Dear All:

I wanted you all to know that I am here to make sure that your payments are made promptly and accurately.  Over the past few years, I have made a number of adjustments to my accounting system to try to make it easier for everyone to get paid.  A lot of the adjustments were in personnel.  Some of you may recall names like, Betsy, Danielle, Paj, Sara, Cathy, Patryck.  Some of you are probably chuckling when you read past one of these names that you recall from the past.  For the record, I do take full responsibility for the actions (or lack of actions) from my staff.  So if you had issues with my staff in the past, then that's my fault for not being on top of it.

After reading these posts, I do want to say, "Thank you" for those of you who did stick up for my company.  We have been around for almost 7 years now and some of you are like family to me.  Some of you are the reasons why CRSI is where it is today.

In the earlier part of the year, we ran into some cash flow problems.  Like all of you, we too have clients that are slow pays.  We have receivables that are still 300+ days out.  We have one client that still owes us money from 2003.  I am sorry that payments slowed down during this year.  We had to make a few corporate changes to help us through the problem.  By the end of the summer, we were able to recover from our cash flow problems and now are on a more solid ground.

We are looking to clear up as much as our researcher bills by year's end as possible.  Ken is still my accounting supervisor.  Ruthie is still handling about 30 states.  Raquel is handling a couple of states and we now have Francesca aboard to take over all of Patyck's states and then some.  I too have been working with the researchers to get things caught up.

Outside of my normal duties of running 3 offices, I have been handling researcher complaints.  Outside of one or two "difficult" people, I don't think anyone has left a phone conversation with me in a negative way.  Usually it's been a positive experience for both parties.

Some helpful tips for getting paid quickly and accurately:
1.  Always reference our order numbers.  We don't make up those numbers.  Those numbers come directly from our clients.
2.  Please, please read directions carefully.  If we only need 1st, last and legal of a document, please don't send us the full copy.  We won't pay for it and it slows down the payment process for everyone.
3.  Fax fees, trip fees, rush fees.  I am sorry, but it's the cost of doing business.  I had one researcher admit to me that she charges her clients for a trip fee when she has 3 or 4 orders for the same county but for different clients.
4.  A monthly statement.  If you would forward either via fax or mail a monthly statement, which includes our order number and your fees at the end of each month, that would be the fastest way to get paid.
5.  All monthly statements need to be sent to the Long Island Office.  Buffalo and South Carolina do not make payments.
6.  When you send your work back to each office, please include your product cost and any copy costs.  If you list your invoice number on the work, our customer service people should be inputting that data into our DB.
7.  Payment schedule.  We try to pay each state once a month.  We are hoping to get to twice a month, but one step at a time.
8.  Copy costs.  I am not sure why people charge more than what the county charges them.  Personally I think it's wrong.  It should be a pass-through cost, not another way of making money off your clients.

Monthly statements can be faxed to 631.979.1042 or 631.979.1745.

If you have a specific issue that you would like to discuss with me, please call me at 631.979.5677 x11 or email me at jgirardi@contemporaryrealty.com  Please, if you email me, please type in the subject heading, "Researcher Issue".  I only state this because I do get a lot of spam and I wouldn't want to delete your email on accident.

I hope this email helps to clear up some of the payment questions that you may have.

Happy Holidays to you All
Jim