Purpose and Scope

This Collections Policy is designed to provide standard procedural guidelines to Sales, Leadership, and the Finance Group, consistent with Sourcegraph’s culture, brand and customer service standards and best practices, with the following goals:

1. Reduce as close to zero as possible, conditions where invoices are uncollectible

2. Provide proper stewardship of Sourcegraph’s assets by minimizing the average number of days that invoices go unpaid.

3. Create the circumstances for predictable cash flow

4. Meet industry and trade partner (like banks) expectations for upper quartile AR collections performance

The effectiveness of this policy relies upon timeliness of execution and where required, creating Collections Action Plans that are specific to each collection circumstance. Time is of the essence in the effectiveness of this policy.

Definitions:

Accounts Receivable: the funds that customers owe your company for products or services that have been invoiced

Responsibilities:

• Controller: Accountable for the Collections Policy including any policy modifications

• Senior Accountant: Will administer the policy with support from the Deal Desk Manager and individual sales team members and leaders as outlined in this policy

• Account Executives: Throughout the customer contract, Account Executives are responsible for communicating to the Deal Desk and Accounting Teams, any contract information such as:

  • Customer use of any 3rd party supplier management platforms for invoice submission, (such as Ariba, Coupa, Etc)
  • PO number if required by the customer If a customer requires a PO, an invoice cannot be issued until it has been obtained
  • Completion of any new vendor set-up requirements. The information and documents usually required by customers can be found in the Sales Resources handbook page. Any documentation required that cannot be found on the Sales Resources Handbook page, should be requested within the #deal-desk Slack channel.
  • Any changes in contact information. If this is a new customer we must have the customer’s AP email address/Contact
  • Sharing any verbal communication with the customer regarding AR as applicable. Account Executives will be accountable for proactively addressing A/R issues once assigned and based on the class outlined in the CCM, and regularly communicating with the Deal Desk and Accounting Team on efforts made.

• Customer Engineer - In the case that a customer engineer has more rapport with our customer than the AE, the CE on the account should be enlisted to assist in collections efforts with their own contacts

Context

As Sourcegraph is expected to deliver its services timely and completely, our customers are expected to timely pay our invoices per the terms outlined in the signed order form . When a Customer has not paid according to the agreed upon terms or within reasonable expectations for prompt payment, this process documents the appropriate steps to collect payment from the client.

In general, our Customer contracts regarding payment fall in the standard Net30 terms (from Order form Execution Date) as outlined in our online “Terms.” Any exception outside of the standard Net30, Net45, or Net60 payment terms, will need to be approved by the Controller or Senior Staff Accountant and will need to be specifically called out in the signed customer order form

A significant portion of the collection effort is usually an effort to understand and document why an invoice has not been paid timely. A successful collection strategy is predicated on several important factors, including:

1. Pursuit of normal contract terms at the outset (i.e., not accepting a greater than 30-day payment term).
2. Prompt action on delinquent invoices, within days not weeks. It is important that the appropriate follow-up and escalation measures are taken as outlined in the Collection Class Matrix and that it is understood that as every day an invoice gets older, the chances of collection are reduced

Collection Strategy and Process

In general, the philosophy of the Collections Policy, is that AR pursues collections until their normal efforts are exhausted or there is action required by the Account Executive of either Sourcegraph or the client purchasing agent, at which point other sales stakeholders are engaged to participate in the collections efforts and process.

Normal efforts and processes include sending invoices when the contract is signed and statements on the 15th of every month. Once an invoice reaches 30 days outstanding, Sourcegraph AR follows up with the Client’s AP counterpart and pursues additional collection activity. After normal efforts are exhausted, there is an assignment internally to the appropriate stakeholder to pursue further escalated collections efforts as outlined in the AR Collection Class Matrix (CCM)

The CCM outlines the classes and assignments for all groups responsible for managing A/R. The strategies and timing of the steps are detailed in the CCM. The timing of the steps can be adjusted to accommodate special circumstances necessitated by customer type/tenure and/or legal requirements.

Collection Action Plans (CAP)

For accounts that remain unresponsive to the efforts outlined in the CCM, additional formal action may be required. The specific collection tactics shall be designed in consultation with the Legal and Finance leaders into a CAP. In these instances, time is of the essence in creating and executing a plan, and documentation of any verbal discussions is imperative.

Tactics that may be included in a CAP:

• A personal call or visit by the Account Executive to their purchasing contact
  • In all cases, following the meeting, a confirming email should be sent to the customer noting discussion items and outcomes.
  • A formal letter or email from the Account Executive written to their purchasing contact.
• A contract review should be performed.
• The letter or email should reference specific contract requirements regarding payment or non-payment.
• A formal letter or email from Finance Leadership referencing a shut off of service unless the situation is cured within a certain amount of time.
  • A contract review MUST be performed in conjunction with this to ensure compliance (our right to shut off service is generally not a contractual right except under specific circumstances and process).
  • Shut off of service is only applicable to managed instance or cloud based contracts. On prem is exempt as we do not have access to shut off servie
• The timeline for stoppage will be determined by the Sales, Finance and Legal Leaders
• Engage an attorney to write formal demand letter
• Engage a 3rd party Collections service\

Uncollectible Invoices

In the event that a Customer is unable to pay due to insolvency or dissolution, or for any other circumstance that is a bona fide event outside of an Account Executives control, there will be no effect to Account Executives performance or commissions. For additional guidelines related to collections and write-offs, please refer to the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts & Write Offs Policy

Current AR Balance and Statuses

Current AR balances, collection notes, AR metrics, etc are compiled in the AR Analysis and Dashboards file that can be found here. This file is updated weekly on a rolling basis and has all the information and notes related to our open AR and collections