Accounts receivable is an important part of enterprise working capital management. In the fierce market economy, it is very important to use credit sales correctly and strengthen the management of accounts receivable. Small enterprises are playing an increasingly prominent role in China and have become one of the most active and potential economic growth points. Starting with the nature and causes of accounts receivable in small enterprises, the author analyzes its role in the production and operation of enterprises and the adverse effects caused by poor accounts receivable management, and emphasizes that accounts receivable management should be carried out from two aspects: the establishment of accounts receivable prevention mechanism and the handling of overdue claims. It is emphasized that a special credit management department should be set up to monitor, track and analyze accounts receivable together with the sales and financial departments, and the internal audit department should supervise and manage them. For overdue accounts receivable, enterprises should set up special institutions to collect them, and actively seek the possibility of debt restructuring and selling creditor's rights in order to recover creditor's rights in time. Commercial credit is the initial form of credit development. With the continuous development of this economy, the phenomenon of credit purchase and credit sale in the past simple commodity economy has been widely developed. In the process of enterprise capital circulation, the production time and circulation time between enterprises are inconsistent, resulting in the phenomenon that some enterprises' goods are to be sold, while others who need these goods cannot buy them immediately because of insufficient cash. If only cash sales are allowed, it will inevitably lead to the extension of commodity sales time and the delay and interruption of enterprise production process. Therefore, based on the needs of economic development, the occurrence and development of credit purchase and credit sale have their objective basis. In the whole credit system, commercial credit and bank credit are the basic credit forms, and commercial credit is the basis of bank credit and even the whole credit system. The continuous development of commercial credit promotes the emergence and development of bank credit, consumer credit and national credit.

In enterprise assets, the form of credit sales is accounts receivable. Accounts receivable are essentially commercial credit. Generally speaking, the money that an enterprise should collect from the purchasing unit or the receiving unit for selling goods, products and providing services is called accounts receivable. With the continuous advancement of reform, development and modernization, China's socialist market economic system has been gradually established, the degree of marketization of the national economy has been continuously improved, and the amount of accounts receivable of enterprises has been continuously increased. Accounts receivable management is increasingly becoming an important part of enterprise asset management.

If an enterprise wants to grow and develop continuously in the highly competitive market economy, it must continuously expand sales, increase the market share of products and services, and improve the profitability of the enterprise. Credit sale is one of the most effective means to expand sales, especially in the case of macroeconomic recession, shrinking market and lack of funds, credit sale is the main means to seize the market. In addition, when enterprises develop new products and open up new markets, selling on credit is also a favorable weapon to increase market share.

The level of enterprise inventory possession affects the level of enterprise expenses. Generally speaking, the increase of inventory occupation will lead to a corresponding increase in operating expenses such as storage fees, insurance fees and storage fees. Therefore, whether seasonal production enterprises or non-seasonal production enterprises, when the inventory occupation level is too large, in order to reduce the possible expenses or losses, they will use more favorable conditions to sell on credit and convert the inventory into accounts receivable. This can not only improve the debt repayment level of enterprises, increase the liquidity of assets, but also reduce expenses and losses.

Recognizing the nature and significance of accounts receivable, there will be no blind use of cash sales in order to improve the collection rate, which is conducive to the improvement of operating performance.

At present, China market is basically a buyer's market where the supply of products exceeds the demand, and the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. In order to expand the scale of product sales and increase market share, many enterprises take credit sales measures to promote sales, and small enterprises are no exception, even more common. According to the survey, about 80% of small enterprises in China use credit sales to promote sales to varying degrees. On the one hand, credit sale increases the sales of small enterprises, on the other hand, it also generates a large number of accounts receivable. According to the investigation of relevant departments, the accounts receivable of small enterprises in China account for more than 50% of working capital, which is much higher than the level of 20% of enterprises in developed countries. Accounts receivable are the reasons for the high accounts receivable provided by enterprises to customers, which can be summarized as the following three aspects:

Commercial competition, which is the main reason for accounts receivable. In the increasingly fierce market, in order to expand sales and increase market share, enterprises adopt cash discounts and credit sales. Under the same conditions, the sales of products sold on credit will be greater than those sold in cash. Due to the need of expanding competitive sales, enterprises have to attract customers by selling on credit or other preferential ways, which leads to accounts receivable. This is also the main reason for forming accounts receivable.

The social credit environment in China is not good. In China's current social and economic life, the phenomenon of dishonesty is still widespread, and honesty is becoming an extremely scarce resource, which also seriously erodes the foundation of building a harmonious society in China. There is a distorted mentality in society, such as "owing money is reasonable" and "keeping promises is a fool" However, China's legal system is not perfect and law enforcement is weak, which leads to enterprises that are in arrears with payment for goods not being punished as they should, but profiting from it, which encourages the spread of dishonesty, accounts receivable occur from time to time and the society is older.

Enterprise managers in China generally only pay attention to sales subjectively and neglect internal management including accounts receivable management, and objectively lack experience and theory of accounts receivable management. For example: