How it runs for retail stores
Payments through your portal or POS are applied against the right invoice so statements are accurate and trade customers keep buying.
What is accounts receivable outsourcing?
Accounts receivable outsourcing means a remote team manages the money your customers owe you: tracking invoices from issue to payment, sending statements and reminders, logging disputes, and reporting aging and days sales outstanding. The provider works inside your accounting software under your brand. You keep the customer relationship and decide on credits, holds and escalations.
What we handle for retail stores
- Aging maintained by customer and by channel, updated daily
- Reminders before due date and calls after it, under your store's brand
- Credit limits monitored so orders are held when accounts pass the limit
- Promise-to-pay log and dispute log visible to the owner
- Layaway balances tracked and reminders sent before forfeiture dates
The KPI that matters here
Trade-account receivables over 60 days held below 10% of the open balance.
Retail compliance notes
Sales tax collection and remittance
Sales tax collected at the register belongs to the state and, in many places, to a city or county too, each with its own rate and filing frequency. We reconcile the tax collected in your POS to the liability in the ledger every month and prepare the workings for each jurisdiction. Your registered preparer or your Avalara or TaxJar subscription files the return; we prepare, we do not file.
Economic nexus for online sales
Since the Wayfair decision in 2018, a store selling online can owe sales tax in states where it has no premises once it passes that state's threshold, commonly $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions. We track sales by ship-to state from Shopify or your marketplace reports and flag when a threshold is near so you and your advisor can register in time.
Inventory shrinkage and counts
Shrink from theft, damage, miscounts and vendor errors reduces gross margin and, if unrecorded, overstates both inventory on the balance sheet and profit. We book count adjustments when you supply cycle or full counts, separate known write-offs such as damaged goods from unexplained variance, and report shrink as a percentage of sales each period.
Gift cards and unclaimed property
Gift-card sales are recorded as a liability and released to revenue on redemption, with breakage recognized only under the method your CPA sets. Several states treat unredeemed balances as unclaimed property after a dormancy period. We keep a card-level liability schedule so the annual unclaimed-property review is a report, not a reconstruction.
Retail software we work in
- Shopify
- Square
- QuickBooks Online
- Xero
- Avalara
- TaxJar
- Dext
- Lightspeed
- Clover
- All 50 platforms
More for retail stores
Other services for retail
Accounts receivable in other industries
Frequently asked questions
Do retail stores need accounts receivable management if most sales are at the register?
Only if you sell on terms to anyone, and many stores do more of that than they realize: contractors, schools, corporate gifting, wholesale and consignment. A few slow accounts can equal weeks of counter takings. A defined cadence with someone responsible for it keeps that cash moving without pulling staff off the floor.
Will you contact my trade customers in my store's name?
Yes, every reminder, email and call is a first-party communication under your brand, using scripts you approve. We are not a collection agency and we never store card details; customers pay through your payment portal or at the register. Call recording and calling-hour rules follow your state's requirements. Anything needing legal action goes back to you.
How do you decide when to stop supplying a trade account?
You decide; we give you the information. Each account has a credit limit and terms in the customer record, and when an account exceeds either we flag it on the Friday summary and, if you have asked us to, mark the account on hold so new invoices are queried before shipment. Releasing the hold is your call.
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