Please find below an excerpt from an article published about us in RSE Magazine - April 2009.
“Making a profit is important but before you can pay the bills, you need cash in the bank. Simon Croft explains why good financial controls are more important than ever”
Credit control
The only solution I found to be effective and reliable was to use a credit control agency that would manage the process all the way down the line. However, I soon discovered that some of these agencies are astronomically expensive, so it was a relief when an accountant recommended I try Credit Control Solutions.
“We normally charge for our services on a ‘per account’ basis,” explains Credit Control Solutions founder Jamie O’Connell. “For larger companies with several hundred accounts, we would offer our services on a fixed-cost basis.” O’Connell estimates that this could equate to half the cost of employing an in-house credit controller but for small businesses, the news is perhaps even better. “For a customer with 20 accounts per month, using Sage Line 50 software, our typical charges would be £10.00 to £12.00 per account, per month. “We interface with our clients in a number of ways,” O’Connell explains. “In the main, we are able to set-up data export routines from most accounts software packages on the market and simply import this data into our own credit management software. In most cases, we can also establish a remote connection so that we are able to export their data ourselves,” O’Connell adds. “This means that we are completely self sufficient and do not have to rely on our customer to send any information to us.”
My biggest reservation before engaging CCS was that they would be aggressive to my customers. It turned out not to be a problem. “We appreciate that our success is purely down to the ‘good relationship’ that we
build with our customers’ customers’,”
O’Connell considers. “Collecting money is similar to the art of selling, if we fail to build a good relationship we will not succeed in improving collections and ultimately we will lose customers.” He claims that CCS has never lost a customer through the relationship going sour.
“We agree with our customer beforehand precisely what our approach will be, ie content of standard letters, timing of standard letters, whether or not we are to verify invoices for payment before they fall due for payment etc,” O’Connell adds. “All of this is enshrined within a credit control process and our staff will undertake credit control for that particular customer in strict accordance with that process. Adherence to the process is monitored by our credit control manager.”
In the case of the service CCS provided for my company, it was agreed that a letter be sent before money was due, reminding customers that our terms gave them 14 days to dispute any invoice. As a result, the incidence of disputed invoices declined dramatically and it simplified the situation when accounts fell overdue because it was then the payment that was in contention, not the service provided. However, there were still times when the client wouldn’t pay. O’Connell is at pains to explain that CCS doesn’t simply ‘take people to court’. “If a customer fails to pay without a valid reason, we will recommend to our customer that they allow us to take debt collection action,” he explains. “The important thing to mention here is this; although we may recommend debt collection action to our customer – eg county court proceedings – it is up to our customer to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to our recommendation.”
RSE – Simon Croft (Editor) – April 2009
Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"
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