Shipper accounts that drift past their terms
How a freight business uses Achekam's age analysis, statements and reminders to see which shippers are past their terms, by how long, and what to do next.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Freight businesses lend money without meaning to. The truck is fuelled, the driver is paid, the subcontracted carrier and the border agent want settling, and the shipper pays at the end of its terms, if then. A shipper that slides from paying on time to paying a month late has, in effect, taken a loan from its transporter. Several shippers doing the same at once can leave a perfectly profitable freight business unable to pay for diesel.
The defence is to see the drift early, while it is still a conversation rather than a collection. This article explains how a freight business can use Achekam's receivables to see which shippers are past their terms, by how long, and what to do at each stage.
Terms begin on each invoice
Every freight invoice carries its own terms. In Achekam, a customer invoice starts as a draft you can change or delete; issuing it gives it the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Default terms are 30 days.
Thirty days is a default, not a rule. A large shipper may have negotiated longer; a one-off customer may be on cash before collection. The age analysis is only meaningful if each shipper's invoices carry the terms you actually agreed, so check them when a new shipper is set up and whenever the agreement changes.
Reading the age analysis
Achekam ages receivables into five columns, 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. For a freight business, each column suggests a different response:
| Column | What it usually means | A sensible response |
|---|---|---|
| 0-30 days | Recent loads, often within terms | Nothing, unless the shipper's terms are shorter |
| 31-60 days | Past standard terms | A courteous call to the shipper's accounts team |
| 61-90 days | A pattern, not an oversight | Call the person who books the loads, as well as accounts |
| 91-120 days | Serious arrears | Senior conversation; consider new loads only with payment |
| Over 120 days | At risk | Decide on stopping service and recovery steps |
Look at the movement, not only the totals. A shipper whose balance moves from the second column to the third in a single month needs attention even if the amount is modest. A large balance that stays steadily in the first column may be perfectly healthy. AccountingTools describes the aging schedule as a report that sorts receivables into date buckets to show which items are overdue.
Keeping receipts allocated
An age analysis is only as accurate as the receipts behind it. A payment that has not been put against the right invoices leaves old invoices looking unpaid and makes a good payer look bad.
Achekam lets you record a payment against one invoice or spread it across a shipper's invoices. A part payment leaves an invoice part-paid with the remainder still showing, and any extra is held on the shipper's account. If a receipt was put against the wrong invoice, it can be re-allocated; an administrator can refund or reverse it if needed.
Freight remittances often list many invoice numbers in one payment. Allocate exactly as the remittance says, and query any invoice the shipper has left out, because that is usually a disputed load.
Statements to the shipper's accounts team
Large shippers pay from statements, not from individual invoices. Achekam produces a customer statement of account as a PDF that can be e-mailed, and the screen says whether it was sent, which settles "we never received it" quickly.
Credit control is also switched on for new workspaces. Once a day it e-mails overdue reminders, by default at 7, 14 and 30 days overdue with the invoice attached, and sends a monthly statement to customers with a balance. It never charges anyone and records whether each e-mail went out; it needs working e-mail settings. Neither the reminders nor Achekam itself collect the money: there are no saved cards or debit orders, and the reminder e-mails carry no pay link. The shipper still has to pay.
Send statements to the address the shipper's accounts team actually uses, not to the dispatcher who books loads.
Deciding when to stop moving freight
The hardest decision in freight credit control is when to stop accepting loads from a shipper that owes money. Make it a policy, written before you need it, rather than a decision made in anger on a Friday afternoon:
- Set the trigger. For example, any balance in the 61-90 column, or total overdue above an agreed amount, puts the account on review.
- Name who decides. The credit controller recommends; a director or the financial manager decides.
- Tell operations. Dispatchers must know which accounts need clearance before a load is accepted.
- Tell the shipper. Explain what must be paid for normal service to resume.
- Decide on the loss. If a debt cannot be recovered, Achekam allows an unpaid debt to be written off only once a partner approves, so the write-off is a deliberate decision with a second pair of eyes.
The same buckets and statements serve every kind of business, which is why a college following its fee instalments uses a very similar routine; see fee instalments as part payments on one invoice.
The weekly half-page
Every week, print the age analysis, mark the accounts that moved columns, and agree one action for each. The shippers worth keeping usually pay once someone asks properly. The ones who will not are better identified early, before the next load is on the road. Month-end work on the cost side, such as accruing carrier costs at month end, completes the picture of what each lane really earns.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
