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.

Read more: Chasing Debts from Disqualified Directors

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.

Read more: 10 Ways to Spot a Bad Credit Risk

Last week, the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 gained royal assent, meaning broadly speaking, the various measures that have already been outlined by BIS, the Insolvency Service and other government departments should be brought into law without any major changes.

What does this mean for creditors? Actually there are some broad sweeping measures, and some more specific ones, which should combine to tip the balance more fairly in the direction of creditors.

Read more: Looking at the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015

In a frankly astounding turn of events, Debt Guard Solicitors have proposed introducing a right for big businesses to opt out of paying on time.

Read that again, because it's an almost unbelievable statement - a commercial debt recovery firm suggesting that big brands should have the opportunity to simply opt out of being punished for late payment.

Read more: Pay on time? No, I've opted out...