Credit control
A regular flow of cash is essential to the smooth day-to-day running of a business – particularly a smaller one. The vast majority of small firms simply do not have the reserves to allow them to wait for payment of what they are owed without a severe impact on their bottom line.
 
The statistics on late payment are frightening:
    • 861,000 firms – that's half of all UK SMEs – experienced late payments in 2011
    • Poor payment practice costs UK businesses £20bn every year
    • Late payments to small businesses reached an all-time high of £33.6 billion in 2011
    • Small firms are each owed an average of £39,000 at any one time
    • 1 in 4 businesses go insolvent due to invoices being paid late
    • 158 million man hours lost to chasing overdue bills last year.
If you are a paying member of the Forum, you can access our online Credit Control Guide, which features 15 free credit control templates for you to download and use in your own business. (Please note: you must be logged in to view the Guide). Non-members and introductory members can read a free extract on managing debt from the Guide.
 

Managing Cash Flow Guides

Watch Philip King, Chief Executive of the ICM talking about credit control

Institute of Credit Management logoThe following guides were written and produced by the Institute of Credit Management in association with BIS, and are supported by the Forum. For more tips on getting paid and advice on best practice in credit management, or to download all the guides in PDF format, visit www.creditmanagement.org.uk

 

How the Forum can help

 
We have produced a guide to surviving the 'credit crunch', which is full of useful tips from our advisers on how to:
    • Manage your finances
    • Stress test your business
    • Take advantage of opportunities
    • Keep an eye on debtors
    • Keep staff motivated
    • Be smart with cash deposits

Hot tips

 
Our website is also full of advice on how to improve your credit control and cash flow, including hot tips articles on:
We offer a range of deals and credit control solutions that help to save our members' businesses money.
  • Business monitoring
    Stay up to date with your competitors by monitoring daily changes in key business data.
  • Credit reporting
    View company credit reports quickly and easily online to check out new customers.
  • Debt recovery
    Trace debtors and recover your money quickly with our no collection, no fee service.
Click here for a full list of benefits and money-saving offers available to our members.