Improve the accounts receivable process: a 30–60 day reset for SMBs

To improve the accounts receivable process in a small business, you need a order of operations. If you start with a software purchase, you will only automate the mess faster. A sane reset is: measure what is open, fix what is wrong with your own documents, define who is allowed to promise what, write a dunning path that matches the contract, then layer tools. This article is that order, in short chapters, for teams that can meet for an hour, not a six-month project program.

Week 1: a truthful aging and exception list (no tools beyond a spreadsheet if needed)

Export or compile open invoices with: customer, amount, original due, current age bucket, and a one-line “why we think it is open” (dispute, AP delay, customer quiet, you forgot to nudge, etc.). If more than 30% of your balance is in “unknown,” the next week is a discovery pass, not a dunning blitz. Clarity is the improvement.

Week 2: two defect hunts—invoices and contract alignment

On the invoice side, sample ten PDFs. Are the PO, entity name, and remittance in the first screen a human sees? On the contract side, sample three active MSAs. Do the payment terms in the invoice match what legal agreed? A mismatch is not a collections problem. It is a deal desk problem, and dunning it harder will not help.

Week 3: owner, promises, and a written cadence (even if manual)

Name a single “AR owner of the week” on a rota if you must, but not “everyone and therefore no one.” Adopt a promise log: when someone says a pay date, it goes in the log, and the person who owns the line checks the bank on that day before another generic reminder. The emotional shift is: we run a list, the list is not a shame stack in someone’s private inbox. Manual invoice chasing vs. automation is the right fork after this is stable in spirit if not in software.

Week 4 onward: only now consider automation, capture, and metrics

When you are confident your outgoing documents are not broken on purpose, you can add automated invoice follow-up, email capture, and a regular DSO check that means the same every month. If you want to reduce time before then, the reduce time on accounts receivable article is the productivity companion, not a substitute for a bad list.