10 Top Uses For Excel In A Debt Collections Business

10 Top Uses For Excel In A Debt Collections Business

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When you run a business from home, you need all of the tools at your disposal to make keeping track of the details easier -- but some tools, like Microsoft Excel, can take a startling array of forms. A collections business can utilize Microsoft Excel in several mundane and a few very startling ways.

Templates
There are tens of thousands of templates for Excel on the web, not to mention the dozens it comes prepackaged with. Check out a few that a debt collection agency can well use:

SLAs -- While most of your service-level agreement will be in text form, there is always a page that requires some of Excel's organizational capacity -- the costs page. With Excel, it's easy to manipulate cost-per-X, overtime agreements, what charges your contractor will authorize, and more.

Background Checks -- One of the more important aspects of a solid debt collections effort is collecting all of the information you can about your debtor. With an in-depth background check template, you can simplify the process by using drop-down menus rather than manually-typed entries, and you can make sure that all of the questions get answered.

Employee Training Records -- There are a lot of things that a debt collection agent needs to know, especially about the Fair Debt Collection laws. By putting together an exhaustive list and checking off when an employee has been trained on an item, you not only ensure that employees ARE fully trained, but you have the records to prove it.

Receipts -- Debt collection receipts can vary in complexity from simple notes to full-page outlines of what's been paid, what is owed, what is accruing interest at what rate, and how long it will take to pay off the debts at the current rate. Excel templates can do the latter with ease.

Marketing
Every startup debt collection agency faces challenges when it comes to getting clients. A few choice Excel tricks can make this a much easier process.

Direct Mail -- For a third-party agency, getting customers is all about finding companies interested in selling you their debt. Contacting a mailing list renter that specializes in first-party collections groups and using Mail Merge to create a form letter announcing your service is easy with Excel.

Online Advertising -- Keywords are king when it comes to online marketing. Get a pro to do research what keywords you should use, but request the results in Excel, so that you can sort by any of the several variables each keyword has, and find the best most easily.

The Back End
Excel spreadsheets can take care of much more than the financial paperwork in your back office.

Scheduling -- Excel can easily produce both numerical and graphical schedules so that you can easily take notes or see potential scheduling conflicts.

Customer Tracking -- There are a myriad of different options that a customer can take when it comes to servicing his debt. Excel can whip up a quick plan that will automatically calculate interest and the pay-off debt.

Inventory -- Even a small business with few employees can go through a staggering variety of amount of supplies in a month. With Excel, you can keep inventory and know what you need to order when -- but you can also project business a few weeks ahead so you can modify orders based on any potential downturns.

About the Author:
Jen Morrison is a writer for LastMinuteTraining.ca. Canada's largest online marketplace for training. They provide access to Excel training in Toronto and in other major centers across Canada. In addition to Excel training you can find training for most software applications, technical training like ITIL Training and much more.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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