Want to spend less time chasing invoices and more time growing your business?
Every business owner wants more hours in the day. After all, more time means:
- Better client work
- More room to grow
Here’s the problem:
Admin eats the day alive. According to survey from Time etc, entrepreneurs spend 36% of their week on admin tasks. Over a third of the working week…spent on work that doesn’t expand the business.
If you don’t build systems, the busywork builds up for you.
This blog will discuss the systems that reclaim hours each week. The largest? Automating your dunning process.
Let’s jump in!
Inside This Guide:
- Why Business Owners Run Out Of Time
- What Is Dunning Process Automation?
- 5x Time-Saving Systems That Work
- How To Pick The Right Systems
Why Business Owners Run Out Of Time
Owners don’t typically run out of time because they are lazy. They run out of time because they try to do everything themselves.
Imagine a typical week. You send quotations. You design invoices. You monitor your bank account. You email clients reminding them to pay… And then you email them again.
It adds up fast.
Per the same survey, entrepreneurs average 45.5 hours per week. Throw in a heap of manual tasks after that. Now you’ve got evenings (and weekends) where all of the important work gets crammed.
Late payments make it even worse.
UK government research revealed that 14,000 businesses close each year due to late payments. When factoring in time spent chasing late payments, businesses lose on average 86 hours a year. That’s two whole weeks sighing over “just sending a friendly reminder” emails.
What Is Dunning Process Automation?
Dunning is the act of following up with customers over unpaid invoices. It typically occurs in phases:
- A friendly payment reminder
- A firmer second notice
- A final warning (often with a late fee)
When you automate the dunning process, a software solution manages these tasks for you. The solution keeps track of all deadlines, identifies overdue invoices and automatically issues the appropriate payment reminder when it’s due. No post-it notes. No spreadsheets. No embarrassing phone calls you’ve been putting off.
The most effective dunning process for Swiss companies is one that links automatic payment reminders to invoicing software with QR invoice support, meaning that every reminder includes a scannable QR- bill which allows customers to pay from their banking app in seconds. If you make paying overdue invoices this simple, they won’t linger and your dunning process will often end after step 1.
Pretty cool, right?
Now let’s look at the full set of systems…
5x Time-Saving Systems That Work
Choose one or two systems. Implement them well. Move on to the next system. That’s how you scale a business without scaling yourself.
Automate Your Dunning Process
This is the biggest time-saver on the list…
Reasons why: It’s repetitive, stressful and easy to forget to chase payments. Automation solves all of these problems at once.
Set up your reminder schedule once. For example:
- 3 days late: a friendly reminder
- 14 days late: a second notice
- 30 days late: a final notice
The software handles the rest. It also maintains a tidy log of every reminder issued, which is useful if you ever decide to escalate.
And the coolest thing? Reminders don’t hurt your client relationships because they seem official rather than personal.
Use Invoice Templates
How long does it take you to create an invoice from scratch?
If it takes you longer than two minutes, you need templates. Create a template for every different service/product you offer. Include payment terms, bank info and due date.
All you have to do then is alter the client name and dollar amount. Easy peasy right?
Connect Your Bank Feed
Manual bank matching is arguably one of the most tedious tasks in business. You pull up a payment…. locate the invoice…. mark it as paid.
A bank feed allows you to link your bank account to your accounting software. Payments are automatically matched to invoices. And the dunning process will cease for that customer once an invoice has been marked as paid.
No more sending reminders to people who already paid (which is embarrassing for everyone).
Schedule Your Recurring Tasks
Do you send the same invoices every month?
Retainer clients, subscriptions and rental agreements can all be automated. Schedule recurring invoices once and they will be sent each month on the same day automatically.
You can also schedule:
- Monthly reports
- Payroll runs
- Supplier payments
That’s hours saved every single month.
Build A Simple Weekly Review
Automation is powerful… but it still needs a quick check-in.
Block out 30 minutes every Friday to analyze your numbers. See which invoices are overdue, which reminders were sent and which clients may require a phone call. This simple practice allows you to stay on top of things without throwing you back into fire-fighting mode.
How To Pick The Right Systems
Not all tools are ideal for every business. Before you register for anything, ask yourself these three questions.
Does it solve a real problem? Begin with the time-consuming task. For most owners, it will be invoicing/follow-up.
Does it support local formats? Formats differ between countries when it comes to taxation and payments. QR-bills replaced the traditional orange / red payment slips throughout Switzerland in 2022. Your tools should enable your customers’ preferred formats.
How easy is it to use? If it takes too much effort, no one will use it. Seek a clean installation, free trial and adequate support.
Truthfully, you don’t need ten tools. Just two or three strong ones.
Getting Your Time Back
There’s only one thing you cannot buy more of as a business owner: time. However, you can stop wasting it.
Late payments cost the UK economy nearly £11 billion a year and chasing them up manually is a large part of the problem. Effective systems can solve this. But first, a quick recap:
- Automate your dunning process
- Use invoice templates
- Connect your bank feed
- Schedule your recurring tasks
- Review your numbers every week
Begin with automating your dunning process. It will help you get paid on time and recover hours each week. Then layer in the other systems one at a time…
…and get back to the work that actually matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is dunning process automation?
Automated dunning is software that automatically mails out overdue invoices on your behalf. It is scheduled, so no invoice goes unnoticed.
Will automated reminders upset your clients?
Rarely. Automated reminders sound scripted and courteous. Clients usually pay when reminded and you don’t have uncomfortable conversations.
How much time can automation save?
This depends on the nature of your business. However if you are manually chasing payments each week, automation can save you many hours per month to focus on higher value tasks.