Accounts receivable refers to the money that an enterprise should collect from the purchasing unit or the receiving unit when selling products, materials and providing services. It is a creditor's right asset and an important project of enterprise's current assets. Compared with monetary funds and inventory, it accounts for a large proportion of the current assets of enterprises, which has a great impact on the business risks of enterprises and sometimes directly affects the turnover of enterprise funds. Capital is the blood of an enterprise. Without blood, enterprises will be "malnourished" or "dying". In reality, many enterprises go bankrupt because of poor capital turnover.

In recent years, with the development of market economy and the implementation of commercial credit, the amount of accounts receivable of enterprises has generally increased substantially. How to reduce unnecessary losses caused by excessive accounts receivable, revitalize the working capital of enterprises, improve the utilization rate of limited working capital of enterprises, and increase the competitiveness of enterprises in the socialist market economy is becoming one of the important topics in enterprise management activities.

First, the management status and existing problems of accounts receivable

1. The internal control system of the enterprise is not strict. In some enterprises, the total wages of employees are linked to economic benefits, and the wages of salespeople are linked to product sales. Therefore, we only care about the increase and completion of sales tasks, take credit sales, kickbacks and other means to forcibly sell goods, and don't care whether the accounts receivable of enterprises can be recovered in time and completely, which leads to a large number of accounts receivable precipitation, which causes a heavy burden on the operation of enterprises, causing difficulties in capital turnover of enterprises, and even to the point where they can't continue to operate.

2. There is no clear responsibility department for accounts receivable management. Many enterprises have a large number of uncollectible accounts receivable. Is it the responsibility of the finance department or the obligation of the sales staff? They did not establish corresponding management measures and lacked the necessary internal control system, which made it impossible to investigate the responsibility for the loss of accounts receivable.

3. The accounting supervision of accounts receivable is quite weak. Accounts receivable have no auxiliary management or are only managed by aging. Many enterprises simply classify the amount of accounts receivable according to the age in the supplementary information of the balance sheet, which usually does not assist the management of accounts receivable. There is no regular inventory system for accounts receivable, and accounts are not settled for a long time. Due to the difference in time and space between the flow of goods and funds in the transaction process, and the possible mistakes in the delivery and recording of bills, the rights and obligations of both parties can be clarified by regularly reconciling the outstanding matters in the economic exchanges between creditors and debtors. However, in reality, some enterprises do not settle accounts for a long time, and even if they do, they have not formed a legal and effective reconciliation basis. They only made verbal promises, but they didn't play their due role. They couldn't find possible problems, and they couldn't provide sufficient written evidence when determining the time of litigation in the future.

4. The industry has not carried out credit management on accounts receivable according to the degree of risk. At present, most enterprises have not assessed the risk of accounts receivable, nor have they established a perfect credit system, so they don't know whether overdue accounts receivable can be recovered and how much. In view of the problems existing in accounts receivable management, the author thinks that enterprises should first establish correct accounts receivable management objectives and prevent one-sided pursuit of profit maximization, which is not the goal of accounts receivable management. If the goal is to maximize profits, it may lead to ignoring risks and sacrificing the long-term interests of enterprises. The goal of accounts receivable management should establish the concept of maximizing enterprise value, and good capital turnover should not be ignored.

Two, strengthen daily management, reduce the loss and risk of accounts receivable.

(1) Make a reasonable balance of accounts receivable in advance and implement planned management.

In the annual plan of each year, the year-end balance of accounts receivable should be made clear, and a relatively positive average collection period should be set, allowing the average collection period of each year to fluctuate up and down this index, as the basis for assessing performance, setting the proportion of accounts receivable to total current assets, implementing flexible control, and tightening the scale of credit sales when products are selling well; When the product is weak, be lenient; Be strict when money is tight. When the scale of credit sales approaches the warning line, we should resolutely take measures to suspend the credit sales business.

(B) to strengthen the internal control of accounts receivable

1. Do a good job in credit investigation and supervision of credit sales objects. Collect information about customers' credit status extensively, conduct in-depth on-the-spot investigation on assets, financial status, business ability, previous business records, corporate reputation, etc. of customers who intend to sell on credit, evaluate their credit rating according to the survey results, and establish credit rating files of customers who sell on credit. Your company is a large-scale and reputable enterprise in the past business dealings; Qualified customers are customers with average assets and financial status, standardized financial system, certain assets as collateral, and able to settle the payment after being urged to do business in the past; Poor assets and financial status, chaotic financial system, no assets mortgage, no business dealings in the past or customers with poor reputation. The credit rating of credit customers should be evaluated once a year, and can be adjusted at any time under special circumstances. On this basis, qualitative analysis and time series analysis are used to evaluate the credit quality of customers. After obtaining the analysis results, pay attention to or reduce the credit behavior with customers with poor credit, and strengthen supervision over customers with more contact, large amount or high risk.

2. According to the repayment ability and credit rating of credit customers, formulate a reasonable credit sales policy. According to the repayment ability and credit rating of credit customers, determine the sales policy. For customers with poor credit standing, cash transactions are adopted, for customers with average or good credit standing, acceptance bills are adopted when cash is not accepted, and for customers with good credit standing, installment payment is adopted, but the term and accumulated amount should be specified. The enterprise can stipulate in the contract that the customer will provide guarantee during the credit period, and if the credit period expires, it will bear corresponding legal responsibilities. For accounts receivable enterprises with long credit period, they can sign sales contracts with qualified customers. During the credit period, the ownership of the goods still belongs to the seller, and the customer can only obtain the ownership after the payment is fully settled. If the arrears cannot be repaid, the enterprise has the right to recover the goods and make up for some economic losses.

3. Establish an examination and approval system for credit sales. Take measures from the source to avoid losses, implement the principle of "whoever approves is responsible", and each account receivable business has a clear responsible person, so as to facilitate the timely recovery of accounts receivable and reduce the loss of bad debts. It is beneficial to control the credit limit to stipulate the examination and approval of internal business departments, business chiefs and other personnel at all levels or authorized personnel.

4. Strengthen individual customer management and total amount management of accounts receivable. Manage customers who have regular business dealings with themselves separately, and judge whether there is a debt problem for individual customers through payment records, aging analysis tables and average collection period. The credit manager should regularly calculate the turnover rate of accounts receivable, the average collection period, the proportion of collection to sales and the loss rate of bad debts, prepare an aging analysis table, and estimate the potential risk loss according to the aging classification, so as to correctly estimate the value of accounts receivable and adjust the credit policy accordingly.

5. Establish a one-stop responsibility system for sales collection. In order to prevent the sales staff from blindly selling in order to complete the sales task unilaterally, it is clear that the internal recovery of accounts receivable is not the responsibility of the financial staff, but the responsibility of the sales staff. At the same time, a strict payment collection assessment system is formulated, with the actual amount of payment received as the sales department and assessment index, and each salesperson must be responsible for the process of each sales business from signing a contract to recovering funds. In this way, the sales staff can be clear about the risk awareness and strengthen the payment process.

(three) the implementation of scientific contract management, to protect their legitimate rights and interests according to law.

Except cash receipts, all supply businesses should sign contracts, and the main supply businesses should use a unified contract text. The contract elements should be complete and specific, especially the collection period and the specific liability for breach of contract for delayed payment. Only in this way can we use legal weapons to ensure that our own interests are not infringed as much as possible.

(D) Give full play to the Christian function of accounting and help to recover accounts receivable.

The financial department of an enterprise should establish a detailed account of accounts receivable according to the customer area of credit sales, make timely accounting of credit sales business, regularly count the amount, age and changes of accounts receivable of each customer, and timely feed back to the competent leaders and sales departments of the enterprise, so as to provide reliable basis for evaluating and adjusting the credit rating of credit sales customers and understand the general situation of credit sales. Set up a separate account management for accounts receivable that have not been handled due to quality, quantity, contract disputes and other reasons. The accounting department of an enterprise shall regularly send statements and reminders to customers who sell on credit. For customers with overdue credit sales, it is mainly to obtain the statement confirmed and signed by the supply and marketing and accounting managers of both parties as the original basis for reconciliation between the two parties; For customers with overdue credit sales, at the same time as issuing the statement, they need to issue a dunning notice to collect the arrears in time.

(5) Implement active collection policy and risk transfer mechanism.

For the credit customers who have not settled their debts within the time limit, the enterprise should organize forces to urge the dealers to increase the collection efforts, and both parties should negotiate to solve the problem or use an authoritative third party for mediation. When necessary, it shall be settled by arbitration or submitted to judicial organs for judgment. Risk transfer for some irrecoverable accounts: the liquidity of assets can be transferred, that is, accounts receivable can be converted into more liquid assets. Because bills are written documents, which have stronger creditor's rights than accounts receivable, bills can be discounted to banks or transferred by endorsement before maturity, which is more liquid. When the enterprise can't recover the accounts in time, it can consider converting them into notes receivable to prevent the loss of bad debts to some extent. Secondly, the object of transfer, with part or all of its accounts receivable as collateral, borrows money from financial institutions within a specified period of time, or sells all accounts receivable to financial institutions, so that enterprises can transfer some or all of the risks existing in the recovery of accounts receivable to financial institutions.

Fan wener

Accounts receivable refers to accounts receivable formed by selling products or services on credit, and is an important item of current assets of enterprises. With the development of market economy and the implementation of commercial credit, the amount of accounts receivable of enterprises has increased obviously, and the management of accounts receivable has become an increasingly important issue in enterprise business activities.

First, the status of accounts receivable

According to statistics, due to the lack of credit among enterprises in China, the total amount of funds owed to each other to form a debt chain has reached 300 billion to 400 billion yuan, accounting for 20% of the country's liquidity. From many shocking data, we should clearly see that it is urgent to strengthen the management of accounts receivable, and enterprises must establish and improve the financial management system and strengthen the daily management of accounts receivable. Regularly analyze and control the operation of accounts receivable, strengthen the aging analysis of accounts receivable, find problems in time, take countermeasures in advance, and minimize the loss of bad debts.

Second, the analysis of the disadvantages of the accounts receivable problem

(A) reduced the efficiency of the use of funds of enterprises.

Because of the inconsistency between enterprise logistics and capital flow, goods were issued and sales invoices were issued, but the payment could not be recovered synchronously, and sales had been established. This kind of sales income without payment will inevitably lead to the profit and loss of sales business without cash inflow. Sales tax should be paid and income tax should be paid in advance during the year. If accounts receivable caused by inter-annual sales revenue are involved, the current assets of the enterprise can be generated to advance the annual dividends of shareholders. Due to the above-mentioned pursuit of superficial benefits, enterprises pay taxes in advance and pay dividends to shareholders, which takes up a lot of working capital. Over time, it will inevitably affect the capital turnover of enterprises, which will lead to the actual situation of enterprise operation being covered up, affecting the production plan and sales plan of enterprises and failing to achieve the established benefit goals.

(B) exaggerated operating results

Because the accounting basis of Chinese enterprises is accrual basis (receivable and payable basis), the credit sales in the current period are included in the current income. Therefore, the increase of enterprise's book profit does not mean that cash inflow can be realized as scheduled. The accounting system requires enterprises to make provision for bad debts according to the percentage of accounts receivable balance, and the provision rate for bad debts is generally 3% ~ 5% (except for special enterprises). If the actual bad debt loss exceeds the bad debt reserve, it will bring great losses to the enterprise. Therefore, the existence of a large number of enterprise accounts receivable has inflated the sales revenue on the books, exaggerated the operating results of enterprises to a certain extent, and increased the risk cost of enterprises.

(C) accelerated the cash outflow of enterprises

Although credit sales can make enterprises generate more profits, if enterprises blindly pursue profit maximization and adopt credit sales in large numbers, it will inevitably lead to an increase in the risk of accounts receivable, and at the same time, it will not really increase the cash inflow of enterprises, but will make enterprises have to use limited liquidity to pay various taxes and fees, thus accelerating the cash outflow of enterprises, mainly as follows:

1. Enterprise turnover tax expenditure. Accounts receivable bring sales revenue, but they don't actually receive cash. Turnover tax is calculated on the basis of sales, and enterprises must pay it in cash on time. Turnover taxes paid by enterprises, such as value-added tax, business tax, consumption tax, resource tax and urban construction tax, will inevitably increase with the increase of sales revenue.

2. Income tax expenditure. Accounts receivable generate profits, but they are not realized in cash. Income tax must be paid in cash on time.

3. The same problem exists in the distribution of cash profits. In addition, the management cost of accounts receivable and the recovery cost of accounts receivable will accelerate the cash outflow of enterprises.

(four) affect the business cycle of enterprises.

The business cycle is the period from obtaining inventory to selling inventory and recovering cash. The length of the business cycle depends on the inventory turnover days and the average payment cycle, and the business cycle is the sum of the two. It can be seen that 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 cash shortage of enterprises, affects the payment of wages and the purchase of raw materials, and seriously affects the normal production and operation of enterprises.

(E) Increased the error probability in the process of accounts receivable management.

Faced with a large number of accounts receivable, it is difficult for enterprises to find accounting errors in time, and it is also impossible to understand the dynamic situation of accounts receivable and the details of the other enterprise in time, resulting in unclear responsibilities. Scattered and lost accounts receivable, contracts, commitments, approval procedures and other information may make the accounts receivable that have occurred in the enterprise unable to be recovered on time. Only a part of the total accounts receivable can be recovered, and those that can be recovered by legal means can not be recovered because of incomplete information, until the final loss of enterprise assets is formed.

Third, to solve the problem of accounts receivable countermeasures

(A) the implementation of tracking analysis of accounts receivable

Once accounts receivable are formed, enterprises must consider how to recover them in full and on time. In this way, it is necessary for credit enterprises to track and analyze the operation process of accounts receivable before collecting money, focusing on the realization of goods sold on credit. Enterprises should track and analyze the future operating conditions and solvency of credit buyers, and timely understand whether the cash holdings and adjustment degree of customers can meet the cash needs. It is necessary to focus on the arrears of customers with large suspense amount, long suspense time and poor operating conditions, so as to prevent problems before they happen. If necessary, some measures can be taken, such as asking these customers to provide guarantees to ensure the recovery of accounts receivable.

(2) Seriously treat the aging of accounts receivable.

Generally speaking, the longer the customer is overdue, the more difficult it is to collect accounts, and the higher the possibility of becoming a bad debt loss. Enterprises must do a good job in the aging analysis of accounts receivable and pay close attention to the recovery progress and changes of accounts receivable.

Through the aging analysis of accounts receivable, the financial management department of an enterprise can grasp the following information: how many customers pay during the discount period; How many customers pay during the credit period; How many customers pay after the credit period; How many accounts receivable are overdue for too long and may become bad debts?

If the aging analysis shows that the enterprise's accounts receivable age begins to extend or the proportion of overdue accounts gradually increases, then measures must be taken in time to adjust the enterprise's credit policy and strive to improve the efficiency of accounts receivable collection. For accounts receivable that have not yet expired, supervision cannot be relaxed to prevent new arrears.

(C) establish and improve the accounts receivable management system

To do a good job in accounts receivable management, we must first establish a perfect accounts receivable management system. Credit policy is the main part of the accounts receivable management system, including credit standards, credit conditions and collection policies.

1. Credit standard is the basic requirement for enterprises to agree to provide commercial credit to users, and the expected loss rate of bad debts is usually used as the judgment standard. If the enterprise's credit standard is strict and only gives credit to users with good reputation and low bad debt loss rate, it will reduce the bad debt loss and the opportunity cost of accounts receivable, but this may not be conducive to expanding sales, or even reduce sales; On the other hand, if the credit standard is wider, although it will increase sales, it will also increase the loss of bad debts and the opportunity cost of accounts receivable accordingly. Credit conditions refer to the conditions that enterprises require users to pay for credit sales, including credit period, discount period and cash discount.

2. Credit period is the longest payment time stipulated by the enterprise for users, discount period is the payment time stipulated for users to enjoy cash discount, and cash discount is a preferential treatment given to users in advance. Providing more favorable credit conditions can increase sales, but it will also bring additional burdens such as opportunity cost of accounts receivable, bad debt cost and cash discount cost.

3. Collection policy refers to the collection strategy adopted by enterprises when they violate credit conditions. For example, when an enterprise's accounts receivable are defaulted or rejected by customers, the enterprise should first analyze whether there are defects in the current credit standards and credit approval system, and then re-investigate the credit rating of the defaulting customers in order to further understand. Customers with malicious arrears and poor credit quality should be removed from the credit list, no more credit sales, and the debt collection should be stepped up, with a tough attitude. If the collection fails, the company can jointly file a lawsuit with other cooperative companies that often default or refuse to pay the accounts, so as to strengthen the strong evidence of its poor reputation. For customers with normal or even good credit records, on the basis of sending letters, people will be sent to communicate face to face, reach a consensus, and properly solve the problem of arrears in the continuation and enhancement of mutual business relations. When making collection policies, enterprises should compare and weigh the increase of collection fees with the decrease of bad debt losses and the opportunity cost of accounts receivable. The former is less than the latter as the basic goal, grasp the boundary of combining leniency with severity, and draw up a satisfactory collection plan. If the enterprise adopts a more active collection policy, it may reduce the cost of accounts receivable and bad debt losses, but it will increase the collection cost. If a passive collection policy is adopted, it may increase the cost of accounts receivable and the loss of bad debts, but it will reduce the collection cost. When formulating the collection policy, we should weigh the gains and losses between increasing the collection cost and reducing the opportunity cost and bad debt loss of accounts receivable.

A reasonable credit policy should combine credit standards, credit conditions and collection policies, and consider the impact of comprehensive changes of the three on sales, opportunity cost of accounts receivable, bad debt cost and collection cost.

(D) Strengthen the daily management of accounts receivable.

In the daily management of accounts receivable, some aspects of the company are not detailed enough, for example, the analysis of users' credit status and the compilation of aging analysis table.

1. Make basic records. In order to know the timely payment of users, the basic records include the credit provided by enterprises to users, the date of establishing credit relationship, the payment time of users, the amount still owed and the change of users' credit rating. Only by mastering this information can enterprises take corresponding countermeasures in time.

2. Check whether the user has exceeded the credit limit. Enterprises should check whether each credit sale business provided by users has a record of exceeding the credit period, and pay attention to check whether the total debt of users exceeds the credit limit.

3. Master the debts of users that have passed the credit period. Closely monitor the increase and decrease of users' debts due, so as to take timely measures to contact users and remind them to pay as soon as possible.

4. Analyze the turnover rate and average collection cycle of accounts receivable. To see whether the liquidity is at a normal level, enterprises can use this indicator to evaluate the achievements and shortcomings in accounts receivable management, and correct the credit status by comparing the previous reality, current plan and the same industry.

5. Investigate the refusal to pay. Investigate the percentage of accounts receivable that refuse to pay, that is, the loss rate of bad debts, to decide whether the credit policy of enterprises should be changed. If the actual loss rate of bad debts is greater than or lower than the expected loss rate of bad debts, enterprises should look at whether the credit standard is too strict or too loose, so as to modify the credit standard.

6. Prepare an aging analysis table. Check the actual number of days occupied by accounts receivable, and enterprises can monitor their recovery by compiling an aging analysis table. Based on this, we can know how many debts are still in the credit period, and we should supervise them in time. How many debts have exceeded the credit period? Calculate the percentage of overdue funds and estimate how many debts will cause bad debts. If most of them are overdue, enterprises should check their credit policies.

(E) Strengthening internal control of enterprises

1. Strengthen the management and monitoring of functional departments and conduct financial management according to the principle of internal containment.

2. Improve internal accounting methods. According to different sales business, different accounting methods and procedures are adopted to reflect the differences, and corresponding management countermeasures are taken.

3. Establish a strict fund withdrawal system, set up a special collection agency, and improve the accounts receivable collection system.

4. Conduct regular or irregular inspections and internal audits of marketing outlets. Prevent problems such as misappropriation of funds, corruption and external circulation caused by lax management, and reduce risks.

5. Establish and improve the company's internal monitoring system. According to all aspects of accounts receivable in credit sales business, improve the internal control system of accounts receivable. Strive to form a set of standardized procedures for pre-control, in-process control and post-control of accounts receivable.

According to the accounts receivable management system, take corresponding measures to solve the problems existing in the analysis of accounts receivable of enterprises, speed up the company's capital turnover, improve the efficiency of capital utilization, and realize the enterprise benefit goal.

In short, in order to control and manage accounts receivable, enterprises must do the following: first, correctly evaluate the credit status of customers, weigh the credit cost and credit risk, and improve the recovery rate of accounts receivable; Second, actively establish flexible and effective collection measures to recover accounts in time; Third, do a good job in the aging analysis of accounts receivable, and strive to reduce and prevent bad debts and bad debts. The quality of accounts receivable prevention depends on the guarantee of system, the effectiveness of measures and the attention of leaders. It is true that no matter how strict the credit policy is adopted by enterprises, as long as there is commercial credit behavior, the occurrence of bad debt losses is always inevitable. Therefore, enterprises should follow the principle of conservatism, estimate the possibility of bad debt losses in advance, and actively establish a reserve system to make up for bad debt losses. According to the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises, bad debt reserves can be accrued for accounts receivable. Enterprises should withdraw a certain proportion of accounts receivable at the end of the period to make up for the unrecoverable bad debt losses caused by the bankruptcy or death of debtors and overdue repayment obligations, so as to promote the healthy development of enterprises.

Practical experience shows that the more enterprises with perfect system, good management and proper measures, the less problems of accounts receivable, the less risks of accounts receivable and the less bad debt losses; On the contrary, the more problems, the higher the bad debt loss.