Unpaid customer invoice? How to collect debts?

Like any entrepreneur, you will have to face, one day or another, one or more unpaid invoices. It is never easy to claim what you owe. It's all the more complicated in times of economic crisis when your debtors have to deal with a pandemic, inflation or even soaring energy costs. However, you too need funds to cope with this economic situation.

So how do you go about debt recovery?

Step 1: check

Before initiating recovery, make sure that the amounts are owed and correct. Check that the invoice was not paid without communication or by a third party (husband, wife, parents, neighbor, third party company, etc.). Did your customer receive the invoice? Is the address (postal or email) correct? Hasn't he moved in the meantime? Has the invoice been accepted by your customer? Was there no dispute?

Step 2: send a reminder

If your customer received the invoice and it was not disputed, they may simply have forgotten to make the payment. Send them a payment reminder, by post or email. One reminder is enough. There is no need to increase costs and especially to hang around if your customer does not react. Mention a payment deadline, ideally 15 days after the date of the reminder. Don't forget to note your general payment conditions to remind your customer of the consequences in the event of non-payment. Using an app like MindYourBills makes this step easier for you. You receive a notification when an invoice is due and you can then send the payment reminder for free.

Step 3: Start the recovery procedure

Your customer does not react and your invoice is still not paid? At the due date mentioned on the reminder, send your unpaid invoice to a debt collection professional. Each his trade. Go through an external service. A debt recovery company has teams of professionals trained in the arduous and human profession of debt recovery. This profession is regulated. The procedures and techniques used are regularly checked and adapted.
In accordance with the law, a formal notice will be sent by mail to your client. After 15 days, your client will be contacted by different media, varying depending on the collection company but also your client (phone calls, text messages, emails, letters, home visits, etc.).

If, despite these multiple amicable attempts, no solution has been found, it may be time to initiate legal proceedings. Perhaps because, taking into account the solvency of your bad paying customer and the amount owed, legal proceedings are sometimes not recommended, given the costs incurred. If it is not decided to initiate legal proceedings (with a lawyer then a bailiff), the debt recovery company will provide you with a certificate of irrecoverability, useful for your accounting.