The billing process is one of the most critical touchpoints you have with your clients, yet it’s often the most overlooked. A confusing invoice, a clunky payment portal, or an awkward follow-up call can quickly sour an otherwise great client relationship. When getting you paid is a hassle, it creates friction and undermines the professional trust you’ve worked so hard to build. This is where efficient receivables management becomes a tool for client retention. By creating a clear, professional, and seamless payment experience, you reinforce the value of your services. It shows clients you respect their time and run a tight ship, turning a potential point of conflict into a positive interaction that strengthens loyalty.

Key Takeaways

• Make Your Agreement Your Collection Tool: Prevent late payments by requiring clients to connect their payment method when they sign your proposal. This simple step turns your engagement letter into an automated payment agreement, ensuring you get paid on time without the awkward follow-up.
• Connect Your Entire Billing Workflow: True efficiency isn't just about automated invoices; it's about linking every step. A system that connects proposals directly to billing and payments eliminates manual work, prevents costly errors, and creates a predictable cash flow you can rely on.
• Use Real-Time Data to Steer Your Firm: Stop relying on gut feelings to gauge your financial health. An analytics dashboard gives you a clear, immediate view of key metrics like DSO and cash flow forecasts, empowering you to manage risk and make confident decisions for growth.

What is Receivables Management?

Let’s be honest, managing accounts receivable (AR) is probably not the part of your business that gets you excited to wake up in the morning. But getting it right is fundamental to your firm’s health. Simply put, receivables management is the entire process of ensuring your clients pay you for your services. It starts the moment you issue an invoice and ends only when the cash is in your bank account. A solid AR management process isn't about aggressively chasing down payments; it's about creating a smooth, professional system that gets you paid on time, every time, without damaging client relationships.

When you have a clear and consistent approach, you remove the guesswork and anxiety for both you and your clients. It sets a professional tone and shows that you value your own work and time. Ultimately, great receivables management transforms a tedious administrative task into a strategic asset that gives you control over your firm’s financial destiny. It’s less about collections and more about connection—building trust through transparency and making it easy for clients to pay you for the great work you do.

Why It Matters for Your Firm's Growth

Think of your accounts receivable as the fuel for your firm's engine. When that fuel is locked up in unpaid invoices, you can't accelerate. Effective AR management directly impacts your ability to grow because it ensures you have the capital to invest in new talent, better technology, or marketing efforts to attract more clients. When your financial operations are efficient and accurate, you have a clear picture of your financial health. This clarity allows you to make strategic decisions with confidence, turning your billing process from a reactive chore into a proactive tool for sustainable business growth.

Get a Grip on Your Cash Flow

Profit on a spreadsheet and cash in the bank are two very different things. You can be incredibly profitable on paper but still struggle to make payroll if your clients are slow to pay. This is where receivables management becomes critical for your day-to-day survival. Managing your AR process efficiently gives your company the healthy cash flow it needs to cover operational costs and handle unexpected expenses without stress. It transforms your revenue from a number in your accounting software into actual money you can use to run and improve your business. Proactive management means you’re in control, not waiting and wondering when you’ll get paid.

Common Collection Headaches

If you’ve ever felt that awkward tension before making a follow-up call about a late invoice, you’re not alone. The headaches that come with collections are universal. Surprisingly, many late payments aren’t due to clients trying to avoid paying you. More often, they stem from confusing invoices, payments getting lost in a cluttered inbox, or a simple lack of a clear payment process. Then there are the client disputes over billing, which can strain relationships and consume hours of your time. Establishing a clear process for handling disputes and streamlining your invoicing can eliminate most of these frustrations before they even start.

The Building Blocks of an Efficient Collections Process

Let’s be honest: chasing down late payments is probably the least favorite part of your job. It’s awkward, time-consuming, and stressful. But what if you could build a collections process so smooth and efficient that late payments become the exception, not the rule? It’s not about being stricter or chasing harder; it’s about laying a solid foundation that makes getting paid on time the natural outcome of every client engagement.

Think of it like building a house. You wouldn’t start putting up walls without a solid foundation, right? The same goes for your firm’s financial health. A strong collections process is built on a few core principles: clarity, consistency, and convenience. When you get these building blocks right, you create a system that works for you, not against you. You’ll spend less time wondering when you’ll get paid and more time doing the work you love. This isn’t just about improving cash flow; it’s about creating better client relationships and giving yourself the peace of mind you deserve.

Set Clear Payment Terms and Policies

The best way to avoid payment misunderstandings is to prevent them from happening in the first place. This starts with setting crystal-clear payment terms from day one. Your engagement letter or proposal should explicitly state your due dates, the payment methods you accept, and any consequences for late payments. According to experts in accounts receivable management, this clarity is essential for ensuring clients know exactly what’s expected.

When terms are buried in a dense PDF, they’re easy to ignore. Instead, make them a core part of your agreement. Tools that embed payment terms into an interactive proposal ensure your client sees and agrees to them before the work even begins. This simple step transforms your terms from a suggestion into a shared agreement, setting a professional tone for the entire relationship.

Standardize Your Invoicing System

If your invoicing process involves manually creating a document, attaching it to an email, and hoping for the best, you’re leaving money on the table. Manual invoicing is prone to human error—typos, incorrect amounts, or even forgetting to send the invoice altogether. These small mistakes can cause significant payment delays and damage your professional image. A standardized system is your best defense against these common pitfalls.

By automating your invoicing, you ensure that accurate bills go out on time, every time. When an invoice is automatically generated and sent based on the terms in your signed agreement, there’s no room for error or delay. This consistency not only speeds up your cash flow but also shows clients that you run a tight ship. It’s a simple change that makes a world of difference in how quickly and reliably you get paid.

Establish a Credit Management Framework

Extending services before payment is a form of extending credit, and it comes with risks. While you want to trust your clients, it’s smart to have a simple framework for managing that risk. This doesn’t mean you need to run a formal credit check on every small client. However, for larger projects or new clients, having a process to vet them can save you major headaches down the road.

Implementing a credit management framework can be as simple as asking for professional references or setting up a tiered payment schedule for new engagements. The goal is to protect your firm from taking on a significant financial risk without any safeguards. It’s a proactive step that helps you partner with clients who value and respect your work—and are prepared to pay for it.

Offer Digital Payment Options

How easy do you make it for your clients to pay you? If you’re still relying on paper checks, you’re likely slowing down your own cash flow. In a world where we can pay for almost anything with a tap, clients expect the same convenience from professional services. Offering a variety of digital payment options is one of the easiest ways to improve your collections process.

Providing options like free ACH transfers or credit card payments removes friction and makes paying your invoice a simple, two-minute task instead of a chore. Better yet, platforms like Anchor allow clients to connect their preferred payment method upfront when they sign your proposal. This means payments can be processed automatically on the due date, ensuring you get paid on time without anyone having to lift a finger.

How to Automate Your Receivables Process

Let’s be honest, chasing down payments is probably not why you started your firm. It’s a time-consuming, often awkward process that pulls you away from the client work you actually enjoy. The good news? You can get off the collections hamster wheel. Automating your receivables process isn't just about getting paid faster; it's about fundamentally changing how you manage client relationships and your firm's financial health. It’s about moving from a reactive state of following up on late invoices to a proactive system where payments happen automatically, exactly when they’re supposed to.

By setting up an automated workflow, you create a seamless experience for both you and your clients. Imagine a world where proposals turn into signed agreements, invoices are generated without you lifting a finger, and payments are collected on schedule, every time. This isn't a far-off dream; it's what modern billing automation platforms are built for. This shift frees up your time, reduces the mental load of tracking who owes what, and gives you a clear, real-time picture of your cash flow. It transforms billing from a necessary evil into a smooth, professional, and predictable part of your business operations.

The Benefits of Automating Your Workflow

The biggest and most immediate benefit of automation is getting your time back. Think about all the hours spent creating and sending invoices, tracking payments, and following up. Automating your accounts receivable can slash the time you spend on collections by as much as 80%. But it’s not just about efficiency. Automation introduces a level of precision that manual processes can’t match. Using technology for tasks like invoicing and payment collection not only saves time but also reduces costly errors and strengthens your cash flow. This means you can spend less time on administrative headaches and more time delivering amazing service to your clients.

Choose the Right Payment Integrations

Making it easy for clients to pay you is a non-negotiable. If a client has to jump through hoops, find their checkbook, or navigate a clunky portal, you’re just adding friction to the process. The solution is to offer flexible, modern payment options. By integrating systems that accept both ACH transfers and credit cards, you cater to your clients' preferences and make the payment step completely painless. Modern billing platforms, like Anchor, take this a step further by having clients connect their payment method upfront when they sign your agreement. This simple step ensures you’re in control and that payments happen automatically, without any action needed from the client.

Define Your Client Communication

Clear communication is the bedrock of a healthy client relationship, especially when it comes to money. But great communication doesn’t have to mean sending endless reminders. With an automated system, the most important communication happens at the beginning. It’s all about setting crystal-clear expectations in your proposal and engagement letter. When your agreement outlines the scope, billing schedule, and payment terms, and the client agrees to them with their payment method on file, you eliminate the need for awkward follow-ups. The system takes over, sending invoices and processing payments based on the terms you both agreed to, creating a transparent and professional experience from day one.

Use a Real-Time Analytics Dashboard

Are you making decisions based on gut feelings or hard data? An automated receivables process gives you access to powerful analytics that can transform how you run your firm. Instead of digging through spreadsheets to figure out your financial position, a real-time dashboard gives you an at-a-glance view of your business's health. You can monitor key metrics like your Collection Effectiveness Index, track projected revenue, and get an accurate forecast of your cash flow. This isn't just about looking at past performance; it's about having the foresight to make smarter, data-driven decisions for the future with confidence.

The Right Tech for Smarter Collections

Let’s be honest: chasing payments is nobody’s favorite job. It’s time-consuming, awkward, and takes you away from the client work you actually want to be doing. The right technology isn’t about adding more complicated software to your plate. It’s about finding smart, automated solutions that handle the entire collections process for you, from the initial agreement to the final payment. When your tech works for you, you can get paid faster, eliminate manual errors, and build a more predictable cash flow for your firm. It’s time to move beyond spreadsheets and static PDFs and embrace tools that make getting paid simple and certain.

Use Interactive Digital Proposals

Think about the last time you sent a proposal. You probably emailed a PDF, waited for the client to print, sign, and scan it back, and then followed up to get their payment information. Each step is a potential delay. Interactive digital proposals change the game entirely. Instead of a static document, you send a dynamic, professional agreement that clients can approve with a click. The best part? They can connect their payment method right then and there. This simple change transforms a weeks-long back-and-forth into a single, seamless action. Anchor’s interactive proposals, for example, create an e-commerce-like experience that helps get contracts signed and secured in less than a day.

Implement Automated Invoicing

Manually creating and sending invoices is a recipe for mistakes and wasted hours. You might enter the wrong amount, forget a line item, or simply send it late, which only delays your payment further. Automating your invoicing process is one of the most effective ways to improve your cash flow. Once a client signs an agreement, the system should take over, automatically generating and issuing invoices based on the agreed-upon schedule. This ensures every bill is accurate and on time, without you having to lift a finger. This level of automation saves time, reduces human error, and lets you focus on serving your clients instead of chasing paperwork.

Find the Best Payment Processing Tools

If you want to get paid on time, you have to make it incredibly easy for your clients to pay you. Relying on paper checks is a thing of the past. Modern firms need to offer flexible, digital payment options. Look for a platform that supports both free ACH transfers and credit card payments. This gives your clients the convenience they expect. Even better, some tools allow you to automatically pass the credit card transaction fees to the client, so you don't have to sacrifice your revenue for convenience. A smooth payment process removes friction and ensures that money flows into your account without unnecessary hurdles or delays.

Prioritize Data Security

When you’re handling your clients’ financial information, trust is everything. Adopting new technology for billing and payments means you are responsible for protecting that sensitive data. Make sure any tool you use is built with robust security measures to safeguard client information and maintain compliance. This isn’t just about protecting your clients; it’s about protecting your firm’s reputation. Strong data security also ensures that your own financial reporting is accurate and reliable, giving you a clear and trustworthy view of your firm’s health. For more guidance, the Federal Trade Commission offers great resources on protecting small businesses and securing sensitive data.

How to Manage Risk in Your Receivables

Let’s be honest: managing receivables isn’t just about sending invoices and cashing checks. It’s also about playing defense. Every time you extend credit to a client, you’re taking on a little bit of risk. The good news is that you don’t have to leave it all to chance. With a few smart strategies, you can protect your firm from common pitfalls like late payments, disputes, and even fraud, all while keeping your client relationships strong.

Think of risk management as the guardrails on the highway to healthy cash flow. It’s not about being pessimistic; it’s about being prepared. By proactively assessing who you’re working with, securing your payment processes, and having a clear plan for when things don’t go as expected, you build a more resilient business. This allows you to focus on what you do best—serving your clients—instead of worrying about whether you’ll get paid for your hard work. A solid risk management strategy transforms your billing from a source of stress into a predictable, stable foundation for growth.

Assess Client Credit Risk

Before you even draft a proposal, it’s wise to get a sense of a client’s ability to pay. For some businesses, this might mean running formal credit checks. But for most service firms, a more practical approach is to build payment security directly into your engagement process. Instead of just hoping a client will pay on time, you can ensure they’re committed from day one.

A great way to do this is by requiring clients to connect a payment method when they sign your agreement. This simple step shifts the dynamic entirely. It’s a clear signal of their intent and ability to pay, and it puts you in control of the payment schedule. Platforms like Anchor bake this into their digital proposals, making it a seamless part of the onboarding experience. This modern approach helps you assess a client's ability to pay without the administrative hassle of a traditional credit deep-dive.

Prevent Payment Fraud

In a world of increasingly sophisticated scams, protecting your firm and your clients from payment fraud is non-negotiable. Manual invoicing and payment processes, with their multiple touchpoints and potential for human error, can leave you vulnerable. Every manually created invoice or emailed PDF is a potential opening for mistakes or interception.

Automating your workflow is one of the most effective ways to tighten security. When your invoices and payments are triggered automatically based on a signed digital agreement, you significantly reduce the risk of error and fraud. Using a secure, closed-loop system ensures that payments are processed according to the exact terms your client agreed to. This not only saves time but also creates a transparent and secure payment environment that builds client trust and protects your firm’s financial integrity.

Handle Disputes Gracefully

Even with the best clients, disagreements can happen. Scope creep, misunderstandings about deliverables, or questions about an invoice can lead to payment delays. The key to navigating these situations is to have a clear, documented process that everyone can refer to. When terms are vague or buried in a long PDF, it’s easy for disputes to escalate.

This is where having a single source of truth becomes invaluable. An interactive digital agreement that clearly outlines the scope of work, deliverables, and payment terms is your best defense. If a client’s needs change, you can use tools with one-click amendments to update the agreement in real-time, ensuring both parties are always on the same page. This transparency minimizes confusion and provides a clear, agreed-upon foundation for resolving any issues quickly and professionally, preserving the client relationship.

Protect Your Hard-Earned Revenue

Revenue leakage—the quiet loss of income from unbilled work, small write-offs, or inconsistent invoicing—can be a silent killer for service firms. It might only be a few percentage points, but it adds up over time, eating into your profits and limiting your growth potential. Protecting your revenue isn’t just about chasing down huge, overdue invoices; it’s about plugging the tiny leaks in your billing cycle.

Good accounts receivable management is directly tied to your firm’s financial health. When you get paid quickly and reliably, you have the cash flow to invest in your team, technology, and growth. Automating your billing process based on client agreements ensures that every billable service is invoiced and paid for precisely as planned. This systematic approach can dramatically reduce revenue leakage, ensuring the money you’ve earned actually makes it to your bank account.

How to Measure Your Collection Performance

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. If you’re relying on a gut feeling to gauge your firm’s financial health, you’re likely leaving money on the table. Tracking a few key performance indicators (KPIs) gives you a clear, objective look at how well your collections process is working. It helps you spot issues before they become major problems and shows you exactly where your strategies are paying off. Think of these metrics as your firm’s financial dashboard—they give you the control and confidence to make smarter decisions.

Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

Your Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) tells you the average number of days it takes to get paid after you’ve completed your work. To put it simply, it’s your invoice-to-cash timeline. You’re aiming for a low DSO, since it means cash is flowing into your business quickly and reliably. According to Allianz Trade, "DSO is a critical metric that indicates the average number of days it takes for a company to collect payment after a sale has been made." A high DSO can signal issues with your invoicing process or client payment habits. By automating your billing with tools that secure payment methods upfront, you can significantly reduce your DSO and spend less time waiting for revenue to hit your account.

Accounts Receivable Turnover

The Accounts Receivable (AR) Turnover ratio shows how efficiently your firm collects on its invoices over a specific period. As City National Bank notes, this ratio "measures how effectively a company collects its receivables." A higher ratio is a great sign—it means you’re turning your receivables into cash multiple times a year, which points to an efficient collections process and high-quality clients. A low ratio, on the other hand, might suggest it’s time to re-evaluate your credit policies or invoicing workflow. Regularly tracking your AR turnover helps you maintain a healthy cash flow and ensures your accounts receivable management is on the right track.

Collection Effectiveness Index

While DSO and AR turnover are great, the Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI) offers a more nuanced view of your performance. This metric compares how much you collected during a period to the total amount that was available for you to collect. It gives you a percentage that reflects how successful your efforts were. A CEI close to 100% indicates your team is doing an excellent job, while a lower score highlights that there’s money being left on the table. Using the CEI as a tool helps you assess your strategies and pinpoint exactly where improvements can be made to capture more of your hard-earned revenue.

Cash Flow Forecasting

Measuring past performance is important, but using that data to predict the future is where the real power lies. Effective cash flow forecasting helps you anticipate your firm’s financial position in the weeks and months ahead. By analyzing your payment patterns and collection data, you can make more informed strategic decisions about hiring, expansion, and investments. As experts at Stripe point out, strong accounts receivable management best practices are built on this kind of data analysis. Using a dashboard with real-time revenue projections transforms forecasting from a guessing game into a reliable business planning tool, giving you a clear view of the road ahead.

Simple Ways to Optimize Your Process

Optimizing your receivables process doesn't have to mean a complete, ground-up overhaul that disrupts your entire firm. Often, the most significant improvements come from making small, intentional tweaks to your existing workflow. It’s about looking at what you’re already doing and asking, "How can we make this just a little bit smoother, a little more consistent, and a lot less manual?" The goal is to create a system that runs so seamlessly in the background that you barely have to think about it, freeing you up to focus on your clients and the work you love.

Think of it as fine-tuning an engine. You’re not replacing the whole thing, just making adjustments to ensure every part works together efficiently. By standardizing your steps, being strategic with your payment terms, keeping an eye on your performance, and making sure your team is on the same page, you can build a collections process that is both effective and stress-free. These simple strategies are designed to give you more control and predictability over your cash flow. With a platform like Anchor, you can automate these optimizations, turning best practices into your firm's everyday reality.

Standardize Your Processes

Consistency is your best friend when it comes to receivables. When everyone on your team follows the same playbook, you eliminate confusion for both your staff and your clients. Start by writing down exactly how your billing process works from start to finish. This document should cover everything from billing periods to the specific information required on every invoice. Having a clear, repeatable system reduces errors and ensures a professional experience every time. Tools like Anchor make this easy by letting you pre-standardize your services, so you can add them to proposals and agreements with a single click, ensuring consistency across every client engagement.

Develop a Smart Payment Term Strategy

A proactive payment strategy is far more effective than a reactive one. Instead of waiting for payments to become late, set clear expectations from the very beginning. Your payment terms should be a core part of your initial agreement, outlining due dates and accepted payment methods. By getting clients to connect a payment method upfront when they sign your proposal, you put yourself in control of getting paid on time. This simple step transforms the payment process from a chase into an automatic, agreed-upon transaction. This prevents awkward follow-ups before they’re ever needed and ensures your cash flow remains steady and predictable.

Review Your Performance Regularly

You can't improve what you don't measure. Regularly reviewing your collections performance helps you spot trends and identify potential issues before they become major problems. Key metrics like Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and your Collection Effectiveness Index can give you a clear picture of how well your system is working. While you can calculate these manually, a modern billing platform gives you a real-time dashboard with all this information at your fingertips. This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions and confidently forecast your cash flow without spending hours buried in spreadsheets.

Train Your Team for Success

Your team is central to your firm's financial health, so it's crucial they feel confident and prepared. Make sure everyone who interacts with clients understands your billing process and can communicate it clearly and professionally. When your team can explain payment terms and processes with ease, it builds client trust and reinforces the value of your services. Investing time to train your staff not only improves efficiency but also ensures that every client interaction is a positive one, strengthening relationships and encouraging prompt payment.

Build a Collection Strategy That Lasts

Creating a collections process that stands the test of time isn't about chasing down late payments every month. It's about building a foundational system that supports your firm's financial health and client relationships for the long haul. A lasting strategy moves you from a reactive, stressful cycle to a proactive, predictable one. It’s the difference between constantly plugging leaks and building a vessel that’s watertight from the start.

Think of it as an investment in your firm’s future. By focusing on a few key areas, you can design a collections process that not only brings in revenue reliably but also strengthens your business. This involves shifting your perspective to see collections as an integral part of the client experience, not just an administrative chore. A truly sustainable strategy is built on four pillars: planning for the long term, using the right technology, committing to continuous improvement, and allocating your resources where they matter most.

Plan for the Long Term

Your collections process is one of the most consistent touchpoints you have with your clients, so it’s worth getting it right. Effective accounts receivable management isn't just about collecting money; it's about building strong client relationships and improving your firm's overall efficiency. When clients know what to expect from your billing process—clear terms, professional communication, and simple payment methods—it builds trust and respect. A long-term plan turns billing from a potential point of friction into a smooth, professional interaction that reinforces the value you provide. This approach creates the kind of stability that lets you focus on growing your firm, not just managing its finances.

Implement the Right Technology

A long-term plan is only as good as the tools you use to execute it. Relying on manual invoicing, spreadsheets, and follow-up emails is a recipe for burnout and human error. The right technology can automate and consolidate your entire collections workflow, from the initial client agreement to the final payment. Using automated systems for recurring invoices and payment processing helps you get paid faster and more predictably. When you implement a platform that connects proposals, billing, and payments into one seamless process, you eliminate the manual work that drains your time and creates awkward client conversations. This frees you up to focus on high-value work instead of administrative tasks.

Always Look for Ways to Improve

A great collections strategy isn't something you set and forget. It evolves with your firm. The best way to keep your process sharp is to pay attention to the data. Regularly analyzing your payment data helps you identify trends, spot potential issues before they become major problems, and refine your AR strategies over time. By keeping an eye on key metrics like your accounts receivable turnover and cash flow projections, you can make informed decisions instead of guessing. A real-time dashboard gives you a clear view of your financial health, allowing you to see what’s working and where you can make small adjustments for a big impact.

Allocate Your Resources Wisely

Your time and your team’s energy are your most valuable resources. A smart collections strategy protects them. This starts with carefully considering a client's ability to pay before you even sign an agreement. Securing payment details upfront is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of non-payment down the line. It also means ensuring your team can communicate effectively about payment processes, turning potentially negative interactions into positive ones that build client loyalty. By automating the routine parts of collections, you empower your team to spend their time on building relationships and delivering excellent service, which is the ultimate key to retention.

Frequently Asked Questions

My firm is small. Do I really need a formal receivables management process? Absolutely. In fact, it might be even more important for you. Think of it less as a "formal process" and more as a professional standard you set from day one. When you have a clear, consistent way of handling agreements, invoicing, and payments, you show clients that you value your own work. This builds respect and prevents the kind of payment delays and cash flow gaps that can be especially tough on a smaller firm. It’s about creating good habits early on so you can focus on growing your business, not chasing down money.

Won't automating my billing feel impersonal to my clients? That’s a common concern, but I find the opposite is true. What feels impersonal is a clunky, confusing process or an awkward follow-up email about a late payment. Automation makes the billing experience smooth, professional, and predictable for your clients. They appreciate the clarity and convenience. The personal touch comes from the amazing work you do and the relationships you build, not from manually creating and chasing invoices. A seamless payment process respects their time and reinforces that you’re a professional they can trust.

What's the best way to bring up new payment terms with my existing clients? This can feel tricky, but transparency is your best friend. I suggest framing it as a positive update that will make their lives easier. When it’s time to renew an agreement or start a new project, let them know you’re updating your process to be more streamlined and secure. Explain that you’re moving to a system that simplifies billing and offers more convenient payment options. Most clients will appreciate the move to a more modern, professional system, especially when you present it as an improvement to their experience.

I'm not great with numbers. What's the one metric I should focus on to see if my collections are improving? If you only track one thing, make it your Days Sales Outstanding, or DSO. Don't let the name intimidate you; it simply answers the question, "On average, how many days does it take for me to get paid after I issue an invoice?" Your goal is to get that number as low as possible. Watching your DSO go down is the clearest and quickest way to see that your changes are working and that cash is getting into your bank account faster.

How much time does it really take to set up an automated system like this? It’s probably a lot less time than you think. While some older software can take months to get running, modern platforms are designed for a quick and painless setup. A system like Anchor, for example, can be fully implemented in a single afternoon. It’s built to connect seamlessly with the accounting and practice management tools you’re already using. The goal of this technology is to save you time, and that starts with the implementation process itself.