Outsourcing business processes is a step many companies take to get effective control over a range of administrative tasks.
For many smaller businesses, having an in-house team dedicated to processes like credit control is cost-prohibitive, regardless of how important those processes are.
Effective credit control is vital to ensuring the cash flow that keeps smaller businesses afloat. Thankfully, Chaser’s credit-control-as-a-service model means you can access all the benefits of having a professional team look after your outsourced accounts receivables at a fraction of the cost of hiring new staff.
So, if you’re struggling with your credit control and are wondering if now the time is to explore outsourced credit control, here are ten signs that now is the time to take the plunge.
1 - You are invoicing late and not sending reminders.
There are only so many hours in the day. If you are concentrating on providing the best possible service and growing your business, it can be hard to find the time to pursue unprofitable tasks like sending reminder emails.
Unfortunately, a consistent approach to credit control is the best way to ensure consistent cash flow. Outsourcing the problem means you can rely on a highly skilled team to handle your accounts receivable while you concentrate on running your business.
2- You are using outdated or legacy systems.
Up to date credit control platforms have streamlining features and automation options that make invoicing and chasing payments far more efficient. However, upgrading to those systems comes with a cost.
Rather than spending money on a new platform, you could outsource your credit control to a company that already operates an award-winning credit control platform.
Chaser offers a full range of features, from dedicated payment portals to a central hub where you can review how your accounts are being managed.
3 - All your payments come in late.
Late payment of invoices is not a unique problem, in fact, UK small and medium enterprises are waiting on a combined £50 billion in late payments. The best way to combat the potentially disastrous cash flow issues of late payments is to operate a credit control process based on polite persistence.
Our professional credit control team nuggets you paid, on average, 80% of your outstanding invoices sixteen days sooner than trying to struggle through it yourself.
4 - Credit Control is costing you money.
Being paid late is not just strangling your cash flow, it’s costing you money. On average, SMEs spend two hours a day chasing late payments with 56 per cent of small businesses owners chasing payments in their spare time.
That wasted time adds up to £6.3 billion that could be invested back into your business once you’ve outsourced your credit control to professionals.
5 - Your growth is outstripping your accounts receivables.
Every company wants to grow their business, but the more customers you have, the more invoices you need to send. With the average SME waiting on nine outstanding payments at any one time, it also means a lot more reminders to send.
6 - Poor credit control is affecting your customer relationships.
The stress associated with unpaid invoices and the cash flow issues they cause can easily influence your interactions with your customers. It only takes a couple of strained emails to ruin all the hard work you have put into building those relationships and deprive you of future repeat custom.
Outsourcing to a dedicated credit control company means you can rest assured that your customers are dealing with an experienced professional who values your client relationships as much as you do.
7 - Your processes are not consistent.
Most companies have terms and conditions in place which explain the payment terms for their invoices and set out their procedures for non-payment. However, for these terms and conditions to be effective, they must be consistent.
8 - You do not have a dedicated credit controller.
If you are a smaller business, there is a good chance that you don’t have a dedicated accounts receivable team.
This means someone must take on the role of credit controller in addition to their standard responsibilities, leading to many small business owners chasing payments in their free time.
Switching your accounts receivables to a professional credit control team means you, or your staff, can get back to concentrating on their original job.
9 - You do not have the necessary experience.
Effective credit control is a skill and not everyone can be expected to have it. As with most other jobs, being an experienced professional makes you more likely to excel at what you’re trying to do.
If you find your credit control measures are ineffective, or worse, are damaging your customer relationships, it might be time to outsource them to the professionals.
10 - You are just writing off bad debt.
Bad debt is unpaid debt that cannot be recovered with conventional methods like repeated reminders. Unfortunately, there are not many solutions to bad debt other than cost-prohibitive court cases or debt collection.
Most small business owners would rather write off their bad debt than risk their customer relationships with aggressive and harassing debt collectors. Chaser’s in-house debt collections team has a different approach to debt collection.
We use polite persistence to mediate between you and your customers, finding the best possible payment option without compromising your business relationships.
Here’s why you should consider outsourcing your credit control.
Contact us here to learn more.
