Accounts receivable depends on a lot of factors for everything to flow smoothly, and it’s always surprising how many people don’t have a strong system in place. When your accounts receivable team grows to more than one person (or even more than just yourself), the person in charge should have phenomenal communication skills if you want to maximize how much you can collect on your accounts receivable.

In addition to great written and verbal communication skills (and some emotional intelligence to tactfully handle the inevitable disputes), one should have great delegation skills. Even though accounts receivable software has dramatically improved in the past decade and can help your team send reminder emails, it can’t answer phone calls or work out problems by itself.

• If your team doesn’t each have a specific task delegated to them, you might have an accounts receivable management problem.
• If your team doesn’t even have a delegation plan to accomplish all that needs to be done, you might have a accounts receivable management problem.
• If each staff member works through problems on their own with no records or set courses of redress, you might have an accounts receivable management problem.
• If you cannot seem to hang on to accounts receivable staff, you might have a management problem.
• If you feel like you have to step in “all the time,” you might have an accounts receivable management problem.

Managing an accounts receivable team is difficult and admirable. People, as a general rule, don’t like being separated from their money. It’s even worse when the service has already been rendered and the client has what they want. Finding someone who can gracefully handle all the challenges that comes with this territory is like finding that little flake of gold in the pan of river dirt.