Keywords enterprise accounts receivable management
First, the impact of accounts receivable on enterprises
Accounts receivable are the money that an enterprise should collect from the buyer, the unit or individual who receives labor services when selling products and providing services. Accounts receivable in a broad sense include payment receivable, notes receivable and other accounts receivable. For enterprises, the existence of accounts receivable is the unity of production and sales. Enterprises hope to use it to promote sales, increase sales revenue and enhance competitiveness, and at the same time hope to avoid the capital turnover difficulties and bad debt losses caused by the existence of accounts receivable. Therefore, strengthening the management of accounts receivable does not mean that enterprises cannot own accounts receivable, but should control them within a certain reasonable range.
1, which has a positive impact on production and operation.
(1) Expand sales and increase the market share of enterprises. If an enterprise wants to grow and develop continuously in the competitive market economy environment, it must continuously expand sales, increase the market share of products or services, and improve the profit level of the enterprise. Credit sale is one of the most effective means to expand sales, especially in the case of economic depression and market depression, 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 means to increase market share.
(2) Reduce the inventory backlog. The inventory quantity of an enterprise is closely related to the related expenses of the enterprise. Generally speaking, excessive inventory backlog will lead to a corresponding increase in storage fees, insurance fees and other expenses to a great extent. Therefore, when there is too much inventory, enterprises will generally use more favorable conditions to sell on credit and turn 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.
2. Negative impact on production and operation.
(1) increases the probability of bad debts. In the process of selling on credit, some enterprises lack effective risk management, imperfect internal control and insufficient understanding of customer credit, which easily leads to uncollectible accounts receivable and direct bad debts.
(2) It has an impact on the business cycle of the enterprise. The business cycle is the period from the purchase of goods to the sale of goods until the payment is recovered. The existence of unreasonable accounts receivable prolongs the business cycle of enterprises, affects the capital circulation of enterprises, causes a large amount of working capital to precipitate in non-production links, causes the shortage of funds of enterprises, and will seriously affect the payment of wages and the procurement of goods and undermine the normal production and operation of enterprises.
(3) Exaggerate the operating results of enterprises. Under the requirement of accrual basis, the sales revenue that the payment has not been returned still needs to be confirmed, which will inevitably lead to the increase of the profit on the account without cash inflow, which will inevitably exaggerate the operating profit, and finally lead to the payment of sales tax and the advance payment of income tax this year.
(4) reduce the efficiency of enterprise capital use. Credit sales did not really increase the cash inflow of enterprises, but made enterprises have to pay all kinds of taxes and fees with limited working capital, accelerated the cash outflow of enterprises, caused more shortage of funds and poor capital turnover, which affected the normal production and operation of enterprises.
Second, the enterprise accounts receivable management problems and causes analysis
1, the existing problems
(1) The accounts receivable of enterprises are increasing year by year, and the account period is longer. According to the data of China Statistics Network, from 2005 to 2007, the proportion of enterprise accounts receivable in working capital increased year by year. Judging from the time of default, the accounts receivable for more than one year have exceeded 60%, and many of them have died in dormant accounts and cannot be recovered.
(2) Poor collection and high bad debt rate. Enterprises blindly sell on credit, only pay attention to expanding sales, and ignore the payment. The phenomenon that enterprises are in arrears with each other's payment for goods is serious, which leads to the normal working capital being squeezed by a large number of accounts receivable. Due to the lack of strong collection measures, the bad debt rate of enterprises has risen sharply. At this time, in order to maintain the normal business activities of enterprises, we have to resort to bank loans, and accounts receivable can not be recovered, so we can not repay the loans in time, and even bank funds have gradually been transformed into accounts receivable. This bad capital circulation leads to a large amount of bank funds precipitation, and finally the enterprise can not survive.
(3) Bad debts and bad debts in accounts receivable are not confirmed in time, which gives enterprises the illusion of inflated assets. Because some enterprises ignore the management of accounts receivable, especially some enterprises regard accounts receivable as a means to adjust profits, they fail to confirm the accounts receivable that have been sluggish in dormant accounts in time subjectively and intentionally, and the accounts receivable that have been unrecoverable remain in the accounts for a long time, regardless of the provision for bad debts, resulting in the inflated assets of enterprises.
(4) The managers and operators of some enterprises lack the consciousness and concept of financial management. Some enterprise managers and operators pay attention to production and operation, but do not realize the importance of doing a good job in financial management; Enterprise management is not centered on financial management, but on fund management. The management and use of funds only pay attention to how to borrow money and spend money, without effective allocation and scheduling of existing resources and funds, resulting in a large number of accounts receivable, without actively cleaning up accounts receivable from the perspective of strengthening management, resulting in a large number of funds staying out for a long time, affecting the normal production and operation activities of enterprises and the effective use of funds.
2. Cause analysis
(1) Enterprise's own reasons. There are mainly the following points. First, the product lacks sufficient competitive advantage. The backlog of products forces enterprises to make concessions in the sales process, such as extending the trial period of products and slowing down the payment time, which increases the amount of accounts receivable, slows down the payment speed, aggravates the quality of accounts receivable and further increases the burden on enterprises. Second, the awareness of enterprise credit management is weak. Enterprises don't know enough about customers' credit information and pay enough attention to it, especially under the current buyer's market conditions, they are hungry for food and don't sign contracts or installment repayment agreements for product sales, which leads to an increase in bad debts of enterprises. Third, the risk prevention of enterprise accounts receivable is not in place. Many enterprises have not made full and effective use of accounts receivable while strengthening the whole process management. When the creditor's right occurs, it is limited to simple management, but it fails to use the accounts receivable to transfer risks and solve the shortage of funds when the accounts receivable cannot be recovered.
(2) External reasons of the enterprise. There are mainly the following reasons. The social credit system has not yet been established. Good social credit is the guarantee of establishing a standardized socialist market economic order and the premise and guarantee of the healthy development of the socialist market economy. China lacks an effective social credit supervision mechanism, and the supervision of businesses that violate credit is not enough. The court's insufficient enforcement of the effective judgment, coupled with the interference of local protectionism, has led to the frequent occurrence of legal white bars, which has produced the idea that the defaulting enterprises owe debts reasonably and profitably, and also contributed to the emergence of some corporate fraud and destroyed the market economy environment. The concept of maliciously defaulting on payment for goods has become a fashion in a certain period, which has seriously damaged the credit environment of society.
Third, suggestions on strengthening the management of enterprise accounts receivable
1. Enterprises should formulate reasonable credit policies, including loose and moderate credit standards, standardized and reasonable credit conditions and scientific and prudent credit lines.
Credit standard is the minimum condition that an enterprise must meet when it agrees to provide commercial credit to customers. Generally expressed by the loss rate of bad debts. The higher the enterprise's credit standard, the smaller the possibility of bad debts. However, excessive credit standards are not conducive to enterprises to expand sales; On the contrary, if the enterprise's credit standard is too low, it will help the enterprise to expand sales, but it will increase the opportunity cost and management cost of bad debts and accounts receivable accordingly. Therefore, enterprises need to formulate a credit standard suitable for their own situation. Enterprises should focus on the following three factors when formulating credit standards. First, in the case of competitors in the same industry, if the competitors are strong, enterprises should consider whether they can adopt lower credit standards to enhance their attractiveness to customers; On the contrary, we can consider setting strict credit standards. The second is the ability of enterprises to bear the risk of default. When the enterprise has a strong ability to bear the risk of default, it can consider adopting a lower credit standard to improve the competitiveness of products. On the other hand, if the ability of enterprises to bear the risk of default is weak, strict credit standards should be formulated to prevent the occurrence of bad debts. Third, the customer's credit level, enterprises should make analysis and judgment on the basis of extensive investigation of customer credit status, and decide whether to provide commercial credit to customers.
Credit conditions are the basis for deciding whether to give or refuse to give credit to customers. Once an enterprise decides to give customers credit concessions, it needs to consider the specific conditions of use. When an enterprise receives a customer's order for credit sale, it should clearly put forward the payment time and other related requirements, including the agreement on the credit sale period, cash discount and discount period. Generally speaking, extending the credit period can expand sales to a certain extent, thus improving the gross profit of sales. However, if the credit period is not extended properly, the income will sometimes be offset by the increased expenses, or even the profit will be reduced, which will bring adverse consequences to the enterprise. Therefore, enterprises should refer to industry practices and make appropriate credit terms on the basis of continuously improving their core competitiveness and economic benefits. The determination of discount period mainly depends on whether the discount loss is less than the interest of bank loans in the same period, whether the enterprise provides cash discount and to what extent, and whether the income after providing cash discount is greater than the cost of cash discount. Credit line is the highest credit sales limit that an enterprise can give to customers according to their solvency. When market information and customer credit status change, enterprises should make necessary adjustments to meet the needs of enterprise interests.
2. Strengthen the risk prevention of accounts receivable and improve the risk management level of enterprises.
(1) Improve the market competitiveness of products. Control from the source, give full play to the enterprise's own advantages, constantly develop new products, open up new markets, open up the product level with other similar enterprises, enhance market competitiveness, make their products become best sellers, change passivity into initiative, and enable enterprises to choose orders purposefully, that is, choose customers, thus reducing the capital occupation of accounts receivable, fundamentally reducing credit sales and minimizing the troubles caused by accounts receivable.
(2) Establish the monitoring system and early warning mechanism of accounts receivable. The monitoring system of accounts receivable should include the occurrence of credit sales, the collection of accounts and the early warning of overdue risks. The Finance Department analyzes and manages the accounts receivable, and makes provision for bad debts, which are included in the current expenses. The credit department and the sales department carry out accounts receivable tracking management services. The credit department and the sales department should cooperate with each other in their work, distinguish their respective responsibilities in tracking services, achieve the purpose of mutual supervision and promotion, improve the recovery rate of accounts receivable and promote the sales of enterprises.
(3) Give play to the supervisory role of internal audit. Constantly improve the monitoring system and internal control system; Check the implementation of the internal control system, and check whether there are abnormal accounts receivable, major mistakes, dereliction of duty, internal fraud, deliberate failure to collect accounts receivable, etc. To ensure the recovery of accounts receivable.
(4) Enterprises can reduce risks by converting accounts receivable into notes receivable. Because the bills receivable have strong recourse, they can be endorsed, transferred or discounted before maturity, which can reduce the risk loss to a certain extent. Therefore, when the customer fails to repay the due payment, the enterprise can ask the customer to issue an acceptance bill to offset its accounts receivable.
3. Establish and improve the social credit system to provide a good external environment for enterprise operation.
Advanced large-scale information database can record a large number of capital transactions and commodity transactions between enterprises and individuals, and can provide customers with inquiries. Once there is a bad credit record, it will be restricted in industrial and commercial registration, bank loans, consumer loans, personal credit card services, talent recruitment and so on. On the contrary, enterprises with high credit ratings will give priority to issuing stocks and corporate bonds or provide them with high loans. In western countries, when a unit or a person fails to keep his word, it will immediately appear on the "blacklist", then the whole society will respect him all the more, and no one will have business dealings with him again, and its loss is immeasurable. At present, we should pay close attention to industry supervision, speed up the establishment of social credit supervision system, find intentional breach of contract, and increase the cost of untrustworthy people.
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