Debt Recovery

Unpaid invoices are pretty common for animal breeders and semen distributors. Sometimes, repeated follow-ups with your customer do not help, and your past-due accounts receivable start to dig into your profits.

Breeders are forced to assign past-due accounts to a debt collection agency. The involvement of a third-party agency does the trick. The moment your customers realize that the recovery is now handled by a professional collection agency, the entire tone changes.

Serving Breeders Nationwide Looking for a collection agency: Contact us

Bad Debts: This is especially concerning for distributors and breeders as the product they are dealing with is perishable and has maintenance costs (e.g. storage of frozen semen).

High Costs of Preservation: The preservation of animal semen requires proper storage conditions which can be costly. If the payments from the customers are delayed or not received, it can be hard to maintain these conditions, affecting the quality of the product.

Seasonality of Demand: The demand for animal semen might be seasonal, especially when breeding livestock. This seasonality can make it difficult to predict cash flow and can exacerbate AR issues if the company doesn’t plan for the slow periods.

Collection agencies are experts, they know every law and resource required to recover unpaid bills. They know how to collect money in an amicable and diplomatic manner while attempting to preserve business relationships.

It is crucial to select an agency with experience recovering specifically for breeders. It does not matter what specific animal you deal with (pig, bull, horse, swine genetics, cattle, etc.). Rather than writing off unpaid invoices as bad debt, it is highly recommended to hire a collection agency.

Most agencies will work on contingency-based fees only.

Collectors love working for Semen Distributors, Breeders, and the Egg industry because of the high recovery rates they achieve as compared to other businesses.

 

Staying in business can be as simple as pulling out the steamy croissants from the oven right when the timer rings just before your bakery opens or as complicated as the daily coordination of a supply chain that involves numerous moving pieces and partners.

Preventing non-payment of bills in a B2B (business-to-business) setting can be challenging, but there are several strategies you can use to minimize this risk:

1. Credit Checks: Before offering credit to a new customer, conduct a credit check to evaluate their financial stability and payment history. This can help you identify high-risk clients.
2. Clear Terms and Conditions: Clearly define your payment terms and conditions in the contract. Make sure that both parties understand and agree to the terms before conducting business.
3. Upfront Payments: For large orders or high-risk customers, consider asking for upfront payments or deposits. This can reduce your exposure to credit risk.
4. Payment Reminders: Regularly remind customers of upcoming or overdue payments. This can be done through various methods, including email, phone calls, or mailed statements.
5. Strong Relationships: Maintain strong relationships with your customers. Open communication can encourage clients to pay on time and enable you to detect potential payment problems early.
6. Flexible Payment Options: Offering multiple payment options can make it easier for clients to pay. This might include accepting payments by credit card, bank transfer, online payment platforms, or even offering installment plans for larger invoices.
7. Escalation Procedures: Have a clearly defined process for managing late payments. This might include sending late payment notices, charging late fees or interest, or using a collections agency for persistently overdue accounts.
8. Invoice Factoring: Invoice factoring or financing allows you to sell your invoices to a third party. This can be useful for managing cash flow and reducing risk, but it does involve fees.
9. Trade Credit Insurance: This type of insurance protects your business from non-payment of commercial debt. It ensures that your invoices will be paid even if your customers default.
10. Legal Assistance: In extreme cases, legal action might be necessary. Always consult with a legal professional to understand your options.

Remember, while you can’t eliminate non-payment risk entirely, you can take steps to manage it effectively and minimize its impact on your business.

We have mentioned the challenges faced by accounts receivable before, but one item stands out as a recurring and headache-causing problem: the predictability of timely receipts.

Delays or interruptions in customer payments can jeopardize all of your downstream activities, leading to potential losses, bad credit, and, eventually, more serious consequences for your business.

Here are several key paths and practical tips to use in order to avoid payment delays and prevent cash-flow issues.

1. Trust and communication

Business is about trust, and the key to trust is communication. Having open contact with both new and longtime customers and partners is vital to building an environment of efficient collaboration and honest mutual dependency. Good communication helps focus your common interests in order to keep them attainable and helps your business adjust to crises and instability without defections and bad surprises. Interaction can help to sense the intentions of new customers, and a good communication channel with longtime customers makes it more likely that they won’t hide their cash flow difficulties. That may give you an opportunity to prepare on your end and also to address such problems together, proposing payment plans that can prevent defaults and save the interests of both parties

2. Know your business partners

New commercial relationships are always risky and full of unknowns, and even the best long-running relationships are subject to conflict and deterioration. From the very beginning, setting up a channel or a system to identify, vet, and authenticate your partners can save money and headaches in the long run.

Sometimes, communication is just not enough, and trust can be lost along the way. Treat any disputes respectfully and promptly, and don’t let your emotions control your actions.

Monitoring your customers’ behavior is important for you to be able to anticipate and avoid uncomfortable positions and breaks in your cash flow. You don’t have to resort to any obsessive, intrusive surveillance systems to do that. Just staying informed about what’s going on in the industry and keeping in regular contact with your partners is enough.

Trusting means finding where your interests meet theirs, not neglecting them. Set up processes to collect up-to-date information about your customer’s financial health where the partner liaisons and account managers can access them, and modify your Policies and Procedures to include clear guidelines on payment practices befitting the customers’ situation. Depending on the case, you can require payment beforehand or establish credit limits.

3. Know your own business

Efficient and responsible choices in payment policies are possible only if you know your business’ own needs very well. How much total customer credit can you afford in terms of account receivables? What are your essential cash needs? What are the real risks you can take? Awareness about the limits of your business will help you enforce your payment policies in a non-aggressive, efficient way and avoid unnecessarily strict payment requirements when possible.

Learn to read a balance sheet, have monthly or quarterly meetings with your sales team and accounting department, and always ask for reports on unpaid invoices. Be prepared to stop services or the distribution of products to customers that have not paid, and establish a procedure for reinstatement of service.

We’ve talked about how a low rate of accounts receivable shows your business is on the right track.  A maximum of 20% is usually what a company can withstand, but conservative risk analyses show that the cash trapped in outstanding invoices should not be higher than 8%-10% of your total business income.

4. Fix your processes

A lot of payment delays can be easily avoided by designing efficient invoicing processes.

Ensure invoices are always correct, down to the last detail, so customers don’t reject them. Sometimes customers don’t even notify you that they haven’t accepted the invoice, and meanwhile, you’re still waiting for payment. Requiring them to validate the invoicing details can be an option.

Make sure that you always follow up on unpaid invoices. Streamline the payment process so your accounts receivable department can follow actionable, clear steps such as setting up automatic reminders and diversifying the notifications (phone calls, emails, or mailed statements).

In general, any possible source of misunderstanding and ambiguity in your process has to be identified and avoided in order to prevent both unintentional mistakes and deliberate strategies by customers to take advantage of the flaws that might be in your workflow. You can also include simple expedients to encourage quick invoice payment, such as offering prompt-payment discounts. Your company can offer a 1% to 3% discount if the invoice is paid within 15 days, ensuring you have healthy cash flows every month.

An alternative would be to allow a debtor to pay in interest-free and penalty-free installments. For those businesses facing hard times but struggling to get back on track, this method not only helps them maintain their relationships but also ensures they’ll have a lower balance to pay in the future.

5. Method of payment

Many companies have switched to digital payments, but some are still using paper, which means that a check might or might not be coming. Offer incentives to your established customers to switch to ACH, credit card payment, click-and-pay or even PayPal. With an app highly rated in terms of features and user-friendliness, PayPal also offers a business account that can be connected directly to your business checking account or credit card. If you have a website where you already accept credit cards, you can add PayPal as a secondary payment method. Once you give your customers several ways to pay that bill, they’ll have no good reason not to complete the transaction.

6. Platform of payment

You have to make sure that the digital platform you’re using, whether a website or specialized software, is fast and secure. Nearly 80% of online users who have a bad experience with pages loading slowly don’t return to those pages. The rule of thumb is that they expect no more than a 3-second lapse between the click and the moment a page fully loads. Imagine one of your partners trying to make a payment when your website doesn’t load the payment page. He might try one more time and then either forget or give up in frustration. Yours is just one of the bills he has to pay and his time is limited.

There are many ways to improve the loading speed of your website, and some are technically challenging. What you can do from the very beginning is to choose a competent web hosting service for your online business profile. That only requires a little bit of research.

7. How do others do it? What should you look out for?

Always be on the lookout for new solutions to problems. Innovative technology or methods of being paid are always emerging. Traditional solutions still work as well. If a customer is in trouble, you can help them by sending business their way or asking for free products/services in lieu of their debt.

Also, it’s good to be realistic about the type of service or product you’re offering. When a business starts going badly, companies tend to slash non-essential costs first. Do you service office water coolers or offer catering for company events? Are you a manufacturer of vintage toys with a very niche customer base and very few distribution centers? The type of business you have will determine how badly hit you’ll be during an economic crisis.

Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business. Regular and on-time customer payments are key to keeping the order-to-cash cycle healthy, which in turn enables you to make well-timed investments, pay your own bills, and ensure your business’ financial health. Anything you can do to secure your cash-flow will never be too much, as long as the steps you take are within practical, legal and ethical bounds. Prevention is always better than needing a cure, and that applies just as accurately to businesses working together.

Traffic and parking violation tickets are a good income source for local enforcement agencies. Unpaid tickets can cause a huge hole in the finances of cities and counties.

If initial efforts of police and regional transport authorities to collect the fine are unsuccessful, engaging a collection agency specializing in government debt might be necessary. These agencies have the experience and tools to collect unpaid tickets efficiently.

Need a Collection Agency for Unpaid Tickets? Contact Us for a free consultation – Serving Nationwide

Courts and law enforcement agencies charge the original fine plus late penalties once an account is forwarded to collections. Some states allow them to charge an additional 30%-40% Collection Fee on top of the delinquent amount. The unpaid amount can be reported to credit bureaus if requested. Debtors can make payments online, over the phone, or using a credit card.

Some jurisdictions may allow the suspension of the violator’s driver’s license or vehicle registration if they have unpaid traffic tickets or parking violations.

Traffic police officers do not have adequate resources and time to chase people who have not paid citations, parking and traffic tickets issued by law enforcement officers. Collection agencies have advanced skip-tracing tools to find the latest contact information of debtors and employ diplomatic tactics to recover money. Forwarding these violations after 60 days to a professional debt collector for a maximum recovery rate is recommended.

Traffic ticket amounts are usually under $100, and not every collection agency will effectively dedicate the resources required to collect significant money from these accounts. Only those collection agencies with an efficient recovery process and those with extensive experience recovering for law enforcement agencies. A low-fee collection agency will ensure maximum money is recovered from unpaid traffic and parking tickets.

With cremation rates projected to hit 64% in 2026, shrinking your revenue per call, every uncollected invoice now cuts deeper into your thinning margins. You can no longer afford to let tens of thousands of dollars sit in “pending insurance” or failed crowdfunding pledges while your overhead costs continue to rise.

Nexa provides 100% reputation-safe, equipped with all 50-state collections license, offering free credit reporting, free litigation, free bankruptcy scrubs, and zero onboarding fees. Secure – SOC 2 Type II & HIPAA compliant. Over 2,000 online reviews rate us 4.85 out of 5.  Need a Collection Agency? Contact us

Compassionate Recovery: Protecting Your Funeral Home’s Legacy, Reputation and Ledger

Running a funeral home involves a delicate balance that few other business owners understand. You are a pillar of support for families during their worst moments, but you also run a business with significant overhead—facilities, vehicles, staffing, and merchandise; that balance is harder to maintain.

With the rising trend of “crowdfunded” funerals where pledges often fail to materialize, your margins are tightening. When a family fails to pay, it isn’t just a financial hit; it feels like a betrayal of the trust you extended.

However, the solution isn’t to hire a standard “junkyard dog” collection agency. Aggressive tactics can destroy a reputation you spent generations building. You need a partner who understands that dignity doesn’t stop when the invoice is due.

We offer a specialized recovery model designed for the funeral profession—one that recovers funds without dishonoring the family or your community standing.

Why Funeral Directors Are Switching to Nexa

If you are currently holding onto bad debt because you are afraid to collect, or if you are using an agency that treats your families like credit card delinquents, you are losing money.

The funeral industry requires a “White-Glove” Recovery Approach. Here is why our model works better for death care professionals:

• Preserve Your Community Standing: In this industry, your reputation is your lifeline. One insensitive call from a bad agency can go viral on social media, ruining future “at-need” calls. We act as a diplomatic extension of your family service counselors.

• Maximize Margins on Cremation Cases: When a $2,500 cremation bill goes unpaid, you cannot afford to give up 50% to a collection agency. Our flat-fee model allows you to keep 100% of the principal on these smaller balances.

• Navigate the FTC Funeral Rule & Reg F: The regulatory environment is strict. We ensure all communications align with the FTC Funeral Rule’s transparency requirements and the CFPB’s Regulation F, protecting you from liability.

A 4-Step Protocol for Sensitive Collections

We don’t start with threats. We start with communication.

• Step 1 & 2 (The Diplomatic Phase): For a flat fee of $15 per account, we send a series of respectful, official letters in our name. This third-party notice signals that the matter is serious, often prompting the family to release held funds (like insurance payouts or GoFundMe proceeds) to you. You keep 100% of the money.

• Step 3 (The Escalation): If the family ignores these diplomatic efforts, we transition to a contingency phase (40% fee). Our team uses empathetic negotiation to resolve the balance.

• Step 4 (Legal): In rare cases where assets exist (e.g., estate disputes), our attorney network can intervene (50% contingency).

Recent Results: Recovering Funds for Funeral Homes

We are actively helping funeral directors recover “grief debt” while maintaining their dignity.

The “Lapsed Policy” Scenario (Cleveland, OH)

• The Situation: A funeral home performed a full traditional service ($8,200) based on the family’s promise of a life insurance policy. Two months later, the insurance company denied the claim due to a lapse in premiums. The family stopped returning calls.

• The Resolution: We used Step 2 ($15 flat fee) to send a formal demand to the next of kin. The official nature of the letter motivated the siblings to pool funds and pay the balance to avoid legal action against the estate.

• The Financials: The funeral home recovered $8,200 and paid only $15 in fees.

The “Split Family” Dispute (Phoenix, AZ)

• The Situation: A direct cremation and memorial package ($3,400) was signed for by one sibling, but the family verbally agreed to split the bill three ways. Two siblings paid their share; the third ($1,133) refused, claiming “I didn’t sign the contract.”

• The Resolution: We skip-traced the signing sibling (the legally responsible party) who had moved. We explained the impact on their credit score.

• The Financials: We recovered the full remaining balance via Step 3. The funeral home closed the file and removed the bad debt from their books.

Q&A: Navigating “Grief Debt”

Q: How do we handle families waiting on GoFundMe or Crowdfunding?

A: This is a major issue in 2025. Families often overestimate crowdfunding success. We recommend setting a strict policy: “Payment is due regardless of fundraising results.” If they fail to pay after the campaign ends, our Step 2 letters act as a reality check that the funeral home is a priority creditor, not a charity.

Q: Will sending a family to collections violate the “FTC Funeral Rule”?

A: No. The Funeral Rule primarily governs price disclosures and the prohibition of misrepresenting services. However, your Statement of Goods and Services Selected serves as your contract. Enforcing that contract is legal. We ensure our demands reference the specific signed agreement, keeping you fully compliant.

Q: Can we collect from the Estate if the family refuses to pay?

A: Yes, but it requires patience. If an estate is being probated, we can file a claim against it. However, if there are no assets, we pursue the individual who signed your contract. This is why having a clear signature from a financially responsible party (not just the executor) is vital.

Q: Is it worth pursuing small balances from cremation urns or jewelry?

A: Yes. Because of our $15 flat-fee model, it makes financial sense to collect a $200 balance on merchandise. You shouldn’t have to write off hard costs.

Q: What if the family claims “emotional distress” to avoid paying?

A: Emotional distress is real, but it does not void a financial contract. Our collectors are trained in empathy-based negotiation. We acknowledge the loss but firmly pivot back to the obligation, often setting up payment plans that are manageable for the family.

Q: The family says the money is locked in a Trust. Can you still collect?

A: generally, yes—we can legally pursue assets held in a Revocable Trust (which the deceased controlled) and can often attach liens

Honor the Dead, But Protect Your Business

You provided a dignified service. You deserve to be paid for it. Let us handle the uncomfortable financial conversations so you can focus on serving your community.

Click here to Contact Us and review your aged accounts.

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.