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Plain answers for business owners, office managers, and billing staff deciding what to do about an account that has not paid. Each post answers one question, directly, in the first few sentences, then gives the detail.
The answers come from the team at Accounts Receivable, a nationwide commercial and consumer collection agency based in Orlando, Florida, with more than 30 years in collections, a network of more than 500 collection and litigation attorneys, and more than 30,000 clients served. Every account we take is on the same terms: no recovery, no fee.
The decisions that come up before an account is placed: cost, timing, what to send, what happens next.
Most collection agencies work on contingency: a percentage of what they recover and nothing up front. What sets the percentage, what you should never be charged, and what to ask before you sign.
Read the answerThe best window for placing a past-due account is 60 to 90 days. Why waiting costs you money, the signs an account will not pay on its own, and what to do before you place it.
Read the answerCommercial collection is business against business; consumer collection is a personal debt owed by an individual. The legal rules differ, and so does the approach. How to tell which one you have.
Read the answerYes. Old accounts are placed and collected regularly, with lower odds than a fresh one. What age does to a debt, where the statute of limitations fits, and why placing it now costs nothing.
Read the answerPlacement, notice, daily contact and demand letters, attorney involvement, and your decision on litigation. The three-phase process at Accounts Receivable, step by step, and what we need from you along the way.
Read the answerNo recovery, no fee means the agency is paid only out of money it actually collects. What the arrangement covers, what it does not, and what to ask any agency that offers it.
Read the answerA collection agency is the first move for most unpaid invoices. Small claims fits small, local balances you can enforce yourself. A lawyer fits large or disputed claims. How to pick, and why the options are not exclusive.
Read the answerThe debtor's name and contact information, the exact balance, and the date it came due are enough to start. The documents that strengthen a claim, and why you should not wait until you have all of them.
Read the answerThe average claim at Accounts Receivable is collected in 14 to 21 days. What a typical timeline looks like, what speeds an account up, what slows it down, and when you get the money.
Read the answerYes. A nationwide agency pursues debtors anywhere in the country, and when legal pressure is needed the file goes to an attorney in the debtor's own jurisdiction. How out-of-state and international accounts are handled.
Read the answerThe accounts that go bad in your line of work, the tactics customers use to avoid paying, and how we collect them.
Brokers that stop answering, double-brokered loads, denied detention, recourse invoices. How carriers get stiffed, the warning signs, and how a collection agency recovers freight bills nationwide on contingency.
Read the answerShippers that pay net-never, abandoned inventory, refused demurrage and per diem, duties advanced and never reimbursed. How logistics companies get stiffed and how a collection agency recovers it, in the U.S. and abroad.
Read the answerUnauthorized deductions, retailer chargebacks, quality disputes raised after the goods were used, distributors that go dark or reopen under a new name. How manufacturers get stiffed and how a collection agency recovers it.
Read the answerRetainage held hostage over punch lists, verbal change orders disputed, pay-if-paid clauses, back-charges, lien windows that close. How contractors, subs, and suppliers get stiffed and how a collection agency recovers it.
Read the answerDeductibles patients assumed insurance covered, wrong insurance at intake, abandoned payment plans, elective work disputed after the fact. How practices lose patient revenue and how a collection agency recovers it while protecting the patient relationship.
Read the answerSkipped leases, damage beyond the deposit, tenants with no forwarding address, eviction judgments that were never paid. How landlords and property managers lose money and how a collection agency recovers it.
Read the answerThe customer who disputes the job after it is done, the chargeback, the insurance check the homeowner kept, the property manager who pays net-never. How home service companies get stiffed and how a collection agency recovers it.
Read the answerBackdoor hires, conversion fees dodged with a short gap, approved timesheets disputed after the fact, clients that fold after you made payroll. How staffing agencies get stiffed and how a collection agency recovers it.
Read the answerClients who ghost after delivery, dispute the results instead of the work, stretch the scope and refuse the extra, or leave the last two invoices behind when they switch vendors. How service firms get stiffed and how a collection agency recovers it.
Read the answerThe slow-pay squeeze, the late dispute, the short-pay, the chargeback, the bounced check, the new-name trick, the vanishing debtor. The ten most common ways businesses lose money to customers who do not pay, what each looks like, and what to do.
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