Office Products Depot, meant I was able to identify the accounts receivable subsystem they used and their accounts receivable management. I focused on their policies for the offering and checking of credit, managing credit levels, charging the credit customers, receiving payment from credit customers and the general management of credit customers. I will be using the information from the interview with Colic as well as information from fictitious accounts receivable to explain their policies.
When Office Products Depot decides to potentially offer credit to a customer, they check credit ratings and follow policies to help them decide if they should allow use of credit. Office Products Depot offers credit to a lot of their customers, as only 3% of their sales are cash. This means that allowing customers to purchase on credit greatly increase sales and therefore profits, that is, only when the customers pay them for their goods.
Therefore, when offering credit to its customers, Office Products Depot first checks the credit rating of the customer to identify if the customer will pay or goods they have purchased, and if they are likely to get their payment. This credit check will look at the customer’s previous transactions and payments, and also if they have any existing bad debts. For new small businesses wanting credit, a preprinted form is given to them to fill out to apply for credit. However for large companies, such as Trust Power, they are referred to a manager.
For example, a manager would be allocated to communicate with Mount Managing College, as they have an existing account balance of $12,000. Whereas, United Ltd is a new customer, with a balance of $230. Therefore they communicate with a normal salesperson. By allocating these managers to negotiate directly with these large companies, Office Products Depot is able to create a personal relationship with these businesses, improving their experience with Office Products Depot. By providing this close contact, Office Products Depot is able to better retain a large customer base.
Credit limits are set to manage the spending of their customers, this way Office Products Depot can ensure that customers aren’t purchasing too many goods. This means that if the customer is unable to pay their account Office Products Depot loses ay $2000 (a company’s credit limit) rather than $10000. To set these credit limits, Office Products Depot estimates the amount of money they estimate the customer will spend over a two month period. This number is then rounded to the nearest $500 to make recording credit limits easier.
Customer payment of money owed is managed by the same salesperson that the customer first dealt with, as they receive commission based on money received by their particular customers. The salesperson is often in direct contact with the customer to make sure the credit is being paid off. However, sometimes the credit limit of a particular customer can be increased, if they have paid well in the past. An example of this is Jones Stationery, who is $300 over Informative Speech Outline About Music By Shallowly send a separate tax invoice for each provided service.
This makes the customer more aware of the each individual charge. Monthly statements are also sent out swell. Refunds and reductions are also given occasionally to customers, to maintain a good relationship, and fix incorrectly recorded charges. An example of this Office Products Depot correcting the charge of $520 which was incorrectly recorded into Mount Managing College’s account. Office Products Depot will usually send out invoices once a month. However, more invoices will be sent if the customer is not paying or if they claim that they didn’t receive the original invoice.
These invoices are sent out electronically to each customer, as it makes it easier to manage transactions rather than doing it manually. Office Products Depot can only hope that the customer will pay, they cannot physically force the customer to pay, as it will result in a loss of business. This keeps the customer happy with the business as they are not being pestered to pay. By improving this relationship with each particular customer, it makes them more likely to pay on time, and more likely to buy from Office Products Depot in the future.
Payments by direct debit are recorded every morning on electronic bank statements. These payments are then checked with the customer’s account to ensure that the correct amount has been received. Cash and EFFETE payments are reconciled with the account of the customer at the end of the business day, to ensure that all is correct. However, cheeses go straight into the account before they are checked by the bank. This allows some businesses to take advantage of the processing time while the banks authorities the queue, by providing an invalid queue to pay for their account.
If a customer chooses to return any products, Office Products Depot issues a credit note to that particular customer for the return of the goods purchased. The return will be recorded electronically and in the debtors ledger, individual debtor cards and all invoices recorded on ledger cards. These are then all checked to ensure that they show the correct amounts. Previously, Office Products Depot also offered a discount to customers who paid promptly. However, some customers took advantage of this discount even when it was not available to them, and so the policy was removed as it was too difficult to reconcile with the accounts.
When dealing with customers whose payments are late or overdue, Office Products Depot does not have a policy in place which specifies a late or overdue fee. This is to keep the customer happy and maintain a friendly relationship. When managing customer accounts, Office Products Depot has a subsidiary ledger or each customer. This helps keep an accurate and simple record of their accounts receivable. However, at this point, a glitch with their computer software means they are unable to reconcile their customer’s accounts receivable subsidiary with their regular accounts receivable.
Office Products Depot prepares aged debtors reports for each account to keep track of money the customer owes. The sales representative involved with that particular customer has the responsibility of insuring that that any late fees are paid. This is because the sales representative receives commission on heir sales. This process is effective for managing credit accounts as it separates out payments or bad debts, Office Products Depot tries to work with the customer to try to reduce the amount owing.
One method of this is to schedule small payments over a period of time to reduce the account balance. Office Products Depot does not employ debt collectors, as they believe it is not worth chasing their customers around because sometimes the reason customers cannot pay their debts is because they are bankrupt. Occasionally, Office Products Depot do write off accounts as bad debts. However, this action is very rare as they will first try every other possible alternative to work with the customer.
An example of this is Office Products Depot only writing off Charles Motors Ltd after four months. In my opinion, Office Products Depot’s policies are both helpful for them and their customers when it comes to the management of their accounts receivable. Their use of a light enforcement involving overdue accounts and attempts to create better interactions with customers serves them well, as they are able to both attain and maintain a large customer base due to their positive relationships with customers.
