Payment Tracking & Reducing Your Collection Cycle

Outstanding receivables are a silent cash flow killer

Every rupee in an unpaid invoice is a rupee you can't use to pay salaries, restock inventory, or invest in growth. The average Indian SMB has 22–35% of monthly revenue sitting in outstanding receivables at any given time. That's not a billing problem — it's a collections process problem.

Understanding your Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

DSO measures how long, on average, it takes you to collect payment after issuing an invoice:

DSO = (Total Outstanding Receivables ÷ Total Revenue) × Number of Days

If your DSO is 45 days and your payment terms are Net 30, clients are consistently paying 15 days late. This gap is costing you cash flow every month. The goal: DSO ≤ payment terms.

The collections workflow in Proactiq

Go to Finance → Invoices and filter by status Overdue. Sort by Amount: High to Low. This is your collections priority list — work it top-down.

Recording a payment

When a client pays, open the invoice and click Record payment. Enter:

• Amount received — Enter the actual amount. Proactiq handles partial payments automatically.
• Payment date — The date the money arrived in your account
• Method — Bank transfer, UPI, Cheque, Cash, or Card
• Reference number — UTR for NEFT/RTGS/IMPS, UPI transaction ID, or cheque number

When the full amount is recorded, invoice status automatically moves to Paid. Your collection efficiency and net cash position on the Analytics dashboard update instantly.

The 4-stage follow-up sequence

• Day 1 overdue: Polite reminder via the invoice email button (pre-written template). Most late payments are genuine oversights — one reminder resolves them.
• Day 7 overdue: Phone call with a specific request: "Can I expect payment by Friday?" Get a commitment to a date.
• Day 14 overdue: Formal notice via email with the outstanding amount, invoice number, and a payment link if available.
• Day 30 overdue: Pause new work for this client until the outstanding amount is cleared. Document this decision in a note on their CRM contact record.