thecoffeepod
Registered User
- Messages
- 261
More of a rant, but I'm just wondering. I work for an accountancy practice where we manage self-employed business owners, and our company does a lot of accounts receivable as part of our service.
The issue is that it involves absolutely so much work in doing the invoicing, !!!!!!! – I don't mind doing the invoicing. However, having to chase our clients' customers in order to figure out when they're getting paid is the part that is exhausting.
We're also being drawn into these third-party portals—whether they're SAP, Ariba, or the like—in setting up our clients' business accounts to facilitate payments and obtain purchase orders. It just seems over the top.
Our clients themselves want to know absolutely nothing about it,!!!! I mean, there is a difference between wanting help but as a busines owner so many dont care and tell us it's 100% OUR job to get their busienss paid???
I can appreciate AR is a task because they're paying for a service, but they genuinely don't lift a finger. We end up getting caught in the middle when trying to help our customers get their invoices paid.
For example, we might have a client who is doing freelance work for an American customer. That American company might turn around and say, "Oh, you need to set your business up on this payment portal," and the request is then simply sent to us to help our client.
We end up getting involved in a lot of tasks where:
We don't have login access.
We are dealing with tech support.!!
We are trying to figure out the payment terms on behalf of our clients.
We are then chasing invoices all of the time (layers and layers of approval processes in multnationals to get invoices paid) and we are the messager to our clients
I appreciate that we are just trying to help our client and that accounts receivable can be a standard service, but it just seems bloody mental & draining..
I was speaking with another particular accountant which operates in a pretty big space. If you Google them, they're pretty much a digital accountant, but I won't name names. They told me that they don't do any accounts receivable, and this was a bit of an eye-opener,
They said they just stick with pure accounting, and their clients have to do everything themselves. They will allow them to create invoices, but their customers have to:
Send their own invoices.
Chase for payment.
Set up their businesses on these portals and the like.
It's just getting frustrating at this point because if there are any delays in payment or anything, it's all being pushed back to us, the accountant, as if it's our fault.
I'm just trying to get a general understanding of how much work are any of the accountants here doing around the accounts receivable side for your customers?
The issue is that it involves absolutely so much work in doing the invoicing, !!!!!!! – I don't mind doing the invoicing. However, having to chase our clients' customers in order to figure out when they're getting paid is the part that is exhausting.
We're also being drawn into these third-party portals—whether they're SAP, Ariba, or the like—in setting up our clients' business accounts to facilitate payments and obtain purchase orders. It just seems over the top.
Our clients themselves want to know absolutely nothing about it,!!!! I mean, there is a difference between wanting help but as a busines owner so many dont care and tell us it's 100% OUR job to get their busienss paid???
I can appreciate AR is a task because they're paying for a service, but they genuinely don't lift a finger. We end up getting caught in the middle when trying to help our customers get their invoices paid.
For example, we might have a client who is doing freelance work for an American customer. That American company might turn around and say, "Oh, you need to set your business up on this payment portal," and the request is then simply sent to us to help our client.
We end up getting involved in a lot of tasks where:
We don't have login access.
We are dealing with tech support.!!
We are trying to figure out the payment terms on behalf of our clients.
We are then chasing invoices all of the time (layers and layers of approval processes in multnationals to get invoices paid) and we are the messager to our clients
I appreciate that we are just trying to help our client and that accounts receivable can be a standard service, but it just seems bloody mental & draining..
I was speaking with another particular accountant which operates in a pretty big space. If you Google them, they're pretty much a digital accountant, but I won't name names. They told me that they don't do any accounts receivable, and this was a bit of an eye-opener,
They said they just stick with pure accounting, and their clients have to do everything themselves. They will allow them to create invoices, but their customers have to:
Send their own invoices.
Chase for payment.
Set up their businesses on these portals and the like.
It's just getting frustrating at this point because if there are any delays in payment or anything, it's all being pushed back to us, the accountant, as if it's our fault.
I'm just trying to get a general understanding of how much work are any of the accountants here doing around the accounts receivable side for your customers?