Waleska Gold, MAcc, OBM

11/04/2026

In Accounts Receivable, having the right processes and reports is important, but what really makes the difference is the people behind them.

You can have a strong collection process, regular aging reviews, and clear targets, but without accountability and ownership, overdue balances will continue to grow.

Every overdue invoice has a reason behind it. It could be a payment delay, a dispute, missing documentation, or an internal issue that hasn’t been resolved. What matters is how quickly we identify the root cause, take action, and follow through until it’s resolved.

For me, accountability means keeping commitments, communicating honestly, and taking responsibility when things don’t go as planned. Ownership means not waiting for someone else to act, but taking the initiative to move things forward.

As senior AR professionals, our role goes beyond following up on payments and reporting overdue balances. We need to work closely with internal teams, challenge delays, maintain strong customer relationships, and find practical solutions that improve cash flow.

I’ve always believed that leadership starts with setting the right example. If we expect our teams to take ownership, we need to create an environment where people feel responsible for their work, comfortable raising issues, and confident in taking action.

At the end of the day, a strong AR team isn’t measured only by the reports it produces, but by the problems it solves and the results it delivers.

What have you found makes the biggest difference in building accountability and ownership within an AR team?

11/02/2026

With just two months left in the year, I think many of us in Accounts Receivable are feeling the pressure to bring down overdue balances before year-end.

But one thing I’ve learned is that sending more reminders doesn’t always mean getting more cash in.

Sometimes, the real work starts when we look beyond the aging report.

A few things I’d be paying close attention to right now:

The accounts that really matter. Which customers are holding up the biggest balances? And do we know what’s actually stopping them from paying?

Disputes that have been sitting for too long. Someone needs to own the issue, follow up with the right teams, and keep things moving. Otherwise, we could be carrying the same disputes into the new year.

Payment promises. “It’s being processed” sounds encouraging, but do we have a date? Is the full amount coming? No assumptions. Just clear commitments.

And sometimes, the delay is on our side.

Pending credit notes, billing errors, unapplied cash, unresolved deductions. These are things we can work on without waiting for the customer to respond.

A few other things worth considering before year-end:

* Could an early payment incentive help bring cash in sooner?
* Are Sales and Account Management involved in the accounts that need extra support?
* Do some customers need a review of their credit limits or payment terms for next year?
* Have we cleared small reconciliation differences with GL so the aging reflects what’s genuinely collectible?

One more thing: let’s not forget the invoices that haven’t come due yet. Getting those out accurately and on time is how we avoid creating next year’s overdue balances.

For me, year-end AR is about more than chasing what’s overdue.

It’s about finding out what’s holding up the cash, fixing what we can, and being realistic about what can still be collected.

Some balances need a customer conversation. Others need us to act internally.

What’s taking up most of your AR team’s attention as year-end gets closer?

10/26/2026

One question I often come back to in AR is this: how many overdue invoices could have been avoided?

When I look at outstanding balances, I don’t just look at how overdue they are. I want to know why they haven’t been paid.

Are we waiting for a credit note? Is a dispute sitting unresolved? Was the invoice wrong from the start?

These details matter because every delay in resolving an issue can mean another delay in getting paid.

When I see the same problems coming up month after month, I look at what needs to change.

* Find the pattern. What are the main reasons invoices remain unpaid?
* Get things moving. Follow up with the teams responsible for resolving disputes, billing errors and credit notes.
* Stop repeating the same mistakes. If the same issue keeps coming back, fixing the individual invoice isn’t enough.
* Take ownership. Keep chasing the resolution internally, not just the payment externally.

AR can’t fix every problem alone, but we can make sure recurring issues are visible and don’t get lost in the process.

The real question isn’t just how much cash we collected this month. It’s what we can change to make next month’s collections easier.

How does your team track the reasons behind overdue invoices, and what happens when the same issues keep coming back?

10/23/2026

Sometimes, when I look at overdue invoices, I notice that the same issues keep coming up month after month.

In AR, we often deal with situations like:

• Disputes that take weeks to resolve
• Invoices that need correcting
• Orders delayed because of issues earlier in the process

Eventually, these invoices become overdue, and we follow up with customers for payment.

Following up is an important part of our job, of course. But I also think there’s an opportunity to look at the bigger picture.

When we work together with other departments to resolve these issues, we can understand what’s causing the delays and hopefully prevent the same problems from happening again.

For me, AR is not only about collecting overdue payments. It’s also about sharing what we see, working with other teams, and finding ways to improve the process.

Sometimes, small improvements earlier in the process can make a real difference to cash flow.

How does your AR team work with other departments to help prevent payment delays?

10/21/2026

Good collections is not about how often you chase a customer. It’s about how effectively you communicate, resolve issues, and get commitments followed through.

Working in Accounts Receivable, you quickly see how much customer relationships matter.

A good relationship helps you get honest answers, identify payment issues early, resolve disputes faster, and avoid unnecessary delays.

But building relationships doesn’t mean being soft on collections.

It means knowing how to be professional, understanding, and firm at the same time.

You can maintain a positive relationship with a customer while still holding them accountable for their payment commitments.

At the end of the day, strong customer relationships and effective cash flow management should go hand in hand.

For those working in AR and finance, what’s your experience? How much of a difference does customer relationship management make in your collections process?

10/19/2026

The Balanced AR Scorecard: DSO tells you the "what," but it never tells you the "why."

You can track DSO and see whether it’s improving or getting worse. But the real question is: What’s driving that number?

To get a clearer picture of your receivables performance, I’d look at five other areas alongside DSO:

-Overdue debt and aging – Is overdue debt growing? Are invoices staying unpaid for longer?

-Dispute trends – Are more customers challenging invoices, and how quickly are those disputes being resolved?

-Billing accuracy – Are invoice errors creating delays that could have been avoided?

-Collection effectiveness – Are customers paying as agreed, and are our collection efforts actually making a difference?

-Query resolution – Are customer questions being answered quickly, or are unresolved queries holding up payment?

Why does this matter?

Because not every late payment is a collections problem.

If an invoice is held up because of a billing error, a dispute or an unanswered customer query, making more collection calls won’t necessarily get the cash in any faster.

Sometimes, the answer isn’t to chase harder. It’s to fix what’s getting in the way of payment.

For me, a balanced AR scorecard is about looking beyond the headline number, understanding the reasons behind it, and using that insight to make better decisions.

What KPIs do you track alongside DSO to get a more complete picture of AR performance? I’d love to hear what’s working for you.

10/15/2026

The longer cash stays out, the more risk builds.

The obvious issue with overdue receivables is cash flow.

But there is more to it than that.

The longer an account remains unpaid, the greater the risk of bad debt. And when a large share of receivables sits with just a few customers, the business becomes more exposed if one of them delays payment or runs into financial trouble.

There is also the cash that could be put to better use elsewhere. Money tied up in receivables cannot support operations or fund growth.

That’s why it’s worth looking beyond the aging report. Keep an eye on overdue balances, changes in payment patterns, and how much of your receivables depends on a handful of customers.

Because the longer you wait to spot a problem, the fewer options you may have to manage it.

10/14/2026

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10/07/2026

Cash control vs. cash visibility. Are they the same thing?

Not quite.

We often use these two terms as if they mean the same thing in AR.

Cash visibility is knowing what is happening.

What has been collected?
What is overdue?
What is expected to come in?
Where are the problem accounts?

Cash control is what happens next.

For example, if I can see that an invoice has been overdue for 60 days, I have visibility.

But if I know who needs to follow up, when the customer said they would pay, what is blocking the payment, and what needs to happen if that commitment is missed. That is moving towards control.

The same applies to disputes.

Knowing how much cash is tied up in disputes gives you visibility.

But having clear ownership, following up regularly, and making sure nothing gets stuck for weeks without action, that’s control.

So, for me:

Visibility = knowing what is happening.
Control = taking action based on what you know.

You need both.

Because seeing the cash is one thing.

Getting the cash in is another.

How do you see it? Are cash visibility and cash control the same thing in your AR world?

10/05/2026

One thing I’ve noticed working in accounts receivable is that payment disputes are often not really about the money. More often, they come down to a lack of clarity around the invoice, payment terms, or what was actually delivered.

An invoice gets questioned, terms are interpreted differently, and before you know it, a simple payment issue has turned into a long email chain that can go on for weeks.

Having a clear process for dealing with disputes can make a big difference.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Everyone just needs to understand what happens when an invoice is disputed, who is responsible for looking into it, and how the issue gets resolved.

In my experience, this helps in a few ways:

• Issues are raised earlier, instead of sitting there until someone starts chasing the payment.
• There’s less confusion about who needs to deal with the problem.
• You avoid the endless back-and-forth between AR, sales, operations and the customer.

Without a process, even a small dispute can become a much bigger headache. The invoice stays unpaid, people start chasing each other for answers, and something that could have been resolved quickly can end up affecting the customer relationship.

For me, good dispute management is really about taking some of the firefighting out of AR. When everyone knows what the process is and who owns each step, things tend to move much more smoothly.

It helps keep cash moving, takes some pressure off the team, and makes the experience better for the customer too.

How do you deal with invoice disputes in your business? Is there a set process, or does it depend on the situation?