Displaying items by tag: Credit Control

A fundamental characteristic of late payment legislation so far has been its voluntary nature - nobody forces big businesses to sign up to the Prompt Payment Code, and nobody forces SMEs to charge penalty fees on late payments.

Now one organisation is calling for this to change, with a policy paper that suggests making several aspects of late payment legislation unavoidable for creditors and debtors alike.

Changes to the way companies calculate the VAT on invoices that are subject to Prompt Payment Discounts could effectively rule them out as a way of encouraging clients to pay early.

Until now, businesses have been allowed to calculate VAT based on the discounted invoice price, and display this on their communications with customers.

If the customer fails to pay in time to benefit from the Prompt Payment Discount, the business has been able to charge the full invoice amount, without having to recalculate the VAT.

It doesn't matter how much you like a bucket; if it won't hold water anymore, it's time to get a new bucket, and that is just what the government needs.

They are now embarking on yet another review of the Prompt Payment Code to try and make it actually work, and their plan to do this is to take advice from organisations like the City of London Corporation, Aviva and Barclays.

A company called "The Emergency Services (Media Dept) Limited" that falsely claimed to be linked to the emergency services in an attempt to convince small businesses in to placing adverts in its publications has been wound up in the High Court following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Telesales operators from the company would cold call small businesses across the country and claim to be "connected" to the Police or other emergency services and then try to sell advertising space in a magazine, with the funds raised allegedly going to support these services. In reality these funds were largely destined for the owners and no one else.

The zombie apocalypse could be coming sooner than you think, with R3, the Association of Business Recovery Professionals, warning that an even greater number of companies are now showing the hallmarks of being 'zombies'.

It's a term that rose to prominence at the height of the recession, and was used to refer to those firms capable of covering their outgoings, but only just - and which would therefore very quickly fall into insolvency if their interest rates rose, or their cash flow was interrupted.

Credit control failures are a worry at the best of times, and none of us want to be left with overdue invoices to chase - or with unpaid invoices of our own that become subject to debt recovery action with interest and penalties added on top.

But a lax approach to credit control has taken a new turn in recent days, as a large number of spam emails have started circulating which claim to be chasing overdue invoices.

    A LONG TIME AGO, IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY    

THE REBEL ALLIANCE SECURED A FAMOUS VICTORY    

BLASTING THE DEATH STAR OUT OF THE SKY    

WITH MOMENTS TO SPARE              

BUT THEIR ACTIONS CAME AT A PRICE...              

EMPIRE CONTRACTS CONTAIN A NON-PAYMENT CLAUSE    

ALLOWING PAYMENT TO BE WITHHELD    

IN THE EVENT OF REBEL ACTION

    IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT    

DARTH VADER'S FORMER HOME    

CAME TO BE KNOWN AS THE DEBT STAR   

A publicly accessible database of company directorships could soon become a reality, following the conclusion of a consultation by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The proposals outline plans for a central registry of company beneficial ownership information - including details of trustees, where relevant, and of individuals with ownership of more than 25% of the shares in a company, or the equivalent proportion of its voting rights.

It's good to know that, when a dodgy dealer makes off with client money and there's no record of where it's gone, they will face prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.

New figures from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills show that the BIS Criminal Enforcement Team achieved 198 successful prosecutions in the 2012-13 financial year.

The Professional Contractors Group have called for an anonymous hotline to be created, allowing small business owners to 'name and shame' large companies that pay late or otherwise try to use their 'brand power' to manipulate payment terms.

While the PCG are calling it a 'witness protection' hotline, we prefer to call it Slimeshoppers, as it doesn't get much lower than a big business trying to use their size as an excuse to withhold payment to small suppliers.