Are Your Payment Terms on Your Invoices? //Cue Dramatic Music/
Here's a quick tip for today that could save you real money. Go, right now, and look at the terms you're printing on the bottom (or back) of each invoice that leaves your office.
Do you have terms? That are printed on the invoice? Then you get an A+ for today.
If you don't, then please stick around and read this story:
One of our customers (we'll call him Bob) did an emergecy service call for a customer. It was a major repair, had a decent bill to it, and Bob happily sent his customer the invoice... printed on a generic template.
But then the customer didn't pay. And didn't pay. And didn't pay...
So, after doing the usual follow-up and run-around, Bob took the former customer to court. And the judge looked at the evidence (i.e. the invoice), and essentially threw the case out right there. Because Bob didn't have his payment terms on the actual invoice, the customer had a virtually unlimited amount of time in which to pay. Any verbal agreements, terms on the website, or secondary letters simply didn't count.
Now, I'm sure there are plenty of legal arguements up there. The point is, you can protect your business, and save yourself from a world of headaches, just by printing your terms on the invoice that you mail or email out to your customers.
And, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, you can also use this space to list other services you provide, or why your customers so should up for the Gold Maintenance Package, or, possibly most importantly, a simple Thank You.
So go look at your invoices, and make sure you're playing it safe.