Hiveterminal Support: What Happens When an Invoice Is Not Paid on Time?

Regardless of all our latest additions to the platform — like the release of our long-awaited ERP plug-in for MS Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (365FO) and MS Dynamics NAV — and our constant push towards business growth, which is delivering liquidity to a growing number of SMEs, we cannot forget about our invoice buyers and their need to feel safe when making investments on a growing Hiveterminal. That is why, here in the support department, we work hard to provide a constant flow of information to all parties involved with the platform. However, as an increasing number of invoices change hands, providing liquidity to SMEs and high ROI to investors on the platform, there are sure to be cases of late or non-payment. We have put together a “step-by-step case study” to help platform users deal with such situations.

After the Due Date: What Is Next?

To make sure that the invoice-buyer has received payment from the debtor, 48 hours after the payment due date Hiveterminal sends a system-generated email to the invoice-buyer asking whether the payment has arrived.

We allow for a 48-hour window after the due date before sending the email in order to avoid instances like:

• The payment due date does not fall on a business day, which may be causing processing delays; or
• Cross-Border payment is in question, which is causing payment delays.

If payment is not received, it is important that the invoice-buyer reports the non-payment immediately. This will trigger notifications for the invoice seller, the debtor and the Hiveterminal Support Team. Our support team will immediately contact the debtor for clarification and will notify the seller about the non-payment by phone.

At that time, the invoice buyer has two options:

a) Hire a debt collection agency

If the invoice buyer does not receive funds within 48 hours, they have the legal right to start a collection process however they choose. To make the process run more smoothly, they can engage a debt collection agency like our partner Prohit. It is important to understand that Hiveterminal does not initiate or run the collection processes on behalf of the invoice buyers, but our support team will be there to help by providing available receivable-related documentation and communication assistance for the debt collection to take place.

Usually, debt collection entails:

1. Early Phone Collection

2. Pre-Legal Collection

3. Legal Collection

On request, our team can provide the contact information for our partner, a leading debt collection agency in Slovenia. Prohit is engaged in the provision of comprehensive claim management. Their services include comprehensive pre-legal and legal collection of claims, taking into account all of the applicable insolvency, and civil and succession procedures. All legal options are used to ensure that unpaid receivables are paid. In its field of expertise, Prohit is the market leader in the country.

b) Wait for the invoice to be paid

From what we have seen, in most cases, delays are resolved by the support team by simply providing the debtor with correct bank account information.

Unfortunately, many companies in Slovenia pay their invoices as much as 30 days after the due date. As we cannot know the internal processes of the companies that are debtors on invoices being sold on Hiveterminal, our team stays in touch with invoice payers, giving them all the necessary information to pay the receivable to the invoice-buyer. In certain cases, when it is difficult to reach the invoice payer, we kindly ask the invoice seller to step in and introduce Hiveterminal to the debtor, if they have not already done so. As a precaution, immediately after the non-payment has been reported, all invoices with the same debtor are automatically removed from our marketplace, with invoice sellers notified about that action. An invoice buyer is free to take up the collection process with or without the help of a collection agency at any time.