Companies miss out on 1 billion euros a year in uncollectible invoices
17 January 2012 at 09:00 CET – The Hague – PostNL is helping small and medium sized enterprises collect invoice payments faster by means of a free online tool. More and more SMEs are having difficulty collecting invoice payments, with at least 1 billion euros being lost each year due to uncollectible invoices. Not being able to collect invoice payments is the major cause of one in four insolvencies in the Netherlands. Also, 60% of SMEs have customers who do not pay or who pay too late.
Calculate cash flow
The cash flow tool, found at www.postnl.nl/cashflow, offers businesses a simple way of calculating their cash flow by entering their annual revenues, payment term and the average time it takes customers to pay invoices. The tool then shows how many days a company has to wait for its invoices to be paid and how much it can gain financially if invoices are paid faster. PostNL sends the SME an e-mail with recommendations, such as issuing invoices more quickly, sending reminders sooner, introducing a shorter payment term, and running an advance credit check.
Carlos Mendes Aguiar, SME Director at PostNL: “The cash flow tool helps SMEs create transparency in the collection process. A few simple changes are often all it takes to achieve positive results and free up cash.” PostNL is active in the entire invoice chain and assist SMEs in improving their billing, from printing and sending invoices to collecting unpaid invoices.
In case of discrepancies between the Dutch and English versions of this press release, the Dutch version will prevail.
About PostNL
Annually PostNL processes 8.8 billion addressed postal items (including 100 million parcels) and delivers to more than 88 million addresses in the Benelux, Germany, the UK and Italy. PostNL’s main business is mail, parcels and e-commerce. The company also provides services in the area of data and document management, direct marketing and fulfilment. PostNL employs some 77,000 people. In 2010 the company generated a turnover of nearly 4.3 billion euros. More information about PostNL can be found on its website www.postnl.com.
