How to Improve Billing & Collections

A company with billing and collections procedures must maintain awareness concerning operations. Billing problems may arise when inaccurate information is recorded, which can slow down collection attempts. Evaluating the weak points in billing and collections can help improve fairness and efficiency and prevent revenue loss while safeguarding against liability cases based on unfair billing practices.

Instructions

1. Create consistent and fair collections. You can consolidate the collections process into a special unit to maintain consistency and discover compliance problems. Consider hiring a private vendor to outsource collections until you can streamline your in-house collections department.

2. Map out the process with which your billing staff conducts operations. Document procedures to find out who is responsible for which aspect and when each part of the operation happens. In this manner you can discover any deficiencies whenever billing forms pass between departments and if there is any lack of appropriate communications. Outline all receivables including insurance claims, rebates, damage claims and service fees.

3. Develop an amnesty program for collecting past due fees. Make the collections procedures publicly available so customers will take advantage of the program when they believe such a program will not happen again for several years. State that stricter regulations will be put into place after the amnesty to encourage people to apply for the program while the opportunity lasts.

References

• Government Finance Officers Association: Fiscal First Aid
• U.S Government Accountability Office: Military Treatment Facilities: Improvements Needed to Increase DOD Third-Party Collections