Therefore, how to manage, make good use of and revitalize accounts receivable, so as to strengthen the safety of funds, improve the efficiency of the use of funds and prevent operational risks has become an important issue that enterprises can not ignore.
First, the causes of accounts receivable
1, commercial competition. Under the condition of socialist market economy, the market competition is fierce. In order to occupy a place in the market competition, enterprises must increase market share, expand market share and improve their own economic benefits. In order to meet the needs of expanding competitive sales, enterprises not only use product quality, price, brand, after-sales service, advertising and other means, but also credit sales, as one of the important means to expand product sales, is increasingly adopted by enterprises, thus generating accounts receivable.
There is a gap between the time to realize sales and the time to receive money. After the enterprise issues the goods, it issues a sales invoice to the purchasing unit to confirm the current sales income, but the payment for goods can not be recovered simultaneously, which leads to the disconnection between logistics and capital flow. Accounts receivable arise from the inconsistency between the sales time of this commodity and the time of receiving the payment. This is mainly because it takes time to settle the payment. Usually, the more backward the settlement means, the longer the settlement time. At the same time, the distance between buying and selling units, the choice of sales settlement method and the timeliness of internal settlement documents may all produce accounts receivable.
3. Poor internal management of accounts receivable. Enterprises lack commercial credit awareness, such as failing to seriously fulfill the terms of the contract and breaking the contract or failing to deal with quality objections in time, resulting in the other party refusing to pay for the goods; Due to malicious fraud by customers or absconding with money by sales staff, the money cannot be recovered. Poor credit management of enterprises, blind credit sales to enterprises with poor credit, poor recovery of arrears and difficult recovery of payment, leading to accounts receivable.
Second, the drawbacks of poor management of accounts receivable
1, capital turnover is difficult, and enterprise benefits are declining. Under normal circumstances, the realization of enterprise sales revenue often means the generation of tax obligation, and enterprises may be forced to pay current taxes with working capital. If the enterprise has book profits, then the profits realized in that year should also be distributed to investors, and the enterprise may have to pay dividends to shareholders in advance, resulting in an increase in the capital outflow of the enterprise. In this way, on the one hand, accounts receivable occupy a lot of funds of enterprises, on the other hand, enterprises have to pay taxes and dividends in advance, which increases the pressure on enterprise capital scheduling. In order to maintain normal production and operation, enterprises have to supplement working capital through bank loans, which leads to increased financial expenses, increased financing risks and increased corporate burden. At the same time, enterprises holding accounts receivable will pay corresponding costs, including the management cost, opportunity cost and bad debt loss of accounts receivable, which will lead to the decline of enterprise benefits.
2. Reduce corporate credit and affect corporate image. The balance of enterprise accounts receivable is too large, which takes up a lot of money. If it can't be recovered at maturity, it will lead to the enterprise's inability to repay the debts due, which will make the enterprise lose its credit and then lose the support of financial institutions. Therefore, enterprises can't get discounts from suppliers, which increases transaction costs. At the same time, if an enterprise keeps an excessively high balance of accounts receivable, it is easy to generate bad debts. Bring losses to enterprises and increase financial risks of enterprises. Seriously, it will even lead to bankruptcy of enterprises. In addition, accounts receivable occupy too much money for a long time, which will also affect the corporate image.
3, inflated business results, increase business risks. According to the requirements of accrual basis, enterprises should recognize their income in the current period when sales occur, but the increase of enterprise income does not mean that cash flow can also flow in as scheduled. Usually, the formation of accounts receivable is closely related to the credit sales policy of enterprises, and its scale is often positively related to sales revenue, that is, the growth of sales revenue will lead to the growth of accounts receivable scale. The enterprise credit policy is too loose, which leads to the rapid expansion of accounts receivable. Once the payment is not collected, the enterprise will fall into the false prosperity dilemma of "a lot of book profits and empty account funds", and the accounting profit of the enterprise will be greatly reduced. If the control is weak, the profits of enterprises will be exhausted by a large number of bad debts and dormant accounts. In this way, although according to the principle of prudence, enterprises should draw bad debt reserve according to a certain proportion of the balance of accounts receivable, once accounts receivable cannot be recovered, the actual bad debt loss exceeds the bad debt reserve drawn by enterprises, which will cause actual losses to enterprises. Therefore, accounts receivable occupy too much capital, inflated sales revenue, exaggerated operating results and increased operating risks.
4. Extend the business cycle of the enterprise and slow down the capital turnover. Business cycle refers to the period from obtaining inventory to selling inventory and recovering cash. The business cycle is equal to the sum of inventory turnover days and average collection period. If the enterprise's credit policy is too loose, it will lead to accounts receivable occupying a large amount of funds for a long time, causing the enterprise's liquidity to precipitate and cash shortage, affecting the capital circulation, prolonging the business cycle and seriously affecting the normal production and operation of the enterprise.
Third, the management measures of accounts receivable
The main purpose of accounts receivable is to expand sales and enhance competitiveness, and its management goal is to pursue profits. Accounts receivable can essentially be regarded as an investment made by an enterprise to expand sales and profits. Enterprises must manage accounts receivable according to the principle that profits without cash flow are not profits, and always put capital withdrawal in the first place. In practical work, enterprises should control the whole process of accounts receivable before, during and after, speed up the collection of accounts receivable, reduce bad debts and ensure the ultimate realization of enterprise profits.
(A) prior control
1, customer credit management.
(1) Establish customer files and conduct credit evaluation. Enterprises should do a good job in customer credit investigation, collect information such as the enterprise nature, legal representative, registered capital, financial status, business scale and reputation of customers, and establish customer files to provide a relatively complete and scientific basis for credit evaluation. Enterprises should evaluate customers' credit by combining qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis according to their quality, ability, capital, mortgage, conditions and sustainability. According to the results of customer credit evaluation, select high-quality customers to carry out sales business and establish and improve the marketing network.
(2) Establish a credit line and control the scale of accounts receivable. Enterprises should give customers the corresponding credit line according to the recent sales plan completion and repayment, that is, the maximum credit line that enterprises are willing to undertake for a customer, and determine the scale and duration of credit sales. The financial department shall handle payment settlement, bookkeeping and reconciliation procedures in time, truthfully reflect the use of customer credit lines and prevent errors. At the same time, enterprises should establish a dynamic management and early warning mechanism of credit line to manage and control the credit line, so as to effectively control the scale of enterprise credit sales.
(3) Establish and improve the examination and approval system for credit sales. The credit line granted by the enterprise to the customer must be approved by the competent leader of the company before it can be used and entered into the customer file. In the process of sales, the sales department should strictly control the transaction volume according to this limit, and must not break through, so as to avoid the subjective judgment and blind decision-making of sales personnel from bringing losses to the enterprise. If the customer's credit limit changes, it must also go through the formalities of approval and filing. At the same time, enterprises regularly check and analyze the implementation of credit lines to ensure the safety of credit line formulation. Victory and reason.
2. Improve the internal division of labor in the sales business, clarify the post responsibilities, and put the responsibilities in place. Accounts receivable management is a systematic work. Enterprises should establish a post responsibility system, improve the management systems of sales budget, delivery, warehouse management, rewards and punishments, debt settlement, etc., and clarify post responsibilities and business operation processes in accordance with the provisions of the Internal Accounting Control Standards-Sales and Collection. Contract negotiation, distribution, delivery, invoicing, going out, collection and other work of enterprise sales business should be completed by people from different departments to ensure the separation of incompatible positions, facilitate mutual restriction, mutual supervision and mutual audit between departments and avoid fraud. The sales department is mainly responsible for processing orders, signing contracts, implementing sales policies and credit policies, and urging payment. The accounting department is mainly responsible for the supervision and management of sales payment settlement records, reconciliation and payment recovery; The delivery department is mainly responsible for reviewing sales delivery documents and handling distribution and delivery; The debt settlement office shall convene a debt settlement meeting in time, urge the business department to settle debts, be responsible for legal proceedings and recovery of accounts receivable, and formulate a debt settlement and assessment system. The above positions should be conscientious, conscientious, responsible, and reasonable rewards and punishments, maximize the recovery rate of accounts receivable, shorten the collection cycle of accounts receivable, and reduce bad debts.
3. Establish a bad debt provision system for accounts receivable to prevent financial risks. According to the enterprise accounting system, enterprises should analyze the recoverability of various accounts receivable at the end of the period and predict the possible bad debt losses. According to the requirements of the principle of prudence, enterprises make provision for bad debts that are expected to occur. An enterprise shall formulate a policy for the provision of bad debts, and specify the provision scope, extraction method, aging division and extraction ratio of bad debts. An enterprise may determine its own method for drawing bad debt reserves, and once this method is determined, it shall not be changed at will.
4. Carry out credit sales business training. Through the credit sales training for sales staff, establish risk awareness, improve professional ethics and business skills, analyze the causes, countermeasures and responsibilities of accounts receivable, introduce the methods and skills of collection, and evaluate customers' credit, so as to enhance sales staff's awareness of prevention.
(2) Things are under control.
1. Strengthen contract management and standardize business practices. The sales business of an enterprise shall implement the contract management system and authorize relevant personnel to sign sales contracts with customers. Sales contracts with a large amount should be reviewed and inspected by professionals such as legal advisers. Without authorization, no one may sign a sales contract at will. Enterprises should carefully review the contract, carefully review the subject matter, quantity, quality, delivery date, delivery place, payment method and liability for breach of contract proposed by customers, and decide whether to accept the order. Once accepted, the enterprise shall organize production and delivery according to the contract requirements to ensure the full implementation of the contract. Once the sales contract is signed, it shall not be changed at will. If there is any change, both parties shall fully negotiate and sign a supplementary contract or a new contract after reaching an agreement to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of both parties.
2. Strengthen the management of sales business processing. The collection of accounts receivable, the issuance, delivery and settlement of bills of lading are the keys to control accounts receivable.
(1) collection. For the money sent by customers, the finance department should issue a receipt in time and handle the accounts. Handle the collection procedures of bills of exchange and checks received in time; Check the bank acceptance bill received in time to ensure its authenticity and validity.
(2) Issue the bill of lading. According to the contract, issue the bill of lading according to the customer's requirements and send it to the customer for signature.
(3) delivery. The transportation department organizes delivery according to the bill of lading to ensure that the specifications, models and quantities of the goods are correct.
(4) settlement. After delivery, invoice the customer in time according to the bill of lading and settle the payment.
3. Choose an advanced settlement method. Enterprises should choose the settlement method that is beneficial to them as far as possible, speed up the withdrawal of funds and reduce the time of funds in transit. The enterprise can stipulate in the contract that the buyer must take delivery of the goods with the payment for goods, otherwise the goods will not be delivered, so as to ensure the timely withdrawal of the payment for goods. In addition, enterprises can also use advanced settlement methods such as online banking and real-time exchange to speed up the withdrawal of funds.
(3) afterwards control
1. Implement internal audit of sales business. Enterprises regularly or irregularly carry out special audits of sales business, check the implementation of internal control system of sales, prevent misappropriation of funds, corruption, external circulation and other problems caused by poor management, and reduce business risks.
2. Establish accounts receivable aging analysis system and accounts receivable recovery system. The financial department should analyze the aging of accounts receivable and supervise the recovery of accounts receivable. Through analysis, enterprises can determine how many debts are within the credit period, how many debts exceed the credit period, the length of time and the proportion of money, and how many debts may become bad debts because of too long overdue time. On this basis, the enterprise distinguishes the aging, formulates an economical and feasible collection policy, and adopts flexible and diverse collection methods (such as letter contact, telephone contact, door-to-door collection, recourse to legal means, etc.) to collect debts as much as possible.
3, the implementation of collection performance appraisal and accountability system. "Management without assessment is invalid, and assessment without quantitative indicators is invalid". The enterprise shall, in accordance with the principle of "whoever sells, who collects", decompose the payment back to each salesperson, and formulate a feasible payment plan to clarify the amount and period of payment. Every month, according to the completion of the payment plan, the performance of the sales staff is assessed and the bonus is cashed. If the money cannot be recovered due to man-made reasons, the salesperson shall be investigated for responsibility, ordered to make compensation, and seriously investigated for criminal responsibility.
4. Implement a regular reconciliation system to ensure that the amount of creditor's rights is correct and effective. The financial department of an enterprise should check the book balance of accounts receivable with customers regularly or at least at the end of each year by means of letters, vouchers, etc., to avoid mistakes, and properly keep relevant materials to ensure the continuation of the legal recourse of creditor's rights. Because the legal recovery period of accounts receivable is less than 2 years overdue, enterprises will lose the right to recover the arrears after the validity period, and enterprises must strive to recover the money within the validity period or obtain relevant certificates to extend the validity period, such as statements and payment plans.
5. Hold special meetings on accounts receivable on a regular basis to track and analyze the payment collection and the implementation of credit policies. Whether the accounts receivable can be recovered in time and in full directly affects the capital turnover and operating performance of enterprises. Enterprise leaders must attach great importance to the management of accounts receivable, pay attention to whether accounts receivable are recovered in time, organize personnel to hold special meetings on accounts receivable regularly, check the implementation of credit policies, analyze the causes of accounts receivable, evaluate their rationality and potential risks, formulate corresponding countermeasures, designate special personnel, and take effective measures to solve existing problems.
In short, enterprises should formulate reasonable credit policies and control the scale of accounts receivable according to the principle of cost-effectiveness. At the same time, enterprises should always put the payment back in the first place, control the whole process of accounts receivable, intensify the collection, speed up the payment back, and ensure that the realized income flows to enterprises in time and in full, thus avoiding operational risks.