8 Features to Consider When Choosing Debt Collection Tools

Earlier, keeping track of the debts used to be a really difficult and tiring job. All the hassle and confusion would lead to missing the debt payment dates. However, this scenario has completely changed right now because of the constant advancement of technology. Technology has been responsible for introducing an important method of managing unwanted debts without any confusion. According to www.forbes.com, young Americans owe around $1 trillion of debt. There are several debt collection tools, responsible for helping in creating invoices, automating the communication going on between the lender and creditor, and remove the various barriers associated with payments. However, you are only going to gain benefits when you choose the appropriate tools. It is obvious that every business organization is different and they are going to have various requirements and objectives. However, when it comes to selecting the debt collection tools, the features that the businesses should be looking for should be similar. Given below is a list of the features that you should consider to understand the requirements of both your employees as well as customers. 

Considering the types of users

It can be so that you are the one and only collector present in your office but you are not the only one who is interested in what is going on within the receivable accounts. It is your responsibility to choose tools that help multiple users to not only send but also manage invoices. This is one of the most important accounting functions. For instance, the sales team of your organization can help in managing collections in case if they gain access to the debt collection tool. They can also view the reports and understand who have outstanding invoices, reached the credit limit and they can also talk to the customers. Other roles that can benefit from the debt collection tools include:

• CEO or president
• CFO or controller
• Credit manager
• Sales representatives
• Collection representatives
• Customers
• Customer service

Invoicing options

Another important feature that you have to take into consideration when you are choosing your debt collection tool is undoubtedly how you are going to send your invoices. Most businesses discover that mailing the invoices is more effective in comparison to sending them to the customers through traditional systems of mail. Another important option that you cannot miss considering is the system that is capable of offering an online portal for customers, where they will be able to view as well as pay the open invoices with the help of their credit cards or even via ACH payments. 

Integration

To make a debt collection strategy successful, all the significant information must be present within one location. Make sure that the tool is integrated with the ERP/accounting system, email, CRM system, and various other crucial applications. Otherwise, you are going to be stuck because you have to manage data in different locations, which is one of the easiest ways of making mistakes and wasting valuable time. You can also advise your customers to go through the debt relief options by visiting NationaldebtRelief.com. 

Automation

You need to consider the factor behind searching for a debt collection tool. If the primary reason is to make the process of debt collection effective and efficient, it is obvious that you are looking for automation. The ideal software system is going to help in automating most of the time by undertaking several activities that include:

• Prioritized list.
• Latest invoice notifications as well as payment reminders.
• Follow up schedules.
• Management and assignment of various actions.
• Closure of several issues after the payment is received from the customers.
• Escalation of various issues to the managers.
• Tracking broken promises.

One important thing that you have to understand is that some customers are going to require more work in comparison to others. Therefore, you need to look for tools, which will help in defining automation with the help of credit class so that you have the freedom of setting up different workflows based on the customer groups. 

Invoice details

You cannot miss considering the kind of information that you are interested in having on the invoice. Ensure that the tool that you are choosing permits you to include the necessary information that both you as well as your customer requires for payment. You might also be looking for the freedom of creating the invoice templates on your own. This will be extremely helpful in case if you are having customers who want the invoices to be within a certain format before they are processing the payment. 

Alerts and notifications

An important function associated with the debt collection tools is providing peace of mind. Tools are responsible for alerting you with important activities. For example, an invoice can go beyond term and promises can be broken. There can be missing information on invoices as well. It is the responsibility of the debt collection tool to ensure that you are being alerted right on time so that you do not face any kind of complications in the future. This is particularly true for those who have to handle various aspects of their business. The tools will help you to follow up on almost everything so that you do not have any issue in tracking the payments. 

Reporting

If you have objectives for collections and credit department and you have to measure them frequently, it is essential to have a key performance indicator dashboard within the debt collection tools. Tools that have business intelligence features are capable of providing credit managers, collectors, executives, sales representatives, etc., with snapshots of the present situation. They are also going to get detailed reports regarding debt collection as soon as they log into the tool. They also have the option of setting up monthly or weekly email reports. 

Deployment

You need to ensure that you are evaluating all your options when deployment is being considered. You need to understand whether you are interested in operating your debt collection tool within the premises or over the cloud. You have to understand whether the users, like the sales representatives or executives, who are constantly moving, are interested in accessing the tool. If that is the situation, you need to opt for web-based tools, as that is going to be more effective in comparison to debt collection tools that can be installed as well as accessed within the premises. 

Conclusion

Debt collection tools have various benefits associated with them. If you want to make the procedure of debt collection easy, you need to ensure that you are choosing a debt collection tool that has all the features mentioned above.