Finance charge musings, upcoming autopay

I have run my business for ten years without ever charging anyone a late fee. Recently I was feeling like the cashflow was off (Maybe it was that I had only two $2 bills in my wallet?). I went into SlowBooks and did some “reporting”. I looked at aging reports, and “past due” balances. At this moment, I have $14,000 in past due (more than 60 days), some is 90 or more days past due. I know I offer a superior service and we bust our tails to constantly improve. At the same time we are a small company and do not have full time accountants to keep close check on the accounts. I know people have life challenges and we want to respect and support that. However, over 90% of our monthly fee goes directly to KPUD to maintain the network and provide transit out of county. It isn’t right for me to pay for you to have internet for three or more months before paying us. If you want to not pay attention to your internet bill, please sign up for our autopay service.

If your account is more than 30 days past due, Net253 may add a 2% finance charge. My enforcement will be totally subjective and based entirely on emotion. Best bet, pay before the 20th of each month so we have time to reconcile the accounts before the next billing cycle. We invoice at the beginning of the month for the service of that month. This is called billing in advance. To keep the invoices friendly, we put a net15 on it to prompt you to process the payment no later than mid month even though payment is due at the beginning of the month (like rent).

If you receive a late fee from us, you should be expecting it.

On a positive note, we are about to roll out auto-pay where we will charge your credit card each month for service. If you are one of my many customers who have been bugging me for this, it is finally here. Signup Form