Any sales that occur within a business where payment is not made up front (eg. retail) or in advance of the sale (eg. down payment for a car), is reflected as an “Accounts Receivable”, which is accounting terminology for amounts owing by customers to a business. It is good to have accounts receivable, as this means you are generating sales. The downside, however, of having accounts receivable is that it represents cash that you don't have now, and along with that comes the possibility that your customers won’t pay you.  Luckily a good system to manage your accounts receivable will help to reduce the number of non paying customers thereby avoiding bad debts.  Below are some steps to help manage and collect on your accounts receivable: