updated as of September 4, 2024

OBJECTIVE To enhance the company’s cash flow by making sure that Tax Invoices/Client Invoices are settled by clients on time and to cultivate a healthy working relationship.

SCOPE The overdue invoices bound for account suspension apply to monthly invoices that are issued and sent every 3rd business day of the month and to first month invoices.

EFFECTIVE Starting July 1, 2024

Important things to remember

• All Regular Monthly Invoices of clients must be sent to them no later than the 3rd business day of each month.
• Due Date is strictly 5 business days from the date of invoice issuance for clients without recorded payment arrangement filed via Fresh Desk.
• Client Requests for invoice amendments shall not affect the invoice due date. Upon sending of the amended invoice, Accounts to get the client's confirmation of the amended invoice's accuracy and remind the client of the original invoice due date and potential complication of non-payment.
• Schedule of Account Suspension: 1 Business Day after Due Date. Accounts to send a friendly reminder 2 days before the due date; caution email to be sent to the client and remote contractor on the due date.
• In the absence of a Collection Specialist, CRE will temporarily support Accounts in their collection efforts mainly in calling clients since Accounts is currently only doing emails.
• For internal use only: If the client pays on the 15th of the same month, we can still include their RC's pay for that pay period or on a fortnightly basis whichever is applicable.
• Any payment that comes in after the 15th of the month, CRE needs to seek CMD's approval to have the pay of the RC released as 2nd priority c/o Payroll Officer.

Below are the sequence of events from the time we sent out an invoice to a client.

I. Accounts to send the monthly or first month invoice (FMI) to client.

II. Chique/Otie to update the Accounts Receivable tracker daily at 10AM PHT. 

III. Following this schedule, Collections Specialist to make follow ups via email/call/SMS from the 7th till the 10th of the month.  You can find sample scripts HERE to serve as your guide if you want to help out in chasing payments. Collections Specialist to add comments on the Accounts Receivable tracker on any chasing efforts made. 

IV.  Collections Specialist will send an email caution to the client 2 Business Days prior the invoice due date via FD.  

IMPORTANT:  Bill Due Tomorrow via Xero must be sent out to clients no later than 12NN PHT

CRE to create a ticket on Fresh Desk for any one-off or ongoing special payment request from clients.

Payroll Officer will manually send an email notification to the remote contractor at least a day prior or on invoice due date

IMPORTANT REMINDERS: 

1. Collections Monitoring file was shared with CDAs and CREs.  Both parties will need to check the document at least on or before the 10th of the month (except for clients with special payment arrangement). This will allow CREs to determine who needs to be chased further and who's up for suspension 1 business day after invoice due date.
2. Important columns to check are Invoice Date, Balance, Number of days remaining to  due date and Invoice status

V. Billing Specialist to manually send an email notification to client on the due date/one day prior to account suspension.

IMPORTANT:  Final Payment Reminder must be sent out to clients no later than 9AM PHT

VI. 1 Business day after due date, Collections Specialist (Donna) will manually send an email to client by COB regarding the account suspension. Collections Specialist will inform CRE and CDA Teams via email and Skype (Accounts & Operations) of the suspended account/s. 

VII. To be strictly followed by these parties after Accounts suspension notice has been sent.

CRE MUST

add the following as a note to the existing ticket generated from the final payment reminder email sent by Billing Specialist via support@remotestaff.com (FD) documenting the account suspension:

• Create a ticket on Fresh desk
  • Contact: (type in your RS email address)
  • Subject: Account Suspension on (Date eg. May 1, 2024) | (Contract # Remote Contractor's Full Name; same name showing on the portal) [Example: Account suspension on May 16, 2024 | Contract # 10000 - Bella Flores]
  • CRE: (Your name)
  • Client name: (same name showing on the portal)
  • Type: Request
  • Department: CRE
  • Inhouse Ticket Type: Compliance
  • Concern: Others
  • If selected (Others): Account Suspension
  • Status: In Progress
• Description
  • indicate all accounts that will be suspended on the day and any narratives important to mention

• 
  
  • Group: Service Group
  • Agent: (Choose the assigned CDA for this client)
  • Internal Group: Service Group
  • Internal Agent: (Payroll Officer - Monica)
  • Priority: Urgent
  • Contractor Name: Type the affected RC's name
  • Tags: Account Suspension
  • Click Create

Please add the following as ticket watchers:

• (Yourself-CRE)
• Sr CRE
• Otie from Accounts
• Billing Specialist
• Collections Officer
• Raphael (as this can lead to a possible cancellation)

CRE to copy and paste the FD link to portal v2.0 note section. Kindly add a summary as well whether it's a first instance of suspension or if there has been successive incidents prior so that your Sr CRE can review the case and help you decide on how to deal with the client's late payment behavior moving forward.

GOOD TO KNOW

GOOD TO KNOW

Payroll Officer: Update ticket after sending email notification to RC

·      Billing Specialist:

o   Will add note in ticket when client paid the invoice, update ticket status to resolve, then close ticket, OR

o   Update ticket to inform CRE and CDA for suspension of account

·      Compliance Data Analyst: Add note in the ticket after monitoring of account is disabled in Teramind

·      After account suspension, Billing Specialist:

o   Add note in ticket when client paid the invoice

o   Tag CRE and CDA for account reactivation in Teramind

o   Tag Payroll Officer for sending of email to RC regarding account reactivation. Then, update the ticket to resolve and close the ticket.

CDA MUST

• Upon receipt of the ticket, login to: remotestaff.teramind.co
• Click on Employees
• in the departments dropdown search for the client name / account name and then click on the magnifying lens button, this will load all staff under the client / account.

Alternatively,

• Expand the employee column section so you can view the remote contractor names
  
• Click on each staff name and toggle the 'Monitor this user' button to turn their access off of Teramind and therefore not allowing them to login for work
  

VII. Upon payment receipt, these are strictly followed for account reactivation

1. Billing Specialist will update invoice and send a receipt when payment is received from the client. He/she to add a note on the existing ticket regarding the same.

2.  CDA to reactivate remote contractor's access to Teramind. CDA to add a note on the existing FD Ticket confirming the reactivation of RC's Teramind access. Account suspension should be lifted within 1 business hour from when the remittance advice was received. If payment doesn't reflect on our end after 2 business days, the account will again be suspended and notify the client.

3. CRE to keep track of any updates and verify whether RC can now login to Teramind. To notify the client regarding the same.

4. Payroll Officer will manually send a 'Reactivation of Account' email to the affected remote contractor/s.

CDA MUST

Once the client pays the invoice, CDA will go back to the Fresh desk ticket raised regarding the account suspension, by:

• going to: https://remotestaff.freshdesk.com/support/tickets
• click on the client account suspension ticket
• add a reply indicating client has paid the invoice and account will be re-activated.
• Close the ticket if no additional action is required on the ticket

CDA will go back to Teramind, and toggle the 'Monitor this user' to ON.

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. Is the client obliged to pay the RC/s while the account is suspended?

A day before a possible account suspension, both your RC and client will be informed that while the account is suspended there will be no work to be done by the RC. Following our service agreement, RC is paid for the dates when the account was suspended as this is not contractor-initiated.

2. What if the RC is willing to still work despite knowing that there is no payment received from his/her client because they had an internal arrangement?

As much as we appreciate the kind gesture and understanding of the remote contractor, we don't want to foster a work environment that's not aligned with our business standards promoting the welfare for both clients and remote contractors. If both parties are insistent, kindly inform the RC that we can't guarantee pay. If she still works during account suspension, that is at her own risk.  

3. If the client promises to pay the invoice within the day, can we reactivate the contract right away especially if it's affecting the client's business operations?

We can only reactivate a contract upon receipt of their payment/remittance advice.

4. How would I know if a client or remote contractor has a special payment arrangement?

Our Accounts team is maintaining a folder (shared with CREs) where they keep track of any contracts with special payment arrangement, discounted margin and those with auto debit agreements. Search for the most recent file on this folder to see the most updated list.