Credit control is a fact of life for everyone in business and no matter how good your terms of business, a percentage of customers inevitably will not pay. Having robust credit control policies and procedures in place and effectively managing your debtor book is an essential part of running a successful business.
There are essentially two types of debtor – firstly, the customer who has a genuine grievance and a tangible reason for non-payment about which you can have a dialogue and, secondly, the more troublesome dilatory payer who has offered no reason for non-payment and may have repeatedly defaulted on promises to settle up.
You need to have in place a credit control process that efficiently escalates through defined stages. You need to be decisive and act promptly as soon as a default occurs. And you absolutely must have full and sufficient details to identify your customers to allow legal action to be pursued once your credit control process is exhausted.
How can Thorntons help?
At Thorntons, our dedicated team can offer commercially sensible advice on operating your credit control measures to help ensure your customers pay their bills in a timely manner.
We would also recommend you charge interest on sums due and we can help you refine your terms of business and give advice on interest and penalty charges payable by a business debtor under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation.
