The smallest firms in the UK are being paid late, in some cases by over a year, due to a lack of urgency and a sense of awkwardness about chasing clients for payment, new figures suggest.
A survey carried out by online accounts software provider FreeAgent revealed that just one in seven micro-businesses that issue invoices have never had to deal with an instance of late payment.
Read more: 'Awkwardness Not Urgency' Sees UK's Smallest Firms Paid Late by a Year
Greece's government has imposed capital controls and closed banks until after a July 5 referendum on a deal with European creditors.
The following information is provided for any company concerned about customers based in Greece and the impact the capital controls will have on their cashflow in the short term. This guide covers basic credit control information, if you have customers already behind on payment arrangements allowing further credit is at best ill-advised.
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.
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
Snoop Dogg has issued a legal claim against brewers Pabst for monies he believes are owed after his licensing deal went sour according to an article on the Associated Press. Snoop, whos real name is Calvin Broadus Jr, signed a three year deal with Pabst in 2011 to be the face of their new Blast drink and received a cool $250,000 down payment. With a further $20,000 due for every tenth mention of the beer on social media, at his concerts or during TV appearances.
The granting of royal assent to the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 should be good news for creditors, particularly those who are left owed money by a business customer who has gone into corporate insolvency.
That is because there are several measures included in the legislation that should leave more money in the pot to pay creditors what they are owed, even after the administrators take out their fee; and there may also be the option to pursue a company's former directors personally for redress.
Read more: Small Business Act 2015 Steers Insolvency in Creditors' Favour
One of the biggest obstacles to recovering an outstanding debt has always been if a company ceases trading - this is basically a dead end, as once the company ceases to exist, it's impossible to continue chasing the individuals who ran it. Or is it?
Under the terms of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, which received royal assent on March 26th 2015, new rules will apply to disqualified directors, and particularly to any losses incurred by creditors due to director misconduct.
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.
