If you are looking for a cost-effective alternative to claims court, solicitors, or handing your debt over to a collections agency, take a look at the benefits of using CollectaDebtPro.

Recent industry studies continue to highlight that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK continue to face lengthy delays for invoice payments as challenges continue to rise.

The impact of late payments has been felt across the country, with SMEs reporting over a third (36%) of payments taken in an average month, as being late. These late payments are causing UK SMEs billions of losses at any one time.

Why is there such a stigma attached to debt collection?

If you have provided a product or service that has cost you time, resources and money, surely it shouldn’t be awkward or embarrassing to ask for payment!

Here are 7 simple steps that you should take when you provide a product or service that is paid for at a later date.

COLLECTaDEBTpro offers a ‘value for money’ solution which can work with all small to medium enterprises (SMEs) existing or new collection procedures to improve the delinquency of their customers' debt. Therefore, quickly supporting positive cash flow and enhancing their debt recovery process. Clear and defined strategies could be the difference between success and failure.

All businesses are fighting to maximise profits, but keeping up-to-date with accounts receivable is often difficult, especially when it comes to debt collection. The process can be time-consuming and even embarrassing; and can often result in losing your customer for good because it becomes personal. There is also a perceived expense to outsourcing debt collection that leads many businesses to just simply accept the loss.

If you have been considering outsourcing the collection of late payments, let’s look at some of the benefits:

Have you outsourced unpaid customer accounts to a debt collection agency (DCA) before and found that you then spend valuable hours chasing the progress of their activity?

Should you relinquish complete control of recovering unpaid debt to an outsource partner?

We don’t think so!

The quickest and simplest way for any company to save significant money and give their cash flow an immediate boost is to introduce a cost-effective, compliant and controllable late payment/bad debt strategy into their business-as-usual processes.

It might come as a surprise to you to learn that up to a third of firms are forced to write off thousands in unpaid invoices every year because they are too embarrassed to chase their unpaid invoices. In addition, approximately 85% of businesses do not utilise statutory late payment legislation to help cover the cost of collection activity. 

Nearly every company has the problem of late payments and most will have existing internal and external processes in place to minimise their bad debt. However, when it comes to low balance cases, E.G. £50 or under, many companies will simply write them off or make minimal effort to collect the debt.

The reason for this is commercially obvious, the cost to collect in terms of fees, time, and resources are all major barriers that many companies struggle to overcome.

On average, around 20% of all start-ups fail within their first year of business and 60% do not make it to year 3. This is a dramatic statistic, and one that may become worse as economic uncertainties grow.

Running a business is not for the faint of heart; entrepreneurship is inherently risky. Successful business owners must possess the ability to mitigate company-specific risks while simultaneously bringing a product or service to market at a price point that meets consumer demand levels.

In my 30 years working in business (with the last 20 years as a Finance Director), I have used many debt collection agencies and factoring companies to assist with our credit control function. Every time I was underwhelmed with the services provided and I could never justify the fees charged.

COLLECTaDEBTpro has completely changed my perception of how an outsourced company can add significant value to the credit control and cash flow of the businesses I operate.