Bill Collector In A Box Advises Entrepreneurs How To Get Paid

July 31, 2007; 05:49 AM
Chasing down a debtor who is long overdue in settling a past-due invoice is a time-consuming and frustrating aspect of running a small or medium-size business. But what many business owners may not realize is that the procedures they put in place before they even conduct a credit transaction can make it easier to settle a past-due account down the road.

"By obtaining the proper information upfront--before any credit terms are agreed to--business owners can avoid unnecessary effort and expense later, especially if the customer is unwilling to pay or is trying to avoid attempts to be contacted," says Ryon Gambill, a collections professional and CEO of Marauder Corp., the company that designed Bill Collector In A Box™ to help entrepreneurs and business owners collect past-due invoices.

To reduce the need for collections measures, Gambill advises entrepreneurs and business owners to implement the following policies into their invoicing and billing procedures:

- Collect personal and business references, including name and telephone number and the reference's relationship to the customer.
- Do not accept post-office boxes or private mail boxes as ship-to or billing addresses; be certain that you have the actual street address of the business.
- Obtain home, cell and work telephone numbers from your customer.
- If it is a business account, ask if they use purchase orders. If they do, record the purchase order number on every invoice.
- If you are extending credit to a business, get a personal guarantee from the owner.
- When dealing with someone who is not an owner of the business, make certain that the person is authorized to conduct business on behalf of the company.
- Ask for and verify bank and credit references before the first sale. If possible, and with the proper authorization, run a credit report. This will indicate how they have previously handled their financial obligations.

To help businesses deal with past-due invoices, Gambill's company recently launched Bill Collector In A Box , a comprehensive billing and debt-collection software application designed by collection agency professionals. Bill Collector In A Box centralizes the management of past-due accounts, from initial contact to resolution of the outstanding invoice. For businesses that already have debt-collection problems, the software pays for itself within months. Bill Collector In A Box runs on Windows PCs and complements popular accounting and personal-finance software such as Quicken®, QuickBooks®, Microsoft® Money and Microsoft® Accounting Professional.

Bill Collector In A Box enables business owners to easily perform and every phase of debt collection:

- Automatic printing of professional, legal debt-collection letters that comply with state and federal laws. The software automatically schedules follow-up letters and provides reminders of the next steps to be taken with each debtor.
- Credit bureau reporting. Reporting a bad debt to a credit bureau is an effective way to convince debtors that they need to quickly settle their invoices. With one click, Bill Collector In A Box reports a bad debt to the major credit bureaus.
- Skip Tracing. If a debtor has left town with no forwarding address, Bill Collector In A Box lets a business owner engage a professional investigator who will track down the debtor. 25 basic skip traces and 1 advanced skip trace are included with the software.
- Processing of credit card and ACH transactions to enable fast settlement of invoices.
- Comprehensive report generation as well as importing and exporting of .CSV files to and from popular accounting software programs.
- Technical support, including an initial familiarization walk-through of the software, is included.

"Small business owners frequently deal with chronic late payment and bad debt issues, and this costs their business time and money," says Gambill. "We designed Bill Collector In A Box so that small-business owners can take the right steps to resolve past-due accounts, and turn debts into revenue."

Bill Collector In A Box lists for $99 and is available at Amazon.com, Fry's Electronics, J&R Electronics, Micro Center, OfficeDepot.com, PCnation.com, and Shopblt.com.

About Marauder
Marauder Corporation designed and developed Bill Collector In A Box for small to medium-sized businesses. Marauder is one of the nation's leading collections agencies and specializes in small and medium-sized businesses. Its management team has more than 50 years of combined experience and services the collection needs of thousands and companies, coast to coast. For more information, visit www.billcollectorinabox.com or call 1-800-650-5118.