There are few things more frustrating in business, than not being paid for the work you do.
When you consider everything that goes into providing your product or service. Advertising, staff costs, rent, suppliers, the additional work you need to do just to get back to square can be extraordinary. You can calculate that cost for yourself here.
Having been in the business of debt resolution for over 30 years, we know a thing or two about what improves your chances of collecting overdue debts.
Almost every time that we are unable to collect an overdue debt it comes down to one of these three things. A failure in the contract itself, a lack of communication or too much time elapsing since the debt was incurred.
Let’s dive in and explore these a bit further:
1. Make sure you have clear and concise terms of trade
If debt collection is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, robust terms of trade are the fence at the top.
Getting things right at the start of your relationship with your new customer makes it far less likely to result as an unpaid debt in the future.
Ensure your terms of trade are legal, clear, concise and enforceable. Your terms of trade should spell out what happens in the event of a default, give you the ability to conduct a credit check and pass any collection costs on to the client if need be.
Keep a copy of your agreements safe to ensure you have a copy available when needed.
You should also review your terms of trade annually to ensure they reflect any legislation changes and ideally you should have these updates agreed to by your existing clients.
We can help!
Our Business Support Specialists are available nationwide to help review your terms and can suggest where changes are needed.
2. Follow up overdue invoices promptly
Make sure you communicate with you clients who don’t pay on time.
Use the automated reminders in your accounting software to send a reminder at 10 days, and if the invoice remains outstanding at 30 days, jump on the phone.
Just like the saying goes, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”, it is often the noisiest creditor that gets paid first.
Ask for some sort of payment commitment and follow up if they don’t follow through. Make it clear that you will send the debt to EC Credit Control for resolution if they do not pay.
3. Send overdue debts to EC Credit Control at 90 days
This one is critical, if an overdue debt gets to 90 days and you’ve done everything above; don’t waste any more of your time, send the debt to us for resolution.
Sometimes all that’s needed is a letter from EC Credit Control, the sooner we get onto these 90+ day debtors the sooner you can get paid.
We sometimes get debts that are years old, and it’s often these ones that are the trickiest to resolve since memories of events have faded, business have been liquidated or shutdown, documentation has been lost… The list goes on. Don’t wait, load your overdue invoices now!
Need more info?
Call us on 0800 324 768 or send us an enquiry below and we will get in touch to discuss your situation.
