General Consultant Discussion

Have you noticed an increase in end users who ignore your invoices for Sage maintenance? Then once they lapse they say they never received / never meant to let it lapse / were confused / etc. I'm curious if you've developed a more effective method for invoicing the Sage maintenance. Presently we are: 1. Sending an email invoice via Freshbooks about 60-90 days in advance of renewal (basically as quickly as we can once Sage gives us the $$). 2. When we are about 45 days out if we still don't have payment we send a postal service notice 3. When we are within about two weeks out we email directly An increasing number of end users seem to ignore the notices altogether until it's too late. I have one EU quoted $690 late fee for being about 2 weeks late (and I am NOT arguing against Sage imposing this). My question: Have you developed any other effective way to ensure that the EU receives notice of the renewal? I have a hard time believing that these people are missing the notifications as I'm pretty sure Sage is calling and emailing them as well.

I suspect you different behavior between customers who buy your annual plan and those who don't? Perhaps tell the ones who don't subscribe to your plan to renew directly with Sage -- won't get the same $$, just delayed as commission? We stopped invoicing customers for Sage renewals several years ago because too many thought they were paying us for support.

Maintenance renewal is a good time to have ""the talk"" with the end user. Those with PR need to switch over to the new billing. We also discuss 100c and what it means to them long term. Plus it is a good time to discuss the latest version and begin planning to upgrade. I personally trust Sage about as far as I can throw them in advising my clients.

I thought we had a pretty good system and for the most part it works. There are a few who seem to ignore every notice and then a week after they expire think they can rush us a check and we process it without penalty. Unfortunately Sage is now assessing late payment penalties so even when the end user rushes us out a check there's nothing we can do. For now I am : - Expiring all maintenance quotes 3 days before they are due - _Add $250 plus Sage penalty for any quote paid after the due date of you would like us to manage the late renewal_ (I think this is too optimistic and I'm going to just refer late payers directly to Sage) - Call Sage direct to discuss your options if you are delinquent And the more I think about it - I believe I would get significant push back from end users trying to charge them any fee on my end so it may just be wiser to advise them to contact Sage directly for delinquent renewals.

And according to one Sage account manager, they are no longer allowed to waive late fees. (Ironic, IMHO considering everything going on at Sage.)