Collections professional Ryon Gambill sees a need for SMBs to collect on unpaid invoices and bad checks. Unfortunately many of these companies lack the financial means to employ a collection agency to handle the recovery. To address this common occurrence, Gambill founded Nationwide Capital Recovery, the parent company Marauder Corporation, and the flagship accounts receivable software, Bill Collector In A Box Professional Debt Recovery Software.
Bill Collector In A Box is a billing and collections software suite that brings the powerful impact and legal compliance of a collections agency right to your desktop. It is designed to help businesses collect on credit card debt, medical debt, non-sufficient checks, and more. The software includes a client database and debt collection tools including letters, customer skip tracking, and access to credit bureaus and national bad check networks. Between its launch in June 2007 and December 2007, nearly 1,000 businesses use the software.
Gambill tells us that the cost to outsource bill collection to a collection agency, for a business with ten clients that owe them $500 each, can be up to 50 cents on a dollar. He says the Bill Collector In A Box software is, "Designed to keep business owners focused on what they do best, not on what we do best." He adds, "It offers you massive leverage on the customers who haven’t paid you."
He highlights several success stories. One customer, an auto dealer in Oregon, who was seeking payment on $400,000 of owed money, recovered $250,000. In another case, an Oklahoma check cashing chain spent $1,050 in SCAN (Shared Check Authorization Network) submissions through Bill Collector In A Box and recovered $12,000.
Hands On
To synthesize the process of recovering past due funds, we install the billing and debt-collection software. A debtor is entered into the application, either through hand keying or from a .csv file created by any accounting program.
There are several steps we can take from there to expedite payment, depending on the type of funds due and the level of impact we want to generate. An easy to follow menu of options is accessed.
The first step most businesses take is to tailor one of 14 available letters to correspond with the customer. To add extra strength and hopefully gain more in return, three letters are available, for a six-dollar fee, which feature the collection agency letterhead. Letters look professional and the fields are easy to tailor to various needs, including non-sufficient funds, past due reminders, and final notices before collection. To save money on postage, invoices and collections letters can also be sent to customers directly from the Bill Collector in a Box interface.
Another option we can select is to report a bad check to SCAN. For a $1.50 fee a check can be added to a database used by about 70,000 retailers and banks nationwide. The SCAN network stalls new retail check purchases and bank accounts until a debtor has paid the bad check and been removed from the network.
Sometimes debtors move without settling an invoice or provide an incorrect mailing address. To handle these situations, three levels of skip tracing are available for tracking these clients down. 25 basic skip traces and one advanced one are included with the software.
Bill Collector In a Box users can also opt to report unpaid customers to credit bureaus such as Experian and TransUnion. This requires a five-dollar fee and offers a seven-year term. With just a click we can report an unclaimed debt to one of these companies.
We can set a tickler system to provide alerts to remind us when it is time to take another action on an unpaid debt. Multiple customer communications and comments may be stored in the system, and accounting calculations are performed automatically as data is entered.
With the software purchase and registration a free attorney discussion board can be accessed. Businesses can ask debt collection related legal questions and view other responses. Answers from the attorneys are posted typically within 48 hours.
If a company requires further collection action on an account, support from a nationwide debt collection agency is available for a contingency commission rate of 38 percent. Through a partnership with PPI, Inc. payments can be processed by credit card or ACH transaction to ensure fast settlement of debts.
Specifications
Bill Collector In a Box requires an Internet connection, Microsoft Windows 2000 or greater operating system, Pentium III 300 MHz+, a 250 MB+ hard drive, 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended), and a monitor with 800 x 600 minimum screen resolution. At this point the software is not compatible with Macintosh operating systems.
The software is now available at several major brick and mortar and online retailers including Amazon.com, CompUSA, and Office Depot. Gambill also tells us he’s seen the software priced as low as $75 at online retailers.
The company offers a no-questions-asked refund policy—if the product does not pay for itself at least twice in the first year the entire purchase price of the software will be refunded.
