{"id":632,"date":"2017-04-18T10:34:22","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T00:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/?p=632"},"modified":"2017-09-29T16:16:05","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T06:16:05","slug":"letter-of-demand-how-to-get-paid-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/letter-of-demand-how-to-get-paid-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter of Demand \u2013 how to get paid faster"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><strong>Letter of Demand \u2013 how to get paid faster<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h3><strong>Tips to recover outstanding invoices. <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Outstanding invoices can affect your own ability to meet your financial commitments. Recent research by cloud accounting software giant Xero and CoreData uncovers the knock-on effect of outstanding invoices:\u00a0with 38% of business owners say late payments delayed their own payments to suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>The same survey showed 25% of small businesses say they wouldn\u2019t have the operating cash flow to\u00a0survive a month if all the invoices currently owed to them were left unpaid, and that 62% of businesses would not survive more than three months if all invoices went unpaid, and almost 6% of businesses say they would last less than a week. So, what are the steps you need to take to minimse outstanding invoices?<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/how-to-write-a-letter-of-demand\/\">Letter of Demand<\/a> is a formal request to be paid for an outstanding invoice and can be a great way to get that much-needed cash in the door. It\u2019s usually sent once you have exhausted all other avenues to see the invoice reconciled.<\/p>\n<p>In a Letter of Demand, the wording is clear and firm. It\u2019s an official document and one your client should take seriously. It\u2019s a useful tactic to see the outstanding invoices paid.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>When do you send a Letter of Demand?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A Letter of Demand should follow other letters that have requested payment within a reasonable time. It\u2019s important that you have done all you can to recover the debt before you send the demand notice. It\u2019s important to outline in the letter that you\u2019ve called them, discussed the invoice and followed up in writing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you include in a Letter of Demand? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the Letter of Demand, it\u2019s key to provide the debtor time to arrange payment. Be sure to include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The amount of the debt.<\/li>\n<li>Date the debt was originally due.<\/li>\n<li>Date of the Letter Of Demand.<\/li>\n<li>Description of the debt (the details of the services \/ good provided).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you\u2019re at the stage of issuing a Letter of Demand, it\u2019s always important to attach copies of all relevant supporting documentation such as the original contract, the invoices raised and all relevant communications, as this will not only remind them of their obligations but may also be used as evidence in any legal proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to send your Letter of Demand.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Its best practice to send it so you have some form of receipt. For example, if you\u2019re posting it, send it via registered post, or if you send via email, send it with a read receipt.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Know the legislation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Be sure, too, that you\u2019re aware of the restrictions and obligations with sending a Letter of Demand \u2013 as these may vary between the states and territories, so it\u2019s best to make sure you understand what\u2019s necessary before proceeding in your area.<br \/>\nIf you&#8217;re looking to issue a Letter of Demand to your debtor, you may like to download our FREE\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/letter-of-demand\/\">Letter of Demand Template<\/a>\u00a0to speed up the process and save you time and\u00a0unnecessary costs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And now what? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve sent several Letters of Demand with no luck, it\u2019s time to file a Statement of Claim. There is a filing fee associated with this and it varies again between the States and territories.<\/p>\n<p>Once the Statement of Claim is served, they will have 21 to 28 days to respond.<\/p>\n<p>If you are like the many 62% of Australian business who would struggle to see out three months carrying outstanding invoices, it\u2019s important to have a Letter of Demand built into your systems and processes of debt recovery.<\/p>\n<p>While a Letter of Demand can go a long way to recovering your funds and avoiding any court proceedings, some business owners might baulk at sending them for fear of damaging client relationships.<\/p>\n<p>The solution here is to employ a third party \u2013 a professional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/debt-collection\/agency\/\">debt collection company<\/a> \u2013 to send the Letter of Demand on your behalf. Outsourcing this saves you significant time and effort associated with chasing outstanding accounts, but it also gives you piece of mind that your Letter is drafted and delivered by professionals. More importantly, this leaves you free to do what you do best, which is working on your business.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We outline how to get paid faster by slow paying customers through issuing a Letter of Demand. Understand what should be included, and when to sent a Letter of Demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshallfreeman.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}