tailieunhanh - Ebook Financial accounting (9th edition): Part 1

(BQ) Part 1 book "Financial accounting" has contents: Accounting in action, the recording process, adjusting the accounts, completing the accounting cycle, accounting for merchandising operations, fraud, internal control, and cash, inventories. | 8 Accounting for Receivables Feature Story A Dose of Careful Management Keeps Receivables Healthy “Sometimes you have to know when to be very tough, and sometimes you can give them a bit of a break,” says Vivi Su. She’s not talking about her children but about the customers of a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Whitehall-Robins, where she works as supervisor of credit and collections. For example, while the company’s regular terms are 1/15, n/30 (1% discount if paid within 15 days), a customer might ask for and receive a few days of grace and still get the discount. Or a customer might place orders above its credit limit, in which case, depending on its payment history and the circumstances, Ms. Su might authorize shipment of the goods anyway. “It’s not about drawing a line in the sand, and that’s all,” she explains. “You want a good relationship with your customers—but you also need to bring in the money.” “The money,” in Whitehall-Robins’ case, amounts to some $170 million in sales a year. Nearly all of it comes in through the credit accounts Ms. Su manages. The process starts with the decision to grant a customer an ✔ The Navigator account in the first place, Ms. Su explains. The sales rep gives the customer a credit application. “My department reviews this application very carefully; a customer needs to supply three good references, and we also run a check with a credit firm like Equifax. If we accept them, then based on their size and history, we assign a credit limit.” Once accounts are established, “I get an aging report every single day,” says Ms. Su. “The rule of thumb is that we should always have at least 85% of receivables current—meaning they were billed less than 30 days ago,” she continues. “But we try to do even better than that—I like to see 90%.” At 15 days overdue, Whitehall-Robins phones the client. After 45 days, Ms. Su notes, “I send a letter. Then a second notice is sent in writing. After the third and final notice, the client has 10 .