Debt Recovery

Unpaid bills are a massive problem for funeral homes. Recovering money from the estate or from relatives can often become complicated. The internal staff of funeral homes can recover money in most cases, but then there are those tough 5% of the cases where recovering money gets a bit out of hand.

A Collection agency for funeral homes can recover money a lot more efficiently. Being a third-party debt collector, they are well-versed in dealing with all those excuses and know precisely how to get your money back to you. Average outstanding balance for funeral homes is about $1800 and a collection agency can ensure that you get paid promptly when funds are distributed from estate, if required contact the signer who promised to cover the funeral expenses.

Recovering Money for Funeral Homes Nationwide Need a Collection Agency? Contact Us

Managing the funeral home’s reputation is critical, as negative publicity or reviews can have a significant impact on business. You need a collection agency that understands the delicate nature of your industry and can recover the money without damaging your reputation during the collections process.

Top 4 Financial Challenges Funeral Homes Face

It might seem like a profitable industry to be in now, but funeral homes are challenged with financial management decisions every day. Similar to any other business, the success of a funeral home rests on maintaining proper financial management. Funeral home directors, however, are facing a unique set of financial challenges that may jeopardize the future of their business. Here are four major challenges funeral home directors face. In fact, many funeral homes struggle with one, several, or all of these four common financial challenges.

Payment Receivables

In the funeral industry, receiving payment can be difficult. Funeral directors often avoid discussions about payment for their services as they do not want to put additional stress on the grieving family. Funeral directors may offer financing plans to families who don’t have the money upfront to pay for the costs of funeral arrangements. While this offers the customer more convenience, it can come back to bite if those customers don’t make their payments. A collection agency is really helpful in such cases.

To ensure that payments are received, it is best to utilize a funding company that can eliminate claim paperwork, accelerate the insurance verification process, and gets you your money quickly. This can also improve your cash flow instantly and eliminate financial risks.

Upselling

The key problem facing funeral directors is that some families require costly extras – such as flowers and chapel of rest viewings and limousine services – but do not have the cash to pay for it upfront. These extras bring the most profit for funeral homes.

It’s difficult to provide the high-end funerals customers want when funeral homes don’t have the ability to offer to finance. It’s easier to upsell when the customers can be instantly approved for financing at the payment terminal. This allows them to pay over several months instead of upfront.

Furthermore, the current pandemic has made upselling even more difficult as just a handful of mourners are present and families do not require costly extras.

Managing Debt

With funeral homes offering plans to help mourning families who cannot pay for the funeral of their loved ones, their debt accumulates if families do not pay their outstanding balance on time.

This can soon cause funeral homes to be in a very compromising position financially. Funeral homes must therefore prioritize debt management before offering these plans to keep their business from bleeding out.

Poor Cash Flow Management

In order to pay your employees and suppliers, you need to have money coming in. Poor cash flow management will cause your funeral home to crash. Typically when a funeral home attempts to improve cash flow they increase their service costs or lower operating costs. This is a bad idea, as increasing service costs with no true value will turn customers away.

Instead, funeral home directors need to adopt and implement proper cash flow management to keep their business running smoothly. The key, however, is learning how to keep the money coming.

The funeral industry is becoming more competitive as new players enter the market. Additionally, alternative funeral service providers and direct cremation services are increasing in popularity, which can divert business away from traditional funeral homes. Also the trend toward cremation over burial, which is generally less profitable for funeral homes.

Wrapping up

The funeral home industry might be profitable, but it is also riddled with challenges that can affect your bottom line. It might be time for funeral home directors to assess their financial strategies and opt for healthier ones where receivables and proper cash flow are at the center.

Hire a collection agency to avoid losing money from your unpaid invoices.

For snow removal companies overdue accounts receivable is an ongoing issue. Their customers can be small businesses, government institutions, airports, large corporates, and private homeowners.

Customer excuses may range from underbudgeting the cost of snow removal work to temporary economic problems. Not getting paid on time can quickly restrict your cash flow. That’s why hiring a collection agency when an account is 60 days past due is absolutely the right choice. A collection agency can offer a flat-fee collection package or contingency-based collections. You can focus on your work, while a collection agency will effectively collect your money on time before they become completely unrecoverable.

Serving Snow Removal Contractors Nationwide Need a Collection Agency? Contact Us High Recovery Rate. Referrals of existing clients can be provided if requested.

4 Cost Inducing Issues Faced by Snow Removal Companies

Snow removal services are a staple during the winter months. Yet, snow removal companies are also at higher risk for financial distress during the winter season than at any other time of the year. When it comes to snow removal, there are many unknowns and, many things can go wrong. Here are some of the issues snow removal companies face that can directly impact them financially.

• Liability

Snow removal companies rely on keeping commercial and residential properties safe during the icy winter months. Any minor error can cause a slip and falls liability lawsuit that can have a devastating impact on the future of the business. Lawsuits and insurance claims can unexpectedly become very expensive.

Correct salt and ice melt applications can reduce icy conditions. Also, employees must keep the correct logs of services provided to clients. Timestamps and descriptions of services provided are crucial to reducing liability. By taking these precautions, your snow companies save money and time.

• Snow Removal Cost

The monetary expenditures of snow removal companies can accumulate for so many reasons. Snow removal companies need to take into account direct Snow Removal Costs and other indirect costs such as power outages and sporadic deliveries among others. These costs if continued can add and can cause the company significantly.

Additionally, lost revenues due to employee absence or late arrival, damages caused by the snow, and other less obvious costs can also cause huge financial distress if continued in the long run.

Snow removal equipment, such as plows, blowers, and salt spreaders, undergoes heavy wear and tear. Regular maintenance and occasional repairs are necessary, which can be costly. The cost of salt, sand, and other deicing materials can be significant. Additionally, prices for these materials can fluctuate based on demand, further complicating budgeting.

• Not Following Through With the Signed Contract

If the contract states that the parking lots must be cleared before the first shift arrives for work, then they must be cleaned. If the parking lot is not cleaned, the snow removal company is taking a chance of being held liable for injuries. Thus, it is crucial to follow the term of the signed contract diligently.

Snow removal companies that do not have a professional contract can obtain a template from The Accredited Snow Contractors Association (ASCA) to develop a contract that reduces their liability risks so they can maintain a successful business.

• Not Properly Training Crew Members on How to Use the Equipment.

The crew must know how to use different types of equipment. Therefore, proper training on how to use different plows, skid loaders, and other equipment is a must. One rookie mistake with the equipment can cause damage to the equipment and open the door for possible liability issues.

Companies with commercial snow accounts must take a crew leader to each site for orientation, so workers will know where to put the snow, who the property manager is, and how the parking lot is laid out.

Having the right size of equipment is also extremely crucial. Using smaller trucks that aren’t designed to handle a heavy plow or pushing heavy snow will make the job harder, will need frequent repair and check-ups, and depreciate faster. These pieces of equipment won’t last long.

Wrapping It Up

Running a snow removal company can be tricky as you need to deliver impeccable services in unfavorable weather conditions while attempting to stay financially afloat. Snow removal companies face many issues that can impact them financially. Avoiding these issues is the best way to build a flourishing company.

Snow Removal Collection Agency Services Include

Collection Letters Service

Upfront cost for 5 Collection Letters is about $15 per account. Debtors pay directly to you, no other fees and a low-cost option. Good for accounts less than 120 days past due.

Collection Calls Service

Contingency fee only. No upfront or other fees. Agency gets paid a portion of money they recover.  No recovery-No fees. Best for accounts over 120 days. A debt collector calls the debtor many times. If everything fails, a possible Legal Suit is recommended by the attorney.

The United States snow blower market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 5% during the next 5 years.

They say that the devil is in the details. This is generally true, but when it comes to invoicing, the devil is in the details omitted.

Invoices that are vague, confusing, or lacking in basic information are much harder to collect than invoices that spell things out. This might seem like an obvious point, but many businesses don’t realize their invoices aren’t as clear as they could be.

Maintaining healthy accounts receivable is challenging enough without your invoices working against you. This article will reveal some of the ways that your invoice specificity can be improved, resulting in faster payments and fewer delinquent accounts.

Make Sure You’re Using Accurate Contact Information

Employees come and go. If you’re a B2B company, that means your clients’ billing contacts can change over time. If you don’t keep your contact information up to date, you may end up sending invoices to an employee that no longer works for the company, delaying payment.

It’s also essential to use the full legal names of the people and companies you do business with. If one of your clients goes by ABC Supply, but their full legal name is ABC Supply and Distribution, Inc., don’t use the shortened version.

In the unfortunate case that you have to send an account to collections, having the full name on all invoices makes it easier for the collection agency to locate the right entity. It also prevents possible claims by your client that the entity named on your invoice isn’t them. To that end, always include your customer’s address and phone number.

Spell Out Your Payment Terms

Don’t assume that your customers will remember the payment terms you negotiated when your relationship first began. Left to their own devices, they may choose to pay you on their schedule.

Instead, list specific terms on every invoice. Include the customers allowed payment window, any discounts you offer for speedy payment, and any penalties incurred when payments are late. Make sure the information is featured prominently so that there’s little chance your customer will miss it. When they know what’s expected of them, the chances of compliance increase.

List Services Rendered in Detail

Patronize any retail establishment, and you’ll leave with a detailed, itemized receipt. This piece of paper leaves no question regarding what you purchased and what you were charged for. Invoices should do the same thing.

This doesn’t mean you need to itemize individual charges. Many businesses prefer to keep their hourly rates or individual services costs hidden. But you should include a detailed description of the work provided, even if it all falls under a single total.

Being verbose helps prevent billing disputes that can slow down or stop payments. This is particularly useful when your invoice also functions as a bill of sale. When you elucidate final deliverables, there’s less chance of damaging miscommunications.

Include Instructions and Details for Multiple Payment Methods

Not all customers like to pay the same way. And some may cycle between methods, depending on their business situation. Providing as many ways to pay as possible helps ensure that your customers can access the method they prefer, helping speed payments.

However, similar to payment terms, your customers may not remember all of the payment options available to them when they receive your invoice. Providing details for every payment method you offer on each invoice reminds your customers and gives them instant access.

For services like Venmo and PayPal, list the email associated with payment. Provide a link to your credit card portal. Make sure your name and address are present for check payments. And, if you send digital invoices, you might consider including links to how-tos to help clients pay using services they aren’t familiar with.

Number All Invoices Using a Consistent System

If you aren’t numbering your invoices, you’re making it much more difficult on yourself when you need to find one, particularly if they’re stored digitally. If you’re numbering them, but using a poorly-devised system, the same issues may occur. Payments can slow down or cease if a client raises an objection and you can’t locate your original to settle the problem.

The most important feature of an invoice numbering system is that every invoice has a unique code that’s logically tied to your clients. You may consider a numbering scheme like this:

20acme001

“20” is the year, “acme” is the first four letters of your client’s name, and “001” is the first in a sequence of numbers. Each time you send an invoice to Acme Supply, you iterate the last three digits. At the turn of the year, you update “20” to “21” and the sequence over again.

This short invoice number gives you a lot of information to help locate an invoice. You know the company that was billed, the year the invoice was created, and its position in that customer’s invoice sequence.

It should be clear that invoice specificity can lead to dramatically better AR performance. Try these suggestions for yourself.

You have tried to recover overdue receivables from patients using reminder calls and sending invoices. But you are skeptical about sending accounts for collections, fearing a potential loss of reputation or hoping that your patient will magically pay you without the involvement of a 3rd party collector. 

You eventually decide to send past-due accounts for collections. However, after a few months, you found the recovery results of your collection agency are not encouraging either. What went wrong? Debt collectors seem to recover money for everyone else, but not for your accounts. 

Reason: You assigned the accounts into collections too late!

You probably do not have a well-organized process when your accounts should be assigned to a professional collection agency. Transferring accounts to a collection agency is a lot about timing, not about WHEN YOU FEEL they should be sent for collections.

They should be forwarded before 90 days for good results. Older accounts are harder to collect. Professional debt collection should be a systematic step in your accounts receivable process. 

Hey. You are not alone. 90% of all medical practices do not use collection services timely. In fact, medical collection agencies are also partly to be blamed because they offer the same age-old “contingency” only collection service and nothing else. Some offer fixed-fee letter service, but that also comes with its limitations. Most do not have a service that fits beautifully in your AR process. This is where the HYBRID collection service comes into play.

Hybrid Medical Collection Service comes to the rescue!

It is not just a fancy term in debt collection. Let us see how hybrid debt collection precisely works.

* Once the medical debt has been overdue for 75 days, it is submitted in this program.

* Collection agency sends 1st letter on 76th day on your behalf to the patient. This is the final REMINDER letter to your patient, with no mention of the agency’s name anywhere. 

The letter appears to be the last and final reminder from the doctor’s office (not a collection agency). This letter gives a two weeks ultimatum to the debtor to pay off the debt; otherwise their account will be handed over to a collection agency.

* Still no payment? Then, after 15 days, the 1^st DEMAND letter goes out. This one is sent from the collection agency’s name demanding the payment. Now your patient gets really concerned. The chances of getting paid have become quite high now.

Every 10 days, your collection agency sends out 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th DEMAND letters with increasing intensity and consequences of not paying.  Most patients will pay, however, if the debt has still not paid off, this account is transferred to a human debt collector who then makes telephonic collection calls.

Benefits of Hybrid Collection

It makes the transfer process to a collection agency very systematic and disciplined.

•  HYBRID service removes the ambiguity when the account should be transferred for debt collection. It becomes a part of your internal collection process and integrates when the account is 75 days past due. 
• Avoids the delay in transferring accounts for collections, precisely on 90th-day soft-collections start. This process MAXIMIZES returns. Nearly 75% of all delinquent accounts that are provisioned under the Hybrid collections scheme make payments directly to you.
• The average cost per account of the Hybrid program is $15 per patient. Accounts can be purchased in advance, or for a couple of dollars more; you can qualify for Pay-as-used service.
• The hybrid program is the ultimate program to protect your reputation. It is the MOST effective service to recover money from patients.
• The hybrid program is so effective that you are guaranteed twice the return on your investment. Otherwise, you get your money back.

Accounts that remain unpaid are transferred for intensive collections after your invoice has still not been paid.

Like every other industry, debt collections have become more effective yet FRIENDLIER !! It sounds weird, but it’s true. Collection agencies get reviewed online, and people can find attorneys to sue collection agencies with a button click.

Collection agencies who follow amicable and diplomatic ways to recover money always beat those agencies’ recovery rates compared to those who are still stuck up their age-old ways of intensive medical bills recovery.

Contact us, and please mention that you are interested in the HYBRID medical collection service.

In a data-driven business world, knowing how to use data analysis tools optimally and what the advantages of data models are will allow you to assess the efficiency of your Accounts Receivable department. Predictive analysis can help monitor and manage outstanding receivables, and post-collection data will identify the most effective payment recovery methods.

Main KPI’s to Measure Recovery

These are the main Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used to measure recovery or collection of receivables:

1. The Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI) is a metric that calculates the total receivables over a certain period of time and the percent that is actually recovered over the same period.

2. Profit per Account (PPA) is exactly what it says: the average profit made for each account, calculated by dividing the gross profit of the company by the total number of accounts receivables.

3. Turnover ratio. Account turnover ratio measures the company’s effectiveness in recovering money owed by customers.

(Formula:  Account Turnover Ratio = Net Credit Sales / Average AR )

To improve the account turnover ratio, may businesses and medical practices transfer delinquent accounts to a medical collection agency or a small business debt collection agency. Professional debt collectors can help in reducing average AR, thereby improving your account turnover ratio.

4. Cash-to-cash cycle time (CCC) is the period of time between when your business pays your suppliers and when you receive payments from your customers. This is usually expressed in days.

5. Average Days Delinquent (ADD) indicates the average number of days your invoices are left unpaid after the past due date.

6. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). This KPI may seem directed mostly at merchants, but service providers also use it. It refers to the average collection period after a sale has been made or a service has been provided.

Why is Data Analytics Important?

Small businesses often ignore the benefits of this intimidating process, but it can be as sophisticated or as simple as you need it to be. Regardless of whether you use basic charts and graphs in Excel every now and then, or pay for a complex program which requires training, its benefits are hard to ignore. The best and easiest way to start is with a batch of sample data in an Excel file, so you can get some initial perspective on and familiarity with your company’s data using the metrics above and so you can see if the amount of work to analyze your data points to a need for outside assistance.

Admittedly, every business, big or small, faces challenges converting data into information or, even more importantly, actionable insights. The main reason for that is that data lives in one or more LOB (Line-of-Business) Applications, a variety of files on disk, email, or even paper documents. Depending on how you maintain your records, data integration, cleansing and curation are complex and expensive, particularly as the number of accounts grows. They often require professional help and know-how outside the budget of small companies. Data analysis becomes difficult when you’re dealing with unstructured data and, for that reason, keeping up-to-date and complete records is very important not just for having seamless processes but also for decision-making.

Benefits to Your Company

Here are some ways data analytics can benefit your company:

1. Identify top clients or payors with outstanding receivables records.  This helps answer many questions.  You don’t know where your money comes from? Do you want to pay special attention or send a gift basket to your 5-10% best customers for the holidays? Your data warehouse contains a wealth of client information. You can identify themes and trends, customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and more.

2. Assess payments at risk of default as well as map out demographics at risk. Your customer data can help you find out why your sales are collapsing and what is causing it. Some data tools can even help you perform AI tasks such as Sentiment Analytics on the feedback you receive from your clients. Addressing negative comments on your website could save your business.
3. Monitor the collection period for various receivables. If your collection period is 30 days, and a customer takes, on average, 25 days to pay, you have a pretty good system of collecting on your receivables. If, on the other hand, a customer takes 35 or more days, you must find a way to reduce that period. The Average Days Delinquent (ADD) metric can be used here.

4. Understand your AR turnover ratio fluctuations: Having a high AR turnover ratio is a good thing, but you don’t want it to go to any extremes due to the impact it may have on client payment behavior. Comparing various values over several quarters or years will help you determine when to change your debt collection methods.

For example: Dental surgeons often engage in intensive debt collection tactics because their balances are high and dental surgeries for the same customer are not so common. They do not have a massive fear of losing existing customers. Contrary to popular belief, a dental collection agency should ideally be instructed to engage in moderate or diplomatic collections since intensive techniques can tarnish the reputation of any medical practice, dental office even a small business. Intensive collection tactics also raise the probability of a counter lawsuit from debtors.

5. Evaluate how the length of delinquency and the value of those receivables you have to turn over to external collections affects your bottom line. Sometimes, you may want to keep a customer in spite of repeated delinquencies, but a few graphs showing several billing cycles may help you better understand if it’s worth keeping them.

6. Identify your strongest collection method. When money pours in, it’s easy to just enjoy it and not do the hard work of planning for the future. One glitch in your website’s payment capability, one employee who leaves, or conversely, the nicely worded ‘thanks’ message that accompanies emailed billing notices, or that month-long promotion, may make the difference between procrastinators or delinquent customers and on-time receipts.

7. Identify when your invoices are likely to be paid. Predictive modeling can offer insight into how you can proactively collect on invoices that are likely to become delinquent.

8. Rely on your cash-to-cash cycle. A successful business has a regular and predictable billing and collection system, where the cash-to-cash cycles are generally low. Data analysis can indicate where they remain low and where they tend to spike.

9. Assess and improve the efficiency of your referral network. If you have such a network, you can analyze which referral channel works best for your business. You can then optimize it or try to accumulate similar sources of referrals so you can increase your revenue.

Data Analytics Improves Data Integrity 

These are only some ways data analysis can improve your business and contribute to your success. More and more internet and software providers offer tools to facilitate learning and using data analytics and visualizations. One of the major features of these tools is the automation of numerous processes. For instance, Microsoft Power Automate, allows business users with no coding experience to integrate MS Office products with other applications easily.

This allows emails upon arrival to be processed and stored in the LOB Application eliminating the need to do this by hand. Another use is sending automatic notifications internally or externally when specific events occur. Workflows can be implemented with little effort to eliminate manual tasks and improve data consistency and quality.

With data integrity, the data consistency across systems, resolved, a business can derive some actionable insights. With automation comes efficiency, predictability and reliability. When the time comes for an internal or external audit, you can count on your data to minimize risks and standardize successful workflows. All of these can drive your medical practice or small business forward, and help you save time and money down the line.