Finance Process for Chasing Confirmation Deposit Monies
Not Booked Until Paid
A tour is not considered booked until the Confirmation Deposit is paid.
The following sets out what happens when a Confirmation Deposit invoice is sent to a school, from a Finance perspective.
When the deposit Invoice is sent, the due date on the invoice is the next calendar day (unless a different date has been agreed with the group), so they know the payment is due immediately.
There is text stating in clear terms that the tour shall not be deemed booked until the Confirmation Deposit is paid.
We have added the text to the actual invoice as well as the email header to ensure if they are just viewing the invoice and not taking time to read the actual email, the same text is present.
Chasing the Payments
Moving on to the actual chase work, a spreadsheet tracks the outstanding payments. This can be viewed by the whole team at any time, please find it here (the folder is Invoice Tracker > Invoice Tracker).
Please note there are three chase methods.
- An automated email sent 1 day later and again 7 days after the due date.
- There will also be phone calls and a manual email chase for instances when we have not received a reply from the automated chase. Every client will be manually chased twice a week as a minimum, therefore every client will receive at least 1 phone call and a maximum of 3 emails per week.
- If a GL or Finance contact does message Sales regarding any outstanding payments, always forward it to the accounts@ email so that either Sian or Nat can deal with it.
On the spreadsheet, there is a traffic light system and a list of each and every chase. Therefore, it will be easy to see where we are with any particular outstanding deposit payment. There is also a Note section to keep Sales updated on payment status with any necessary info.
The Process Overview
For ease of understanding, here are the actions taken in order.
Day 1 - Deposit Invoice sent
Day 2 – Automated email reminder sent.
Within a maximum of 3 days – First phone call chase made. If contact cannot be made, a manual email chase is sent.
Between 3 and 6 days – Second phone call chase made. Again, another manual email chase is sent if contact cannot be made.
Day 7 – 2nd Automated email reminder sent.
Day 8 onwards – Repeat phone calls and manual emails sent at least twice a week.
