Hydraulics distributors often carry more receivables than they should. Part of that is the work: a cylinder repair goes out with a big invoice, a plant runs a dozen small hose orders a week, and a contractor pays when the job pays him. Part of it is just friction. The customer cannot find the invoice, cannot remember if it was paid, or needs a copy for a PO that was cut after the fact.
Every one of those questions is a call to your office and a few more days before you see the money.
Let customers see and pay their own invoices
In the app, customers see their invoices: what is billed and what is open. A maintenance manager who needs a copy for accounting can get it without calling you. Every invoice can carry a Pay now button through pay links, so a customer who is ready to pay can do it on the spot.
That matters most with smaller accounts, the farm customer or the owner-operator who would pay right away if it were easy. It also helps with the plant where accounts payable wants a clean invoice to match against the PO.
Collections without the awkward phone calls
Collections and pay links send past-due reminders with a Pay now button on every invoice. The tone runs from friendly to firm, and you can let them go out automatically on a schedule. Your office stops spending the morning writing "just checking in" emails.
For reps, the collections helper shows who owes money and how late, gives a stop-by nudge when the rep is near an account with a past-due balance, and shows the reminder schedule. A rep visiting a contractor's yard can mention the open invoice in person, which often works better than a fourth email.
A few habits that help:
- Turn on pay links for every account, not just the slow ones.
- Set reminders to start friendly and get firmer as an invoice ages.
- Let reps see past-due balances before they visit, so nobody gets surprised.
- Use Look up an invoice when a customer calls, so the answer takes seconds.
- Watch repair accounts closely, since one cylinder rebuild can be a large invoice.
Find any invoice fast
Look up an invoice lets reps and the owner find any invoice and what is still open. When the plant buyer calls about a hose assembly invoice from two months ago, the answer is on the phone in your pocket, not in a filing cabinet back at the shop.
The exec dashboard brings it together for the owner: sales, margin, cash, receivables and pace on one screen. You can see receivables moving the wrong way before it becomes a cash problem, not after.
Repair work deserves its own attention. A cylinder or pump rebuild ties up parts, labor and bench time before you bill a cent. Getting that invoice in front of the customer with a Pay now button the day the job ships, and following it with a polite reminder schedule, shortens the gap between doing the work and getting paid for it.
None of this changes how you bill. It works with your existing ERP. What it changes is how easy it is for the customer to pay you, and how much of your office's time goes into chasing money instead of serving customers. In a business where the next big repair job might need you to buy a pump or a cylinder up front, cash on hand matters.
Want to walk through it with your own accounts? Book a demo.