By collecting payments from customers upfront rather than allowing them to pay you, say, 30 days after receiving your product, your company will, on average, have much more cash on hand. How much? Roughly 8% of annual revenues! Other strategies for minimizing A/R include validating creditworthiness of your customers before doing business with them, converting checks into electronic funds transfers (EFT), e.g., using the Automated Clearing House (ACH), accepting credit card payments, and so on.
Related Question: