Using QuickBooks to Improve Cash Flow
Cash flow is the life blood of all small businesses. In tough economic times, cash flow needs to be watched even more carefully. QuickBooks has several solutions to boost cash flow. We recommend that small businesses implement Intuit Billing solutions to improve cash flow.
Intuit Merchant Services allows QuickBooks users to take credit cards at the same price as the major credit card payment processors. But it offers much more than just taking credit cards. If you use Intuit Merchant Services you can then use Intuit Billing Solutions to send an invoice via an .html email with a “Pay Now” button. The client clicks the button and enters their credit card number, resulting in quick cash for the merchant.
The account is automatically settled through Merchant Services in two days – except for American Express which takes three days. The merchant gets a follow-up email about the account activity. When they open the email attachment, QuickBooks automatically posts the payment to the customer’s account receivable! This eliminates the cash application function.
If a customer does not pay, QuickBooks can automatically send them an email reminder – we suggest Mondays. You will know if the email never gets open because QuickBooks will notify you with an email message if they don’t, and you can call the client for collection.
With this great service, one cash flow best practice is to get your customers’ credit card numbers on file. That results in fast cash and is usually well worth the small fee for merchant processing.
The benefits of Intuit Billing Solutions are many. The automated collection process eliminates the tendency for small businesses to delegate the accounts receivable (A/R) task to a receptionist or other employee who is not skilled in collections. It saves labor cost by posting the payments automatically to the customer A/R account.
We’ve seen Daily Sales Outstanding (“DSO”) improve from 32 days to 15 days – while virtually eliminating the labor cost associated with collection efforts. It turns out that most customers just needed to be reminded of the balance due. It is that easy!
