Safety distributors often carry a lot of small invoices. A case of gloves here, a box of glasses there, a first aid restock, a replacement sensor for a gas detector. Each one is easy to forget, and the customer's accounts payable team is happy to let them sit. Before long, a decent account is 60 days out on a pile of small bills, and someone in your office is spending afternoons on the phone.
Give customers a clear view of what they owe
The fastest way to get paid is to make it obvious what is owed. In the app, customers see their invoices: what is billed and what is open. Look up an invoice lets them find any invoice and what is still open on it, without calling your office for a copy.
The account status page shows the balance, open orders, backorders and aging in one place. For the safety coordinator at a plant who orders PPE but doesn't pay the bills, that view is what they forward to AP when someone asks why the vendor is calling.
Make paying as easy as ordering
Collections and pay links add a Pay now button on every invoice. A customer can pay by card or bank from the app. Small safety invoices that would sit in a stack waiting for a check run can be cleared in a minute by whoever has the authority.
Past-due reminders go out on a schedule you choose, from friendly to firm, and can run automatically. The reminder includes the pay link, so the customer can act on it right away. You decide the tone and the timing. For a municipality that pays slowly by process rather than by choice, you can keep it gentle. For a contractor drifting toward trouble, you can get firmer sooner.
A collections helper for reps
Reps are often the best collectors because they have the relationship, but they hate the job. The collections helper shows who owes money and how late, gives a stop-by nudge, and shows the reminder schedule. When a rep is already visiting a plant to check the glove crib, the app reminds them there is an open invoice to mention. A friendly word from the rep who delivers their PPE gets results that a dunning letter does not.
Here is how a typical week might work:
- Automatic reminders go to accounts just past due, with a pay link on each invoice.
- The collections helper shows the rep which customers on today's route have older balances.
- The rep mentions it at the stop and the customer pays from their phone while the rep is there.
- Your office only works the handful of accounts that need a real conversation.
Watching the whole picture
The exec dashboard shows sales, margin, cash, receivables and pace on one screen. You see receivables trends before they turn into a cash crunch. If a big contractor account starts paying slower during a rough season, you notice it in time to adjust terms rather than discovering it at year end.
Cash tied up in receivables is cash you can't use to buy inventory, stock a new customer's crib or take a vendor's prepay discount. Getting paid faster isn't just tidier books. It makes the whole business easier to run. And because the tools are friendly and built into the same app customers order from, you get paid without straining the relationship you worked hard to build.
Ready to walk through it with your accounts in mind? Book a demo.