We always say that in good credit control, prevention is better than cure - collections and recovery action should be for the bad debts you didn't see coming, not the ones you did.
But how do you know who's going to pay on time, and who's not going to pay at all?
If you've worked in credit control for long enough, it will be instinctive, a kind of sixth sense based on the myriad different factors that contribute towards a company's risk profile.
Two directors of Lancashire-based Worldwide Sports Investments Limited have been disqaulified following an investigation by the Official Receiver’s Public Interest Unit. The directors operated a high pressure sales scam purporting to offer investments in a golf course and hotel development in Portugal.
44 year old director Mr Christopher Smullen received a disqualification order on the 26th May 2015 banning him from managing, promoting or being a director of a limited company for 13 years from the 16th of June 2015.
Read more: In the rough - 19 year disqualification for golf investment scam directors
As a debt recovery company tasked with chasing down overdue payments, it makes sense for us to be a signatory of the Prompt Payment Code, the voluntary code of conduct for all businesses when it comes to paying suppliers.
We recently signed up to the PPC and, as part of the process, were asked to provide the names and contact details of 'referees' - satisfied former suppliers who could vouch for us as regular prompt payers - and these were, in turn, contacted by the Chartered Institute of Credit Management, who act as administrators of the PPC.
A whole raft of new ideas have been announced in the past few months, from a 'conciliation service' for small businesses that are owed money, to forcing big brands to publicise their payment terms, to trade associations going to war (figuratively speaking) on behalf of their members.
It might all feel a little bit like Groundhog Day - again. Publicising payment terms is already a principle of the totally voluntary and largely toothless Prompt Payment Code, we already have mediation, and unless you're actually a member of a very active and involved trade association, that part's likely to leave you feeling cold.
