In tough trading conditions, late or non-payment by customers can have a disastrous effect on cash flow and is often the main reason why a business begins to struggle.
Research carried out in June 2009 by Lloyds TSB shows that 30 per cent of companies are experiencing cash flow problems, with 65 per cent citing late payment by customers as the principal cause.
Below are three top tips:
Get your sales ledger in order
It is vital that firms track exactly how much they are owed and diligently chase up debtors in a professional and systematic manner.If chasing payments is diverting too much resource, firms may find it helpful to put in place a factoring facility. In addition to boosting cash flow by immediately releasing the value tied up in invoices, factors take full responsibility for running the sales ledger and handling collection of payments.
Identify and minimise risk
By conducting credit checks, companies can identify potential risks in their existing customer base or prospective clients.Firstcheck is Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance’s online credit rating facility that can be used by its customers free of charge between 15 July and 12 August.Assessing the payment profiles of 3.5 million UK firms over the past 120 days, the service will complete 70 per cent of credit check requests within 40 minutes. The remainder of the checks are conducted within 48 hours.However, even if a company’s customer base is well rated, a healthy sales ledger will be spread across a wide range of clients rather than being dependent upon a small number of debtors.
Take out protection
If a customer’s business collapses, firms that are awaiting unpaid invoices join a long line of creditors with no guarantee of receiving what they are owed.Debtor protection is an extra feature of asset based lending packages which safeguards against the possible failure of debtors.By protecting against the risk of the non-payment of invoices and customer insolvency, the facility provides companies with the security of being insured against potential bad debts.