The Miller Act is the federal payment bond statute that requires general contractors to furnish payment bonds, on projects over a certain threshold, contracted by the United States. Know everything about Miller act, its importance and a brief history.

What are the things you should prepare for before jumping on a collections call and how to decide your collection goals, trade-offs, and alternative strategies while anticipating your customers' behavior? Read this full article to unlock secrets to prevent collection problems in 6 easy steps!

Know everything about credit and collection policy,its processes, its benefits and credit department roles and responsibilities in formulating and maintaining the credit policies.

Follow these 9 effective steps and learn how to handle irate customers during a collections call and get a positive outcome from them.

Although we are going to give you nine sure-fire ways to save money on legal expenses, it's critical that you first consider a couple of facts.

Read this case study on Credit Group confidentiality afreement to know how to handle the situation when your confidentiality is breached by an Email to sales

Only a very few companies-those possessing some kind of tremendous leverage can get financial statements all the time. In this article, Cindy Moorhead shares 6 tips for obtaining financials from your customers.

How do you determine your company's profitability as an A/R manager? Does cash flow serve as a metric for you? However, a healthy cash flow should be the primary concern. Utilize this article to develop a strategy for tracking your cash flow and considering ways to increase it by reducing the DSO.

Know the concept of Sales Tax Nexus and how it will be applied in accordance with state laws and regulation in line with general sales tax.

Creditors, how successfully are you minimizing the credit risks for your company? This article highlights effective steps to use of Credit Reporting Services. Read More!

The traditional method of checking credit has always been to have a prospect fill out a credit application and submit its latest financial report. A credit analyst then typically orders a credit report, requests trade and bank references and analyzes the firm's financial statements before reaching a credit decision.

Recruit the Right Credit Staff by testing their Analytical and Written Communication Skills. Find these Sample Tests in order to hire the right Employees for your department.

Credit and the Sales team work together well in many companies. Unfortunately, this may not always be the case. It may be that neither credit nor sales fully understand the objectives and priorities of the other. This results in misunderstandings, or even a contentious relationship.

Advances in technology will continue to impact the credit management profession. Combined with the emphasis the C-Suite has placed on the digital transformation of finance functions, expectations are for an even more automated future, supported by much deeper customer and process insights.

Find the most insightful inputs on rising the inventory and how it benefits the track of inventory to sales ratio. It helps in guiding credit analysts on tracking the most important indicators

This is Part Two of last week's Tip. Part One focused on preparation for interviewing an applicant or for someone in your department seeking a different department position or promotion.

Here's the most useful and important tips from a experienced credit manager. Dive in to this and know the techniques for effective credit processing.

Does your credit team use a statistical scoring model to determine the risk profile of each customer? Using this approach, Edward Don & Company was able to anticipate their customer's credit score with accuracy and reduce DSO by 6 days. Learn more about the statistical scoring approach and how it may help you improve your overall credit and collections performance by reading this article.

Are you part of a manufacturing or purchasing industry and unaware what exactly is a proforma invoice? Read full article to know the understand the term proforma invoice and how to creating one.

Lack of training, direction and/or up-to-date systems can lead to credit staff working for long time without achieving full potential. Know what steps you must avoid for managing credit department stress.

Despite the pandemic and the economic turmoil it caused, bankruptcy filings have been declining over the last 4 quarters and marked a 15-year low in February 2021 not seen since before the Great Recession. Meanwhile, unemployment shot up to over 14% by May 2020 and has since declined to 6.2%.

Here's the list of factors highlighting the ecommerce or online frauds. Read this to understand the financial risk in web based orders.

Paycheck Protection Program money had helped a small truck services company continue operating in the pandemic and retain their 43 employees. But business through 2020 and 2021 remained very slow, and management was now facing some difficult options. Then they were advised to look into the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), and that's where they found business salvation.

Know the right procedure that can be followed in your collection call. Find this basics that gives you complete proper collection call pattern to follow.

Find the most important parameters that can help you in preparing a credit mission statement correctly.

The next one might be your credit department. How do you establish protocols to abide by the state's escheatment legislation and minimize your liability? Do you abide to any set guidelines and procedures? Consider these 3 questions to streamline your escheatment process using this article as a guide.

Here's how you could build your own credit limit matrix to save time, reduce costs, and contribute to more consistent credit decisions.

Here is the explanation on the concept of apparent authority with a case study highlighting the credit manager role if customer comes back on the basis of apparent authority

At work, have you come across someone whose attitude and negativity simply “takes the air out of the room"? This article illustrates steps to turn all this negative energy into something constructive.

Interviewing can be a challenge both for the interviewer and the candidate. The fact is that hiring managers may not be adept at how to interview effectively. They have not been formally trained and have been given little direction by their management. Not focusing on the right things, makes it difficult for applicants to demonstrate why they should be seriously considered for an opening. Even worse, the hiring manager may make a decision without a thorough understanding of how the applicant wil

Here are the important steps that guide in supporting your staff in a period of change. Understand the major change in environment and manage effectively with these steps

Read this checklist on consignment considerations and create your consignment agreement effectively. Dive in to these points & follow every consignment rule.

This is the time when effective leadership is needed the most

How do you evaluate your customers as a debt collector? Do you use any magic wands? Prior to collecting, it's critical to have a solid understanding of your clients. Use this article to your advantage to discover how to recognise your consumers in these three ways.

Here is a list of four essential essential things to keep in mind before collateralizing credit risk. Protect your firm against payment delays, defaults, and bankruptcies.

Even when secured party files a financing statement correctly, post-filing events can cause a financing statement to become ineffective and can result in loss of perfection. In particular, post-filing changes in the debtor's name can invalidate the financing statement with respect to certain collateral, read this article by NCS to learn more.

The best way to avoid bad-debt by a defunct company is to escalate the collection process sooner and get to your customers before they go bankrupt, Read full article to understand how to work with defunct company

Charles M. Boring, CCE, who is credit manager for Anchorage (Alaska) Cold Storage Co., is also a time management expert. He conducted time management seminars in the Anchorage area, and he diligently employs time management strategies in his department. What are the most important of these strategies? He cites three:

What actions are needed if your company acquired another, or consolidates and merges another business unit's accounts receivable into your existing AR portfolio? How will this new workload be handled? What differences in business practices will you, as the Credit Manager, have to understand and deal with? There will be a number of uncertainties surrounding the collection effort required and risks associated with your new accounts.

If it wasn't for risk, companies would not need credit managers. This is truer than ever given that the types of risk, about which corporate executives and investors are concerned, are expanding.

Do you know that you can reduce the stress to lower the credit risk and make all sales profitable at the same time? Discover how to foster trust with your sales team with the help of these useful advice.

Do you know that a favorable current ratio can improve your cash flow and provide you with a decent margin of safety? What is a good current ratio, though? With the help of this article, you can learn how to benchmark a good current ratio and maintain a watchful eye on the financial health of your business.

Find out the two possible approaches to defining optimum credit policy using our credit policy template. This checklist guides you to develop a full optimum credit policy easily.

One of the most unpleasant responsibilities of any manager is to terminate an employee who is not performing. Your company is likely to have a formal performance improvement program. Despite a manager's best efforts, an employee may not be capable or unwilling to perform at the expected level.

Here's the sample format or template for inter company guarantee. This is used when you want to your corporate wants to guarantee another corporations debts

Though used extensively in consumer credit and collections, as well as by the financial services community, credit scoring has been slow to catch on in the trade credit environment. However, driven by demands for both greater productivity and greater risk monitoring, credit scoring is now showing signs of gaining momentum.

Learn how to avoid discrimination suit under ECOA while denying credit to applicants who don't meet your credit standards. You'll also understand best practices on communicating this to applicants who are not getting what they want.

In comes a big order from a regular customer that Sales has been chasing for months. But this customer took a terrible beating in 2020 and is still fighting its way back. And now they're looking for extended terms. What to do? We asked Chris Kuehl, Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence and widely acknowledged as the dean of trade credit economics.

Here are the most important reasons that plays a major role in rejecting a customer purchase order.Find the each important reason for rejection

Know complete insights on promissory note and its important elements. Find the relevant information about the promissory note and its benefits on past due customer.

Learn more about the importance empathy in trade credit. Work with customers facing an economic down-turn to create long-term relationship and to generate business opportunities.

According to a recent CFO magazine survey, the auditors challenge the reserve balance two-thirds of the time. Are the techniques used by your credit team to estimate bad debt reserves appropriate? Discover the best GAAP benchmarking procedures for determining bad-debt reserves by reading this article.

Here's a checklist of eight items that can help you reduce the most common customer excuse of "I haven't received the invoice".

Are Chargebacks a major problem for your company too? Kelly Ceransky, Director of Accounts Receivable and Credit in this article has talked about 3 ways to overcome chargebacks.

You may have been hearing the term ESG and wondered what it means. As a credit manager, you should be aware of how recent global and domestic legislative initiatives bring ESG into the forefront as compliance and social issue. Many in the workforce today want to work for a company that supports environmental concerns, and social diversity, and demands good governance. ESG is likely to affect how companies attract new employees and manage turnover.

The following is an overview of how the online credit application process works, the key benefits and considerations for those planning to automate the credit application process.

Time was when the only problems collecting from financially strong customers were nuisance claims, disputes, and the terms some of them would muscle into your transactions. Now, with outsourcing of payables, you're apt to find your customer has no idea of what's going on or is interested in dealing with discrepancies.

Know how a credit manager play a major role in a company's credit department. Find the importance, objectives and contributions of a credit manager in company's revenus and profit performance. Dive in to this article and know the information with examples

Find these top rated questions that rates your team improvement and effectiveness. By going in to each question you can analyse your team effectiveness

As a Credit Manager, you need to be prepared to take the actions necessary if your company has acquired another or consolidates and merges another business unit's accounts receivable into your existing AR portfolio. How will this new workload be handled? What differences in business practices will you as the Credit Manager, have to understand and deal with? This is Part Two of “Tips” to help you plan this out for an effective transition.

Here are the most important reasons that plays a major role in rejecting a customer purchase order.Find the each important reason for rejection

Here are the top 10 do's and dont's in telephone collections. These will help you become more effective when you call for a customer who owes your company money

Even in today's automated environment, collection calls are an essential part of the Credit Department's role. This can be an unpleasant and daunting task for a collector, and for you as a Credit Manager when collection issues are escalated.

Hard times and high unemployment can lead to business credit frauds. Learn more about nine red flags to protect your business from a credit fraud.

Use this tip to know the best time to write off an account to bad debts

Learn the secrets behind asking management for additional staff. Make a compelling and crisp presentation with all necessary pointers for staff requirement.

When you negotiate a payment plan with an honest but troubled customer, a Promissory Note is your best friend. Read this article to understand best practices. As a bonus, download a free template at the end of the article.

The recent volatility in our economy has been rough on small and medium-sized companies. It has made it even more complicated to evaluate their creditworthiness and set reasonable credit lines. In addition to current issues, you should consider the foundational elements the business is built on. When reviewing the creditworthiness of an SME, particularly a startup business, consider the thoroughness and credibility of their business plan.

This article discusses best ways to handle and deal with complainers in workplaces.These steps will help in dealing with difficult people and tough situations in the credit department.

Here's the most useful information on reporting to your top management and this will help you to know if your top management has read your submitted reports

As a credit analyst, are you adhering to good accounting practices and directing your money to the right initiatives? Unneeded expenses could eventually drive you out of business. To find out what Buffett considers to be real expenses and how to implement some of the greatest accounting principles, thoroughly read this content.

Retainage practices have been built to both promote its use (in government contracts) and prevent its abuse (in private projects). Explore this article to learn about the key features of retainage laws and how to use them.

In the past, we have published Tips and articles explaining the role of Credit Management in the Cash-to-Cash Cycle. This is a reminder along with five tips that may help you and your company.

This article covers eight best practices for customer visits right from setting the date and time to negotiations.

When morale is high and people are motivated, performance is typically enhanced. This survey takes a quick look at performance, morale, and bonuses within the context of credit organizations.

A detailed grasp of a company's cash flow data is necessary to assess its financial health. Examining the cash flow statements attentively can usually simplify the decision-making process. Read this article to learn how to analyse this cash flow statement.

Go through the following conversation to understand why a bank can refuse to honor a photocopy of a letter of credit.

Negotiation skills plays a vital role in collectors roles.Here are the top 6 collection negotiation techniques and skills required for effective debt collection for every collector

Accounts Receivable is your company's working capital lifeblood. During economic downturns, credit management becomes an even more essential function. It is likely to be a top priority for senior management. This is the time for credit managers to broadcast your value and exercise your professional skills.

At Berlin Packaging, cross-departmental collaboration is not just a "nice-to-have," but a crucial part of the strategy to winning our customers' trust and business. And Credit plays a key role in these meetings.

After two years of battling the Covid economy, inflation pressure and the prospect of a recession have put many small businesses up against the ropes. According to a June 2022 study by Digital.com, nearly two out of three small businesses say that continued inflation could force them to close shop. The study surveyed 1,000 owners or co-owners of businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

Find this resource for effective utilization of a collection score card to assess the performance. It will helpful for every collector in analyzing the success or collection performance

DSO will significantly decrease by 39%, claims Billentis, if the billing and invoicing process is more automated. Leverage  this article to understand how to convert your paper-based manual invoicing process to an electronic one.

Do you know that over the years, proof of claim has undergone a number of revisions? For creditors to properly react to claim requests, they must be notified of any such developments. To become familiar with all the changes to bankruptcy claims, thoroughly read this material.

As a creditor, are you able to collate best of both credit groups and credit reporting data? Read this article to learn how to make credit risk assessment using Credit2B services.

Employees who feel treated with respect by their managers are 63 % more fulfilled at work, according to HBR. How can you motivate your employees to give their best work? Browse through  this information carefully to discover how to create the best environment for your workers.

Recent polls show that 58 percent of workers now have remote options and 87 percent prefer them. With figures like that, it's unlikely that the all-hands-on-deck attendance of so many years past will return anytime soon. And, while ever-improving electronics are supposed to be overcoming communications problems, the fact is that remote workers can be much harder to reach and work with. That's slowing down collections.

Here are some essential tips to consider before working with high-risk b2b customers. Set up a reasonable business relationship and mitigate perceived credit risk.

CECL stands for Calculated Expected Credit Loss. It requires a new methodology to be used, dictated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), for estimating future credit losses. Though primarily focused on lenders, CECL applies to all entities that extend credit. CECL was to go into effect for all SEC filers beginning on January 1, 2020, but due to COVID, entities that had not yet implemented it were given a two-year grace period that ends this year.

In April 2021, we published a Tip covering Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) requirements. Although implementation was delayed during the pandemic, CECL is now set to come into effect beginning January 2023. Financial Statements for periods after that date should reflect the CECL methodology for calculating AR losses. If your company has already adapted to the new requirements, the following may be validating. If you have not yet started, it will hopefully be informative and help you with an

The biggest challenge in B2B payments for the receiving company is capturing the remittance details. This had been a growing problem with the increasing use of ACH and credit cards for commercial payments, especially in situations where multiple invoices are being paid or payment deductions are being taken.

Practical collection strategies techniques to improve cash flow. Use this checklist for developing collection strategies for your credit and collection department.

We conducted this survey to cover a gap in our forthcoming Staff Benchmarking Survey. Most of all, we wanted to find out how many accounts were handled by the typical collector. From this survey, we can see there is significant variation depending on the sales volume of each company, with smaller firms handling many more accounts per person than larger firms, but there was also a lot of overall variance within each segment.

Finding the right people to staff your Credit Department is not an easy task. One thing every Credit Manager knows is each day is filled with challenges and pressure to meet objectives. A Credit Analyst, Collector, Deductions Analyst, or Cash Applier must have specific skills to accomplish what is assigned to them. With that said, there are common and essential characteristics any Credit Department staff member must have to be successful.

Read this blog to understand why every manager hopes to work with individual contributors who are highly competent and motivated.

There are many things to consider when you evaluate the creditworthiness of a customer. It is important to take a realistic look and go beyond the financial statement, and bureau reports. You have to also evaluate the company's management factor. The “management factor” relates to how prepared the management team is to run the company. This is a major factor in a company's ongoing success when facing competitive forces, cost concerns, supply chain dynamics, and working capital issues.

Read this blog to understand why is it necessary now more than ever to move away from legacy and manual based processes and start your journey towards digital transformation.

Join us for a thought-provoking discussion and you'll walk away with great insights to help you plan your next promotion!

To be competitive, businesses have to manage all customer facing processes in a way that delivers an excellent customer experience. Read this blog by our expert David Schmidt on how you can meet your customer experience by Digital Transformation.

1 in 5 who’ve previously lied are currently applying for jobs using a deceitful resume. This survey conducted by resume builder has changed the perspective of interviews for many interviewer.

There is a lot of information available about how a Credit Manager can best manage credit department staff. Another critical topic is how to manage up. The interaction and support you offer your manager when to ask for help, or helping set your manager's expectations of you and your department, can be as important as managing down. That is where the following “Six W's” of managing up, come in.

A comprehensive guide to deal with delinquent customers during collection calls. Also, achieve negotiated payment settlements and resolve payment issues with your customers.