You want so much for your business or career to succeed. You put so much time and effort into making customers, clients, or patients happy, but there are always a couple of sour apples in the bunch. These are the people that ask for services, are served, and then do not pay. You can understand falling on hard times, but when these people simply do not return your calls or acknowledge their debt with you, it becomes a hassle. You do not want your whole job to be about collecting money owed from those that have not paid. Rather than spend your days being frustrated about your accounts receivable, the following options can work for you while you go about the rest of your business. 

Accounts Receivable Management

Hire someone to be "the bad guy." These are the aggressive people who have no problems going after customers, clients, or patients who have not paid. They will work tirelessly for you, so long as you pay them to do their job. While it may not have been your intention to hire on some extra help, especially if you want to fly solo in your career, you may find that accounts receivable management really works (and alleviates a lot of stress, too). 

Outsource This Job

When other businesses, professionals, and organizations need to get paid from people that have not paid and are not paying, they outsource the difficult accounts to a collection agency. The collection agency manages the accounts that have not paid, while the business, professional, or organization continues to manage the rest of their accounts receivable in-house. In this way, the problem accounts are managed and pursued by professionals who can, and will, get the money for you. Meanwhile, you are free to continue managing all your other accounts in good standing all on your own. 

Deciding When to Let Go and Write It Off

One final solution is deciding when to let go of the bad accounts and just write them off on your taxes. You can do that, but you will never see the money. Many hospitals do this when the bills have not been paid after two years or more. You could also set a personal time limit for pursuing money owed and then just "discharge" it on your taxes. If you are relatively successful and not hurting for that two hundred bucks someone owes you, this may be a viable option.