I am trying to put all clients who are currently on standing oder to direct debit. They are two clients who has not signing up to DD. This is beacuse of their lack of trust in DD and I think in me.
I have sent the website links giving details of DD protection. They are not playing ball.
My concern is their lack of trust in me as their accountant. Do they think I will take the money and run? Besides I cannot do this with DD.
If you made moved to DD from SO, what was your experience like? Do you get all clients on board? If they were some who said no - did you just accept this?
Any comments would be helpful.
Thanks
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Replies (10)
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Its your terms of trade and for you to decide how you trade. If they dont like it, and refuse to play ball, tell them to find someone else.
DD can be no go
Some firms will NOT pay by DD because of bad things that have happened in the past. When a DD goes wrong it used to take a long time to sort out, but if it happend to you then you may not find it easy to forget.
Lack of trust in DD
I agree with Zebaa - it can be very hard to get some people to trust anyone using DD set up. This is not a reflection of your honesty.
Although you can get new clients to sign up to DD reasonably easily, if current clients aren't happy, but are willing to use standing order payments rethink how you operate that system to accommodate the ones you want to keep. In time they may change their point of view, but as long as they are paying the right amount regularly I would try to bend a bit.
Have you asked them?
I too know several people who will not touch DDs out of principle. As long as they pay on time what's the problem with them staying on STO?
Have you picked up the phone and spoken to them?
Lack of trust in DDs
Some peolpe do not trust DDs. I know one who will not pay anything by DD. The irony is that they collect money from many of their customers by DD. :-) Mind you there are still a few of those customers who will only pay by STO.
About 10% of mine ...
have not signed up to DD. To be honest I am not too concerned as actually those are the type of cleints that pay very promtly anyway. I'm not so concerned as to lose a client just for my preference and many clients have seen it as a positive.
This is interesting
I still haven't signed on the dotted line with regards DD, and this thread is making me wonder really whether it's worth it.
I've just checked my debtors and I think it will take just as long to chase those and collect, than it would to prepare the DD file every time and do all the associated paperwork. Decisions, decisions.
Back a little more on topic, if I did offer DD, I certainly wouldn't insist everyone did it - good payers who want to pay by bank transfer and pay on time should be encouraged also :)
Ask
When I was in practice I moved all clients to STO and at the same time I change the basis from arrears to pay-as-you go. I visited each client and explained why and everyone agreed because I focussed on the benefits to them.
What option/s have you given them?
Do you want of offer and manage multiple payment options?
If you are happy to offer a non DD payment option/s then do it. But, if they don’t trust you why should you trust them, get full payment upfront before you start the work.
If you want everyone on DD and they are not playing ball you really need to find out why. When you know this you can address the issue.
Maybe they don’t trust you? This could be nothing to do with you as a person; it could come from a past experience. Find out why, acknowledge the issue and deal with it. If you can’t, then offer to find them an accountant who will look after them without needing DDs.
Everyone makes decisions by comparing choices so give them something to compare doing the DD against. Most accountants don’t give clients a big enough reason to do something. Moving accountants or doing a DD is a good test for them.
Bob Harper
I will be flexible on this now
Thanks for the helpful response all. It has made me rethink.
With exisiting clients on SO and who do not want to move to DD, I will accept this. When they signed up with they agreed to SO and not DD.
For all new clients it will be either payment upfront or Direct Debit.
Monsoon submission of DD file is not as daunting as it looks. I was really put off at first. I called Eazipay and asked them to go through with it with me step by step. The time savings in chasing clients for fees will far outweigh an insignificant hassle with DD.