do have a small business of your own, you may not know that it makes up the bulk of the size of private sector companies in Britain today at over 99%. With an upturn in the economy, there’s now a record number of small and medium-sized businesses: around 5.5 million, employing a total of 15.7 million people and with a combined turnover of some £1.8 trillion. Congratulations on doing your part to power the UK economy ahead!
Many small businesses, however, face significant challenges before they’re able to grow. None of these are more difficult than the seemingly simple objective of getting paid. Problems with cash flow and not being able to resolve them can make the difference between staying in business and being forced to close your door. Half of small businesses don’t make it past five years, with late or no payments frequently blamed.
Getting the Payments in, the Easy Way :
Enter the not-so-humble direct debit: the gateway for small firms to take control of their cash flow and give their finances a major boost. In these fiercely competitive business times, no company can afford to wait around to get their payments in — yet they regularly do, often for many months. You need an absolute guarantee that you will get paid, in full, on time.
Now, with direct debits set up for incoming payments, managing cash flows becomes a breeze. Typically, companies get their payments on the same day they’re debited from customers’ accounts. It certainly offers not only security, but peace of mind to both company and customer, and can also be used as a way to easily keep an eye on what’s going out and coming in. Plus, it’s much more preferable — and flexible — than standing orders.
As small businesses grow and take on many more customers and clients, dealing with large amounts of direct debits can be problematic; an administrative headache at least. That’s why it makes sense to use specialist direct debit collection software to do the job for you. It’s a sophisticated and automated system that helps to reduce costs by not using staff to manually deal with direct debits, as well as helping your finances run far more smoothly
Features of Direct Debit Collection Software :
With direct debit collection software, large volumes of direct debits are streamlined and automated. That means the workload of your employees is vastly reduced and the process of setting up direct debits — not the simple task it is for customers — is simplified and made easy.
Naturally, every SME is different and has their own requirements. That’s why the best direct debit collection software is highly customisable to the needs of individual firms. Additionally, there’s no need to send staff off on lengthy and potentially costly training sessions in how to use it, as it’s easy to get to grips with and use.
Companies can benefit by managing their customers’ records in a much more effective way, as well as keeping track of all their activity. Direct debit collection software also features comprehensive accounting of client accounts and automated communications, to handle such things as email notifications to clients, for instance. Among the other benefits of direct debit collection software are the ability to set collection limits for any particular client, straightforward processing of client files and checking and refining payments before they’re submitted to BACS.
Overall, given how critical it is for small firms to maintain a healthy cash flow, direct debits and efficient management of them with specialised software is now the choice of smart companies everywhere. Getting ahead of rivals and steaming ahead has never been easier.
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