BizSugar.com › Finance › Define the Deal to Get Paid Promptly

The primary reason for slow payment from existing customers is not some mystical force. It is failure to define the 'deal' clearly with customers -- and failure to accurately document what deal you think was made.

You ask for a price increase, but it's not clear that you've gotten it. There really hasn't been a meeting of the minds. So the customer continues to pay at the old rate (not taking into account any price increases). The poor collections manager gets payment that mismatches with prices, but ends up overriding the inconsistently just to process the payment. Lesson: get the deal in writing!