KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE

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Do late fees work and should you be charging late fees / let Biller Genie do the work
December 4, 2018
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Do late fees work and should you be charging late fees / let Biller Genie do the work
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            Most alarm companies invoice monthly, so there are 12 payments a year to be made by the subscriber.  The next most popular billing cycle is quarter annually, so there are 4 payments a year.  Late payments are potentially more than just frustrating; they are a signal to your subscriber that you are not serious about enforcing your contract.  To some subscriber that is the green light to allow payment to lag until it makes more sense to the subscriber to replace you with a competitor to whom the subscriber will have to lay out less than he owes you.  Pursuing your subscribers in a timely manner [best rule of thumb is to take action as soon as the subscriber falls outside of its normal payment pattern] is the best policy for collecting your money and retaining your subscriber.
            The Standard Form Agreements do not have a late payment provision.  It can certainly be added, and we have added the provision many times upon request.  My thought was that if the subscriber isn’t paying timely adding a late payment fee will only exacerbate a strain in the relationship.  But I’m open minded and below is another perspective on whether it’s good practice to impose a late fee.  
            The late fee calculation is done automatically by Biller Genie, and it’s a new feature being offered.  Biller Genie is presently a FREE billing program that integrates with Quick Books, and includes a neat feature of sending a reminder notice to the subscriber before the late fee is imposed.  This kind of communication can make all the difference to remind the subscriber, on a timely basis, to make the payment.  If you haven’t checked out Biller Genie I suggest you do.  The program and service is offered FREE to those on this forum.  I’m pretty sure that’s the best deal you’re going to get.  See below.
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Ken 
            The most common issue I hear from Alarm Dealers is that they have customers who are always late making their payments.  Chasing payments on overdue invoices is not only a financial burden but also a negative client experience that most dealers tend to avoid.    An easy way to help improve this is to drive consumer behavior by charging late fees.  Enforcing a strict late fee policy forces customers to take you seriously and deters repeat offenders.  Late fees also increase the value of your invoices, also known as “ticket uplift”, which in turn creates new revenue and improves cash flow.   Most importantly, late fees encourage clients to pay on time which gets you paid faster.
            Since QuickBooks does not have an easy way to apply late fees, we just launched a new feature in Biller Genie that automatically add late fees and penalties for past due payments.  Our system will include custom messaging in the invoices and reminders to ensure customers are properly notified of the rules.  We will automatically calculate the late fees, add them to the invoices in QuickBooks each period, and send updates to customers as they are applied.  We also added a new “Upcoming Late Fee” reminder where we will inform customers a set numbers of days before the late fee is due to be applied, so they are encouraged to pay immediately to save money.  Combine this with our new Customer Portal where we incentivize customers to setup automatic billing and recurring payments, Biller Genie is an easy way to help reduce the number of late payments and get your clients paying you on time.
            For a limited time through the end of the year, we are going to be offering both the Late Fees and Customer Portal for free to those on this forum.  If anyone would like to setup a live demo, they can do so by clicking here and we can show them around the system and answer any questions on how it can help improve cash flow.  
   General link:  https://hubs.ly/H0f8Mxd0
   To schedule demo: https://hubs.ly/H0fG13H0
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  With Gratitude,
Tom Aronica, CEO
www.skybankfinancial.com
taronica@skybankfinancial.com
786-360-6391
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
516 747 6700
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com