How to prevent and claim unpaid bills?

Do you have a business? Surely you have found yourself in the uncomfortable and complicated situation of having to claim an unpaid payment at some point. Encountering unpaid invoices is a fairly common situation in many companies. This highlights the need for the use of tools to prevent non-payment of invoices.

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Why do some clients delay payments?

While it is true that in most cases it is due to liquidity problems, this is not always the case. In fact, 43% of payment delays are related to poor management of the invoice itself, either due to the creditor incorrectly sending the invoice or the person in charge of receiving the invoice.

There may be an error in the invoice delivery, most likely because the correct address was not provided or because the invoice in question was not associated with the correct person. There may also be an error in the receipt of the invoice, as often the person receiving it is not the debtor and does not ensure it reaches the recipient.

There may also be an error in the document itself. These errors can range from concepts, amounts, prices, or even descriptions on the invoice.

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Mechanisms to prevent an unpaid bill

Unfortunately, it is not possible to guarantee that someone will fulfil their payment obligation. However, there are ways to try to prevent this from happening. These can include:

• Advance payments can be very good allies in these cases. You can request that clients make advance payments, either fully or partially.
• Do your research before contracting. Ensure the solvency of the company or individual. You can request to view accounts, tax returns, etc.
• If you do not have reliable and secure information about a company, consider choosing not to negotiate or work with them.
• You can also request a guarantee before engaging with another company. You can request a guarantee to protect your profits in case of non-payment.
• Automate the accounting sector of your company. Use invoice and budget management software. This will make it easier to send and receive invoices, thereby reducing the risk of errors.

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Invoice and budget management software

As mentioned in the previous point, there are enterprise management softwares that allow for the management of suppliers, clients, employees, and company services. Additionally, many of these software solutions facilitate control of all budgets and invoices within the company. These software solutions can be very beneficial for controlling and managing the company's accounting.

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taclia as an invoice and budget management software

taclia is an example of the various enterprise management software solutions available in the market.

taclia allows you to facilitate and carry out proper managing your invoices and budgets, as well as control services, employees, clients, and suppliers of your company. This software allows for customization of the system according to your company's needs, as well as keeping your clients, suppliers, and employees connected in one place.

taclia manages all your your daily tasks and services, allows you to track employees and suppliers, and enables you to create, manage, and send budgets and invoices, access automatic reports to consolidate all the data of your services so you can make informed decisions and know what is happening in your business every day, along with many other functionalities.

Like taclia, there are many other invoice and budget management software that will allow you to make decisions with personalized data about your finances. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a research process to find the one that best suits your company's needs.

taclia enables centralized control of all business finances. You can create, send, and receive budgets and invoices in just a minute. The app simplifies invoice and payment management by providing the possibility to create invoices quickly and easily with custom templates, adapting them to your company's needs.

Moreover, taclia automates all calculations, creating automatic invoices without the need for calculators.

With taclia, you will have continuous monitoring of all your invoices thanks to the centralized data offered by the platform and you can access the invoices for all your services to check which ones are pending or processed.

You can also decide which members of your team can create and approve invoices and budgets, as well as access the list of all your team's expenses and incomes.

So, what does taclia offer you as an invoice and budget management software?

• With taclia's custom templates, you can easily create invoices in an intuitive way.
• You will have absolute control over your invoices at any time, as you can access your invoices from any electronic device, inside or outside the house.
• You can send automatic invoices to your clients from the platform when necessary. In addition, taclia synchronizes with WhatsApp and email so you can send your invoices through the preferred channel.

And much more!

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How to claim an unpaid invoice?

If you own a business or are self-employed, collecting an unpaid invoice is a problem that you will inevitably have to face at some point.

There is not much we can do about this, as it will depend on our client when we will actually receive the payment, but it is in our hands to press enough (and in the correct way) to ensure that the payment is made as soon as possible.

The most advisable thing to do a few days after the payment due date is to send a reminder notice indicating that there is an outstanding invoice.

If there is no response to the reminder notification, the best course of action would be to contact the client to determine what may have happened and how to resolve it. Call them, write to them, arrange a meeting to speak face to face, etc.

Once you have contacted them, proceed to listen to them, ask them what is happening, and try to reach a solution or agreement.

In the case of the lack of funds on the client's part, which would mean the inability to receive payment for their invoice, you may consider the possibility of offering to split the invoice into different instalments.

Despite the many strategies you may try, unfortunately, you will not always receive payment for the invoice, and that's when you may have to resort to legal action.

In conclusion, in many cases, an unpaid invoice is associated with a certain neglect and lack of professionalism on the other party's part, when in reality what we should consider is seeking possible solutions or methods of prevention of these incidents, such as automating the invoice and budget sector of the company.