- Focus EOFY collections on higher-value and recently overdue accounts. Treating all invoices equally slows down cash recovery when speed matters most.
- Swap automated reminders for specific, direct follow-ups, like phone calls or asking for exact payment dates, to cut through flooded June inboxes.
- Consider short-term funding options like invoice finance or lines of credit to bridge the gap and cover essential operating costs when customers delay payments past 30 June.
Too many businesses head into EOFY assuming unpaid invoices will sort themselves out.
Some do… but plenty don’t.
June is usually when slow-paying customers become impossible to ignore because outstanding receivables start affecting real decisions: what gets paid, what gets delayed, and how much pressure lands on the business owner.
At that point, unpaid invoices are usually the fastest source of cash in the business.
Prioritise invoices that are likely to pay quickly
In June, treating every overdue invoice the same way slows everything down.
If your goal is to improve cash flow before 30 June, focus your energy where it’s most likely to produce results. Start with:
- Higher-value invoices
- Customers who usually pay after a reminder
- Accounts only recently overdue
- Customers with no active disputes or payment arrangements
There’s rarely much benefit in spending hours chasing an invoice that has already been ignored for months. At EOFY, speed matters more than clearing every account on the ledger.
A shorter, targeted collections push usually works better than trying to overhaul your entire receivables process in the final weeks of the month.
Generic reminders don’t create urgency
Most overdue invoice emails are easy to ignore because they sound automatic.
Customers have probably received half a dozen versions of: “Friendly reminder that payment is overdue.”
By EOFY, inboxes are flooded with that kind of message. That’s when getting specific pays off.
Tailored follow-ups tend to get better responses because they explain why timing matters.
For example: “We’re finalising June accounts next week and wanted to confirm whether this invoice will be processed before 30 June.”
It’s harder to ignore because there’s an actual reason behind the follow-up.
For larger invoices, a phone call will usually tell you more in 5 minutes than another email chain will in 3 days. You’ll find out quickly whether payment is actually being processed or the invoice is still sitting in someone’s approval queue.
Another useful tactic is asking for a payment date instead of asking whether payment is coming “soon”. Customers are far more likely to commit to a timeline when they have to give a specific answer.
Late follow-up creates more pressure than most businesses expect
A lot of businesses leave collections too late because the pressure doesn’t feel urgent… until it does.
Once you’re in the final stretch of June, outstanding invoices start affecting everything else around EOFY planning. Cash reserves shrink faster, supplier pressure increases, and business owners end up relying on expected payments that may not arrive in time.
We’ve seen this pattern play out. In a recent poll, 33% of SMEs said they wait 14-30 days to receive payment [1]. That kind of lag is exactly what creates EOFY pressure when cash is needed at a specific point in time.
In the same poll, we also found 19% of SMEs don’t actively track when they get paid [1]. Without visibility around payment timing, slow-paying customers can quietly create problems long before they appear in the bank account.
You don’t need complicated reporting to stay on top of this. Even a basic weekly review can help spot:
- Customers consistently paying late
- Large invoices approaching due dates
- Accounts that need follow-up
- Expected cash inflows for the rest of the month
By late June, knowing exactly what is and isn’t likely to be paid becomes incredibly important.
Some customers won’t pay before 30 June
Even with solid follow-up, some invoices simply won’t clear before EOFY. Approvals get delayed, customers hold onto cash longer, and accounts teams push payments into July all the time.
The problem is that your obligations don’t move with them.
You still need enough working capital to cover wages, tax obligations, suppliers, rent, and operating costs while waiting for customer payments to land.
That’s where short-term funding can help relieve pressure, such as invoice finance, business overdrafts, or lines of credit.
These solutions are often used to bridge temporary timing gaps rather than fund long-term expenses. Accessing capital tied up in receivables can help avoid draining reserves or delaying important payments at EOFY.
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EOFY cash flow pressure usually builds gradually
Cash flow problems rarely appear overnight at EOFY. The warning signs tend to show up earlier:
- Customers taking longer to pay
- Overdue invoices growing
- Follow-ups getting delayed
- Cash reserves tightening
- Upcoming obligations creating stress
If outstanding invoices are already stacking up, now’s the time to become more active about collections. Focus on the accounts most likely to convert into cash, follow up directly, and don’t assume customers will pay before 30 June unless they’ve confirmed it.
References:
- Internal poll of Australian business owners conducted by Valiant Finance via eDM (212 respondents)
