This podcast episode explores the complex and often misunderstood world of Assistive Technology (AT) receivables, a niche where getting paid is less about creditworthiness and more about clearing a series of rigorous process gates. While AT businesses may appear to sell equipment, they actually operate within a high-touch, multi-stakeholder system where an invoice behaves more like a case file than a commodity transaction.

Listeners will learn why AT receivables frequently get stuck in "limbo" due to long documentation chains involving clinicians, caregivers, and funding decision-makers. The discussion breaks down the five hidden gates every invoice must pass—authorization, delivery, acceptance, validation, and payment—and highlights how even a small mismatch in terminology or a missing artifact can halt the entire workflow.

Key highlights of the episode include:

• Operational Failure Modes: Why the "mismatch" file and "acceptance lag" are the primary culprits behind trapped working capital.

• Stage-Based Forecasting: Moving beyond generic aging reports to track "matchable" evidence as the primary driver of cash timing.

• Specialized Solutions: How specialist financing and "clean file" standards can turn a unpredictable payment cycle into a managed pipeline.

By treating AT as a distinct niche rather than a footnote of healthcare billing, vendors can stop letting cash timing dictate their strategy and instead focus on system throughput—benefiting vendors, payors, and the end-users who rely on these life-changing technologies.Read the article here.

In this episode, we dive into the "Invoice Timing Strategy for Faster Government Approvals," exploring why simply "getting the invoice out" is only the beginning of a complex workflow involving matching, coding, and scheduling. We discuss how vendors can stop fighting government approval cycles and start aligning their invoicing rhythm with the internal processes of payors to eliminate "parked" invoices and "please clarify" emails.

Key topics covered in this episode include:

• The Power of Alignment: Why your invoices must be tied to one clear period, one scope, and one authorization path to pass the first test of any government approver.

• The "Goldilocks" of Batching: Avoiding the administrative drag of micro-invoices and the confusion caused by "mega-invoices" that combine multiple POs and service periods.

• The Pre-Submission Gate: A practical QA checklist to ensure your references, acceptance evidence, and submission channels are perfect before you hit send—because sending an unready invoice can add weeks of delays.

• Disciplined Scheduling: How to adopt a predictable submission rhythm (such as fixed weekly or monthly days) to help internal teams plan and ensure your invoices don't get lost in "bad timing" windows like Friday afternoons or holiday crunches.

• A Repeatable Invoicing Cadence: A look at a model weekly and monthly calendar that vendors can adopt to capture acceptance evidence and run pre-submission checks systematically.

Whether you are dealing with services or goods, this episode provides actionable strategies to turn the mystery of government approvals into a predictable process for consistent cash flow.Read the article here.

This podcast episode explores the critical operational challenge of preventing returns and credit erosion within the publicly funded assistive technology (AT) sector. While many providers focus on clinical success, this discussion highlights how revenue is often lost through "operational noise"—the physical return of devices or the gradual loss of margin through unbillable time, partial credits, and undocumented "goodwill" add-ons.

Key takeaways from this episode include:

• The Concept of Credit Erosion: Moving beyond physical returns to understand the "quiet" version of loss where cases are kept, but principal is sacrificed through free replacements or unbillable troubleshooting.

• The Five Gates of Payment: A diagnostic framework consisting of Authorization, Configuration, Delivery/Setup, Acceptance Evidence, and Validation/Payment. Listeners will learn how to identify which gate is failing when a credit note occurs.

• Pre-Supply Controls: The importance of moving from vague sales notes to concrete requirements records and using a configuration summary to align expectations with case contacts before an order is placed.

• Documentation as Evidence: Shifting the mindset from "customer service" to evidence creation. The sources emphasize that validators require a clear, dated story of what was approved, what changed, and who signed off on it.

• Closing the Loop: Implementing a post-delivery follow-up to catch environmental mismatches early and using a change log to turn informal "fixes" into defensible, billable artifacts.By treating returns and credits as data points rather than random occurrences, AT providers can create a smoother path from delivery to cash. For businesses struggling with long validation windows, the sources also suggest exploring specialist financing to advance funds against well-documented receivables.Read the article here.

For Assistive Technology (AT) vendors, delivering life-changing equipment is often the easiest part of the job. The real challenge begins with the public funding payment cycle, where "delivered" rarely means "paid". In this episode, we break down the complex chain of events that dictates your cash flow—from the initial assessment to the final, often elusive, scheduled payment run.

We explore the hidden bottlenecks where time accumulates, such as slow funding authorizations, documentation gaps, and the "reconciliation" stage where internal payor teams match invoices against approved scopes. You will learn how these delays create a ripple effect on your business, turning inventory management into a high-stakes financing decision and making staffing and expansion difficult to plan.Finally, we discuss actionable strategies to remove ambiguity and tighten documentation discipline. We cover:

• Transitioning from "work completed" to a "payor-ready" mindset.• The importance of stage-based forecasting to reflect reality rather than hope.

• How to turn your validation process from a "scavenger hunt" into a standardized checklist.

• Exploring receivables financing (like MFFG) as a tool for maintaining service capacity during long wait times.Whether you are struggling with partial approvals or looking to make your cash flow more predictable, this episode provides the blunt questions every AT vendor needs to ask to get ahead of the cycle.Read the article here.

For training providers, managing public-program funding is less about sending a single invoice and more about navigating a complex chain of earnings events spread across months. This episode explores why many providers feel successful yet suffer from late cash and collapsed forecast accuracy due to the unique challenges of milestone-based payments.

We break down the five critical gates every milestone claim must pass—eligibility, trigger events, evidence packs, submission, and validation—to ensure that "learner progress" actually transforms into "cash". You will learn how to move away from "internal optimism" and toward a milestone ledger that serves as a single source of truth for both operations and finance teams.

Key highlights include:

• Defining "Operational Truth": How to use simple "Triggered when..." and "Proven by..." statements to stop internal arguments over what has been earned.

• The Four Common Checkpoints: A deep dive into the specific data and evidence required for enrolment, attendance, completion, and verified outcomes.

• Avoiding "Leakage": Identifying the small, repeated frictions, such as evidence drift and status blindness, that quietly shave away at your revenue.

• A 30-Day Action Plan: Practical steps to assign ownership, stand up a ledger, and run weekly reviews that tighten submission hygiene.

Whether you are struggling with validation holds or looking to scale your cohorts without losing track of claims, this discussion provides a repeatable cadence for predictable revenue management.Read the article here.

Episode Summary:

Why do government invoices get "parked" even when the work is done? This episode explores the critical, often misunderstood distinction between proof of delivery ("did it arrive?") and acceptance evidence ("did the authorized person confirm it met the requirements?"). We dive into the specific validation gates government payors use and explain how "good" evidence—whether for physical goods or intangible services—can prevent your forecasts from "going to die" in payment limbo.

Listeners will learn the concrete components of high-signal evidence, such as legible delivery notes with specific PO references for goods, and explicit milestone sign-offs for services. We also discuss the "failure mode" of unauthorized signatures and why identifying authorized approver roles is essential for a smooth audit trail. Finally, we provide actionable strategies like building a payor dossier and implementing standardized checklists to ensure your team can resolve payment queries in minutes rather than weeks,. If you sell to government bodies, this episode provides the operational blueprint to ensure your invoice is not just submitted, but payable.Read the article here.

In this episode, we explore why government payments often stall—and how to fix it. Contrary to popular belief, delays rarely happen because a public-sector team "won't" pay; instead, invoices often get lost in complex approval queues, matching rules, and documentation checks. The secret to faster payment isn't aggression—it’s making the next step as easy as possible for busy government staff.

We break down five specialized email templates designed to move an invoice forward, including:

• Validation Requests: How to ask what specific documents are missing to complete an invoice check.

• Polite Status Checks: Monitoring an invoice that is nearing or just past its due date.

• Strategic Escalations: How to "widen the circle" when you receive no response, without sounding hostile.

• Dispute Resolution: Moving from a vague "issue" to a concrete path for resolution.

• Pre-billing Acceptance: Confirming services are logged before you even send the invoice to prevent future holds.

Beyond the templates, we discuss critical communication "pro-tips," such as using one email thread per invoice, attaching an "invoice-ready pack" to every message to remove friction, and focusing your request on the "next step" in the workflow rather than just demanding payment. Whether you are dealing with an Accounts Payable mailbox or a contract owner, these strategies align your follow-ups with the role-driven nature of government bureaucracy to surface exactly what is needed to get you paid.Read the article here.

Why does cash from government contracts rarely arrive when your forecast says it should? In this episode, we break down why traditional commercial A/R forecasting fails when applied to public buyers,. Unlike private sector payments driven by "terms," government receivables are gate-driven, meaning payment is often stalled by invisible workflows like acceptance, validation, and coding.

We explore the transition from "vibes-based" percentages to stage-based forecasting, treating your accounts receivable like a pipeline rather than a single pile,. By tagging every receivable to a specific stage—from "ordered" to "queried"—organizations can identify exactly where the internal or external bottlenecks live.

Key takeaways include:

• The Three-Scenario Approach: How to build Base, Slow-pay, and Stressed forecasts to catch cash tightness early.

• Queries as First-Class Events: Why treat a query as a major state change that requires specific evidence to resolve.

• Operational Discipline: The importance of a weekly cadence to update stages based on reality (like portal status) rather than just aging.

• The Practical Ledger: Why your FP&A team needs evidence links and clear owners for every blocker to prevent "surprise" misses.

Learn how to transform your financial forecasting into a defendable view of reality that improves both your accuracy and your actual cash flow.

Read the article here.