Marine Management Software is the accounting solution your marine business is looking for.
By Stephen Bullard, Marine Consultant and Sales Director at PierVantage
Managing cash flow is vital to the health and growth of any boat building and shipyard business – Marine Software can help
Managing accounting and cash flow in the marine industry is especially important during commissioning and launch season when there’s additional stress on cash needs and completing boat projects.
Marine software should provide all the tools your boat business needs to
(a) understand how much cash is coming in and how much is going out of your boat business
(b) determine the timing of cash needs relative to receivables
(c) actively take measures to change the cadence of your receivables.
A great marine software like PierVantage accomplishes this all.
6 Steps to Manage Cash Flow in Your Marine Service Businesses with Marine Software
- Make invoices from your boat business easy to understand with marine management software
- Bill, bill, bill with your marine software
- Take advantage of progress billing with your marine accounting solution
- Make it easy for marine customers to make payments with boatyard management software
- Manage to estimates and reduce revenue give away with a marine accounting solution
- Lower your marine inventory carrying costs
– Make invoices from your boat business easy to understand with marine management software
Nothing delays a customer payment more than a bill that’s not easy to understand, even when customers have the capacity and willingness to make a payment.
You have discerning customers who each have their preferences on how much detail they want to see on their bills. Some want to see copious detail on materials used and boat technician comments on labor performed, while others prefer summary information.
Ensuring that you take those preferences into account when preparing their bill is critical to getting a quick payment.
– Bill, bill, bill with your marine software
As a small shipyard, boatyard, marine services or shipbuilding business, you should bill as often you can. Your billing cadence directly impacts how long you will have to wait for the cash to come in.
Cloud-based marine management solutions like PierVantage allow you to be connected at all times and billing is one activity that you should develop a routine around.
Needless to say, your billing process should be simple and your invoices need to be accurate, two things that your marine management software should easily handle
– Take advantage of progress billing with your marine accounting software
For larger marine projects, progress billing allows you to bill a customer throughout the life of a project for work done up to a specific date. For example, billing the customer every fifteen days on a shipbuilding project for work completed will create a significant relief on your cash stress.
Being able to utilize this powerful and effective tool with your marine management software won’t only allow you to keep your cash flow positive, but it will also keep you and the customer informed on the progress of the project.
Leverage the auto-email capabilities of your marine accounting solution to send outstanding invoices and statements to your customers electronically in less than a minute. The faster you bill, the faster your customer has an easy-to-understand bill in their hands, the faster you can have the cash in your account!
– Make it easy for marine customers to make payments with boatyard management software
It is simple; making payments should be as easy as possible for your marine customers.
It takes days for check payments to be received via the postal service and more days for the checks to clear. In today’s self-service economy you have to provide your boat customers with the ability to make online payments. They do so when they buy other goods on the internet, so why should paying you be “old-school.”
It’s more convenient for your marine customers and your boat business will receive payment much faster!
– Manage estimates and reduce revenue give away with a marine accounting solution
You and your team strive to exceed your customers’ expectations, often going above and beyond to please them. You erode customers confidence when you surprise them with expenses on the bill above what they agreed to.
More often than not, marine enterprise owners in that situation will try to negotiate a bill reduction, causing you to effectively give away revenue. Use the marine management software tools at your disposal to manage your projects to the estimates provided.
Document change orders and reset expectations related to expense. Clear communication around billing makes business sense and it’s the foundation of good customer relationships. A marine software solution like PierVantage offers these features.
– Lower your marine inventory carrying costs
Carrying “excess” boat inventory ties up working capital that could be used to fund operations or growth. But there are other hidden costs as well to your shipyard, boatyard, marine services or boatbuilding operation, such as insurance or the risk that the products may go obsolete (electronics for example).
Creating a “just in time” process for acquiring inventory is important – you should leverage past history, your boat component information and job schedule to minimize the amount of inventory you keep on your shelves. A boatyard management software solution like PierVantage can help you keep track of inventory.
Your business cash flow is one thing that should never be a guessing game. Take the time to leverage the tools provided by your business management solution to really understand the flow of cash throughout your business.
Your business cash flow is one thing that should never be a guessing game in your shipyard, boatyard, or boat building business. Take the time to leverage the tools provided by your marine management solution to really understand the flow of cash throughout your business.
Boat management software like PierVantage is your marine accounting solution and marine management software. Contact us for more information.