The pressure of maintaining a healthy cash flow is immense. Though I am used to these situations now, I recall one of the most testing times at the very beginning. After I was assigned the responsibility of Key Account Manager, expectations of delivering were very high from my superiors. One of the basic responsibilities is to manage receivables of my account. There were a couple of projects for which the EBIT was negative due to liquidated damages on late supply, receivable was more than 100MINR and were overdue from last 18 months. My predecessor had never maintained a proper receivable statement, with four project managers already changed for these projects, little support was available from them and the auditors in our company had started questioning the sanctity of these receivables.
With pressure mounting from all sides for liquidation of these receivables there was an easy escape available by accounting the collections of ongoing revenues for these old receivables. However I stood my ground and along with the new project manger consolidated the complete revenue and collections statement for the project tracing each and every revenue made and payment received. Within days I was able to assign the receivable against pending invoices and identify the reasons for delays in supplies and with proper documentation I received waiver of liquidated damages from the customer.
The complete exercise not only helped me to liquidated the receivable and mitigate the negative EBIT but I was also able to set an example within the organization which was later implemented for maintaining a database on receivables on old outstanding.
With pressure mounting from all sides for liquidation of these receivables there was an easy escape available by accounting the collections of ongoing revenues for these old receivables. However I stood my ground and along with the new project manger consolidated the complete revenue and collections statement for the project tracing each and every revenue made and payment received. Within days I was able to assign the receivable against pending invoices and identify the reasons for delays in supplies and with proper documentation I received waiver of liquidated damages from the customer.
The complete exercise not only helped me to liquidated the receivable and mitigate the negative EBIT but I was also able to set an example within the organization which was later implemented for maintaining a database on receivables on old outstanding.