Welding distributors carry a lot of receivables. Gas, cylinder rent, filler metal, consumables and the occasional machine all go out on terms, and many customers are contractors who don't get paid until their own customer pays. Add a plant that holds your invoice until receiving signs off, and cash gets tied up fast.
Contractors make it harder still. A structural crew might burn through wire and gas for months on a job, and the contractor won't see a check until the general contractor pays him. Your invoice is somewhere in that chain.
Most of the time, customers aren't refusing to pay. Invoices get lost, buried or stuck waiting for a question nobody answered.
Let customers find their own invoices
A big share of collections time is just sending copies. In welding it's worse than most trades, because a busy shop might get many small invoices in a month: a spool of wire here, a cylinder exchange there, a box of tips on a rush. Each one can get stuck for its own reason.
The app lets customers see what's billed and what's open, and look up any invoice themselves. When a contractor's office manager needs a copy to match a job, she gets it without calling you. Your team has the same tool: look up an invoice finds any invoice and what's still open.
Order tracking helps, too. When a customer can see where each order is and that it was delivered, there's one less reason to hold an invoice.
Reminders with a Pay now button
Collections and pay links send past-due reminders with a Pay now button on every invoice, from friendly to firm, and can run automatically. A friendly reminder a few days late catches the invoices that simply got buried. A firmer one later catches the accounts that need attention.
For a small shop or a mobile welder where the owner also does the books, a reminder he can pay from right away, on his phone, is often all it takes.
Reps and drivers can help
Welding distributors have people at customer sites constantly: reps on calls and drivers swapping cylinders. They know the shop owner and the office manager, and a two-minute conversation can unstick an invoice that's been sitting for weeks.
The collections helper shows each rep who owes money and how late, gives a stop-by nudge for accounts on the day's route, and shows the reminder schedule so they know what the customer has already heard.
A simple routine:
- Turn on automatic friendly reminders for every account.
- Send firm reminders only past a threshold you choose.
- Have reps check the collections helper before each route day.
- Use team notes on the invoice so the office and the field see the same history.
Why it matters
Cash stuck in receivables is cash you can't put into wire, hard goods inventory or the next rental fleet of machines. When invoices are easy to find and easy to pay, customers pay sooner, your office spends less time on copies and calls, and your reps help collect without damaging relationships they've spent years building.
It also makes it easier to keep extending terms to the small shops and contractors who need them, because you can see clearly who pays and who doesn't.
Ready to walk through it with your own accounts? Book a demo.