You may have joined a new employer, or your employer has decided that messy account now just has to be brought in to order. Irrespective of how or why you ended up with the account from hell, it is your job to bring in to order. Often when you first look at the size of the problem however, you can be overwhelmed. Consequently you may not be sure where to start, or the problem frightens you because of the complex issues involved.

Well the first task is not to panic. Take a step backwards, take a deep breath and say to yourself

"Thank you goodness I did not create this mess. I just have to clean it up!" 

Another attitude which you can use to motivate yourself positively in to the project, is to treat the account as complex jigsaw puzzle. As we all know, these jigsaw puzzles can be fun even though you don't have a picture to start with to guide you. In fact, if you think about it, this is even more beneficial as you are under no pressure to achieve that picture.

If you can start with one of these attitudes, you are halfway to getting to grips with the account.

From another perspective, whilst your boss might not like the result of your endeavours, that is not your problem as an employee.  Your role is to identify the outstanding items that can be fixed by payment or processed by a credit claim or journal entry. You can leave the decision on what to do with the other unresolved and identified items to the boss.

In the next blog, we will discuss what you should do before making the first contact with the customer.

If you would like to know more about dealing with the account from hell, contact Kim at kim@creditmatters.com.au