Outsourced ControllerInvoices and collections, kept on a steady rhythm
You're looking for a way to stop finding unpaid invoices months after the work was done. Tax CFO Steven Palmieri leads this work, and Steven and his team keep receivables on a steady rhythm, so that nothing owed to you sits unnoticed. The method is plain and it doesn't depend on anyone remembering.
Ask about follow-ups
The path an invoice takes
An invoice should be sent soon after the work, with clear terms on it. It should be recorded the day it goes out. After that, it sits on a list of what customers owe until the money arrives and is matched to it. Each of those steps is small. Skipping any one of them is how a balance goes missing.
Clear terms matter more than owners expect. A customer who knows the due date and the method of payment tends to pay on time. A customer handed a vague invoice has nothing to be late against.
The aging report in plain words
An aging report sorts what customers owe by how long it's been. Current means not yet due. The next groups are usually 30, 60 and 90 days past. You read it from the right. The oldest column is where the trouble sits, and the number next to a customer's name tells you whether to send a gentle note or make a call.
We look at it every month after the close. Anything moving into an older column gets a note about what happens next.
A follow-up rhythm you choose
Reminders work when they're scheduled. You choose the rhythm, and we write it down. A friendly note the day after the due date. A second note a week later. A phone call at the end of a month. Whatever suits your customers and your style.
What matters is that the rhythm exists on paper. Then a reminder goes out whether or not you've had a hectic week.
Matching payments to the right invoice
When a customer pays, the payment should be applied to the invoice it covers. Mismatches create two kinds of mistakes. A paid invoice still shows as owed, so you chase someone who already paid. Or a payment sits unapplied, so an old invoice looks late when it isn't. We check for both during the close.
When a balance probably won't be collected
Some old balances aren't coming in. The honest move is to decide that on purpose. You look at the balance, you talk about what's been tried, and you choose to write it off or keep working it. Then the books say so. What shouldn't happen is leaving a balance in the aging report for three years because nobody wanted to make the call.
Records of what you sold and what you were paid are part of what the IRS expects every business to keep, so the trail from invoice to payment stays useful on both sides. The records page covers that file.
What this page leaves out
Slow payers can strain cash, but this page isn't about managing cash timing. It's about making sure that invoices go out, get followed and get closed, which is part of what an outsourced controller does each month. That keeps your receivables honest, which is the base for any cash decision.
On the calendar. The one recurring check this page adds is a monthly look at the oldest column of the aging report, with a note beside each balance saying who will follow up and by when.
Each old balance gets a person and a follow-up date, not only a count of days.