The books are closed. June's still stinging a bit. Especially the invoices that stretched into 90 days, and the two or three you've quietly written off in your head already.

July's the reset. Not because the calendar says so, but because right now you've got about six weeks of relative calm before trading pressure builds again. That's your window.

Most businesses spend the year chasing money. The ones that don't have built a system that chases for them. After 20+ years cleaning up recovery files across Australia and New Zealand, that's the pattern we see. It's almost never an effort problem. It's a process problem.

So let's fix the process.

The macro picture's uncomfortable. The ABS reported private non-financial corporations were holding $368.1 billion in other accounts receivable at March 2026. That's money owed, not money in the bank. A slice of it is yours.

The ATO's own numbers tell the same story from the other end. Collectable debt sat at $52.8 billion at 30 June 2024, up $2.6 billion in a year. If the tax office is finding it harder to collect, small businesses running less structured credit control are wearing far more of that drag.

Then there's the tail risk. ASIC reported 3,556 companies entered external administration in just the first quarter of 2025–26. Some of those were your customers, or your customers' customers. Every extra day a debt sits unpaid, the odds tilt against you recovering the full amount.

Debtor days are cash flow. Write-offs are profit gone. If last financial year taught you anything, it's that "we'll chase harder next time" isn't a plan. That's where our debt recovery services come in when prevention fails. Honestly though, the goal is not to need us at all.

Six steps. Do them in order. Each one closes a gap we see debts fall through every week.

Step 1: Put your payment terms in writing

If your terms live in your head or in an email footer, they don't exist. Write them once. Put them on your quotes, your invoices, and a standalone terms document customers sign before you start work.

Pick a period that matches your cash cycle. Small trades run 7 days, most services run 14, and larger B2B accounts get 30. Include the obvious ones people skip: interest on overdue amounts, recovery costs passed to the debtor, and a clause on retention of title where it applies.

Terms without signed acceptance are weaker when it's time to recover. A signed acceptance is what turns a dispute into a debt. Get the legal and compliance wording reviewed once, then reuse it forever.

Step 2: Credit-check every new account

Every new B2B account gets a credit application. Non-negotiable. It captures the trading name, ABN, directors, trade references, and gives you the legal footing to run a check.

Verify the ABN's active, look at trading history, and for anything material, pull a credit report. Ask for a director's guarantee on smaller companies with thin balance sheets. If the check comes back ordinary, that's not a "no". It's a "pro forma or 50% deposit".

Worth knowing: the ATO can now report business tax debt to credit bureaus once a business has $100,000 or more overdue by 90+ days. Unpaid tax is starting to show up where you can see it. Use it. B2B accounts carry real commercial debt collection risk, and the cheapest way to manage that is to screen before you invoice, not after.

Step 3: Invoice the day the work is done

The single biggest slippage point. Work finishes Tuesday, invoice goes out the following Monday, terms are 14 days from invoice date. You've just donated a week.

Invoice same-day. Every invoice needs the PO reference, a clear description, the due date in bold, and every payment method you accept. If the customer needs a statement, send one on the first of the month without them asking.

Clean books make this automatic. If invoicing's falling behind because you're doing everything yourself, that's a bookkeeper conversation, not a willpower conversation. Accounting and bookkeeping support pays for itself the first time an invoice goes out on the day, not the week.

Step 4: Set a follow-up cadence and stick to it

Reminders at day 7, day 14, day 30. Written down, in the calendar, owned by a specific person.

Day 7 after due date: friendly email. "Just checking this one didn't slip through." Day 14: firmer email, statement attached, phone number of who to call. Day 30: phone call first, then a written notice referencing your terms and the interest clause.

For context, the ATO's own on-time payment rate by value was 89.6% at 30 June 2024, against an 88% target. Most small businesses run well below that. A cadence closes the gap.

The point of a schedule isn't the reminders. It's that no debt drifts. This is why chasing early matters more than anything else you could get wrong.

Step 5: Decide your escalation triggers in advance

Set the trigger now, in July, when you're calm. Not in March when you're emotional about a specific customer.

The rule most of our clients settle on: Final Demand letter at day 45, handover to a recovery partner at day 60 unless there's an active, documented payment plan. No exceptions on gut feel.

Awareness matters too. There's a statutory time limit for debt collection in Australia, generally six years from when the debt became due. But the longer you wait, the harder recovery gets, and the more excuses accumulate. Read up on it so you're not caught out.

Write the triggers down. Share them with whoever runs your AR. When the trigger hits, the debt moves. That's the whole discipline.

Step 6: Choose your recovery partner while things are calm

Vet a recovery partner before you have a debt to hand over. Ask about coverage (do they work AU and NZ?), fee model (no-win-no-fee is what most reputable operators offer on straightforward matters), access (is there a portal so you can load a debt and track it?), and who you actually talk to (industry account managers who know your sector, not a call centre).

Do some due diligence. The ACCC took action in June 2026 against ARMA Group and Force Legal over more than 320,000 allegedly misleading debt enforcement notices, following complaints from over 400 customers. Not every operator is the same. Ask questions.

We've been doing this across Australia and New Zealand for more than 20 years. Have a look at the debt collectors in Australia worth partnering with and compare.

Three artefacts. Get these right and most of the process runs itself.

If you're a one-person finance function and this feels like a lot, it is. That's what small business debt collection support is built for when you're under-resourced.

The trigger's the trigger. Day 60, no payment plan, no genuine dispute in writing. Debt moves.

Here's what actually happens after handover. You load the debt into the portal. Debtor details, invoice, statement, any correspondence. An account manager who knows your industry picks it up. Contact starts within days. You get updates as things move. If we recover, we take a percentage. If we don't, on no-win-no-fee matters, you don't pay a collection fee.

Set-and-forget escalation rules mean you're not making decisions on individual debts every week. The system decides. You get to run your business.

Want a read on a specific debt before you commit? The free Debt Terminator appraisal gives you an honest view on a specific debt. Recoverable, worth chasing, or write-off. No sales pitch attached.

• ABS Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth, latest release

• ATO Commissioner of Taxation annual report 2023–24

• ATO business tax debt disclosure rules

• ASIC Corporate Insolvency Update Issue 38

• ACCC media release: ARMA Group and Force Legal proceedings