A C CO U NT S
three years ago. Wyman Energy waits "a week or two," DeSimone said. If payment isn't forthcoming, management of the account is handed over to Transworld, which promptly re-sends the statement to the customer, repeatedly if necessary, DeSimone said. "Generally speaking that portion of it has worked like a charm," he said.
In simple terms, this is an accelerated approach, said Frank Lorenzo, a repre- sentative of Transworld Systems who is based in Weathersfield, Conn., and works with fuel oil dealers. "It is not collections," Lorenzo said. "It is first party billing reminders and phone calls, in the client's name, every few days, early in the age of the receivable. It is outsourcing a necessary office function that our clients should do but can't afford to do internally."
that the dealers are living in right now is a lot different than it was a couple of years ago," he said. "There's less money around, people are out of work, people are pinch- ing their pennies and trying to find out who they can pay slower. Consequently, if you don't ask early and often, you may not get paid." Accounts that go unpaid for 120 days,
Bobbie Suomela oversees the software that Como Oil and Propane, Duluth, Minn., uses to manage some 21,000 cus- tomer accounts. Photo courtesy of Como Oil and Propane.
The accelerated approach is a way to deal with current eco- nomic and industry conditions, Lorenzo said. "The environment
and require special calls and dunning let- ters are to be avoided more than ever now, Lorenzo said. "By the time an account gets to be that old it's already too late" in many cases, Lorenzo said. Further, he said, "Sometimes when it comes to the job of collecting money the [oil dealer's] staff is reluctant. It's not pleasant to do." Transworld Systems Inc., headquar-
tered in Santa Rosa, Calif., is a traditional collections agency that evolved to offer
the additional service of accounts receivable management, Lorenzo said.
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