Collecting Payments on Time: Udhaaro Control, Aging and 60-Day Terms

Ask any distributor in Nepal what keeps them awake and many will say the same thing: money stuck in the market. You sold the goods, the profit is on paper, and the cash is sitting with a dealer in Butwal who "will pay after Tihar". Udhaaro, the traditional credit system, keeps trade moving, but without control it quietly eats working capital and sometimes the business itself.

This guide gives you a practical system: limits, terms, aging, reminders and collection plans.

Why credit control matters more than you think

Take a hypothetical producer selling NPR 2,000,000 a month, with an average 45 days of credit. At any time roughly NPR 3,000,000 sits unpaid with customers. If a quarter of that slips beyond 90 days, NPR 750,000 is at risk, and you are likely borrowing from a bank at interest to fund your customers. These numbers are illustrations, but the shape is familiar to most owners.

Step 1: Set credit rules before the first sale

Write a short credit policy covering:

• Who gets credit: new customers start on cash or a low limit and earn more.
• Credit limit per customer, based on purchase history and ability to pay.
• Payment terms: for example, pay within 30 or 60 days of dispatch.
• What happens when late: reminders, a hold on new orders, and escalation to a manager.
• Who can override: only a named manager, with the reason recorded.

Counting terms from dispatch rather than order date is cleaner, because the customer cannot owe before receiving goods.

Step 2: Make the ledger the single truth

Every sale, payment, return and credit note should post to one party ledger. When the shopkeeper says "I paid", you can see the entry; when you say "you owe", he can see the invoice. Loose notebooks and WhatsApp screenshots create arguments. See replacing paper order books, Excel and WhatsApp.

Step 3: Read the aging report weekly

An aging report is the best credit tool you can have. Example, hypothetical:

Customer	0-30 days	31-60	61-90	90+	Total
Dealer A	250,000	120,000	0	0	370,000
Dealer B	80,000	100,000	150,000	60,000	390,000
Shop C	12,000	0	0	0	12,000

Dealer A owes slightly less than Dealer B, but Dealer B is the problem: half of the balance is older than 60 days. Totals hide this; aging reveals it.

Review the report weekly and act on anything crossing 60 days, before it becomes 90.

Step 4: Use a 60-day rule, or your own

Many distributors treat 60 days as an important line: invoices older than that trigger a manager call, a stop on fresh orders or both. Your number may differ, and shorter terms suit perishable products. Choose it, announce it to customers, and keep to it.

Step 5: Build a weekly collection plan

Targets for sales are common; targets for collections are rarer and just as important. A weekly collection plan lists, for each salesperson or dealer, how much is due this week and how much was actually collected. Reviewing plan against actual every Friday keeps collection a routine, not an emergency.

A simple weekly meeting:

1. Review last week's planned versus collected.
2. List top 10 overdue customers.
3. Assign an owner and a date to each.
4. Record promises ("will pay NPR 80,000 on Sunday") and check them next week.

Step 6: Accept payments the way customers like to pay

The easier it is to pay, the faster they pay. Offer cash, cheque, bank transfer, and digital options such as eSewa, Khalti and Fonepay QR. Allocate each payment to the oldest invoices first (FIFO) unless the customer specifies otherwise, and record advances separately. Cheques need extra care: record the date, bank and whether it cleared.

Step 7: Protect the relationship

Firm does not mean rude. A few habits help:

• Remind before the due date, not only after.
• Send statements monthly so there are no surprises.
• Agree a payment promise and note it.
• Separate the salesperson's role. The same person who sells should not also be the only one who chases; a manager should step in on large overdue accounts.
• Be consistent. If one dealer is allowed to ignore terms, all will.

Handling disputes

Most late payments are disputes in disguise: a damaged carton, a missing return credit, a disagreement about a scheme. Settle them quickly with documents. A returns record and a credit note often release a stuck payment. See sales returns and damaged goods.

Salesperson incentives and credit

If salespeople are paid only on sales, they will sell to shops that cannot pay. Link some of the incentive to collections, or deduct commission on invoices that go unpaid beyond a set period. Be careful and transparent about such rules, and confirm the details of any payroll deduction with your adviser.

Collections in the field

A salesperson visiting a shop should see on his phone the outstanding amount and due date before the conversation begins. He can then ask for payment first, record it on the spot, and issue a receipt. The money goes onto the ledger immediately, so the office does not need to ask "did you collect?" at the end of the day.

Sample credit policy outline

If you have never written a credit policy, this outline can be adapted. The numbers are examples only.

Item	Example rule
New customer	Cash or advance for the first two orders
Starting limit	NPR 50,000 for a shop, NPR 500,000 for a dealer
Terms	30 days from dispatch for shops, 60 for approved dealers
Reminder	5 days before due date and on the due date
First overdue step	Salesperson visit and payment promise
After 60 days overdue	Manager call and hold on new orders
Limit increase	Only after three on-time payment cycles
Override	Named manager, reason recorded

Early-warning signs of a payment problem

Do not wait for a missed due date. Watch for:

• A customer who starts paying in small partial amounts.
• Orders that are growing much faster than the shop's past pattern.
• Frequent excuses: "the owner is away", "the cheque is in the bank".
• Shops that stop displaying your products, which can mean they are selling competing goods.
• Returned or bounced cheques.

When you spot one, act the same week: visit, ask, agree on a date.

Reminders that work

Three messages in a sequence tend to be enough: a friendly note before the due date, a clear reminder on the due date with the amount, and a firm follow-up when overdue, along with a call. Keep a record of each. Where you use SMS or notifications, keep the tone polite and include the invoice number and the amount, so there is no confusion about which bill is meant.

Cheque handling

Cheques are common in Nepali trade. Record the cheque number, date and bank at the moment it is received. Bank them promptly, and mark the payment as cleared only when the money arrives. For a bounced cheque, reverse the payment in the ledger and follow up the same day.

How gamitrack handles it

gamitrack keeps an append-only transaction ledger per party with a statement and an aging view. Payments (cash, eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay, bank, cheque) are allocated FIFO to the oldest invoices, and advances are held on account. Payment due days can be set from dispatch and are fixed at that time. Weekly collection plans compare planned and actual collections, with payments allocated and past weeks left unrewritten. Salespeople can collect from the mobile app and the system sends reminders.

You can try this on your own customer list: start a free trial. See also our guide for dealer management.

Key takeaways

• Decide credit limits and terms in writing before selling.
• Count terms from dispatch and enforce them consistently.
• Read aging weekly; act at 60 days, not 90.
• Plan collections each week and make payment easy.