The invoice was paid on time. It went out eleven days late.

Most firms chase the customer for slow payment when the largest, cheapest stretch of the delay sits entirely on their own side of the desk.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The invoice was paid on time. It went out eleven days late.

A business chasing cash almost always starts in the same place: the aged debtor report, the customers who take sixty days on thirty-day terms, the polite escalation email. That is a real problem. It is rarely the biggest one, and it is almost never the cheapest one to fix. The number most firms watch, days sales outstanding, measures the distance between issuing an invoice and receiving the money. It says nothing about the distance between finishing the work and issuing the invoice. In service businesses, project work, trades and anything…

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