Blog Articles

Competence is an important factor that makes a successful business different from the rest. And one way of keeping a strong foothold of your business is by effectively managing your cash flow. There are many things that can impact business cash flow, and one of the biggest influences is having a significant volume of overdue accounts. Failure of managing or monitoring your delinquent accounts can severely impact the growth of [...]

At some point, nearly all small businesses are confronted with a customer who refuses to pay. The work has been done or the goods supplied yet the customer still won’t pay. This can be very stressful for a small business – especially if the amount involved is having an impact on your own cashflow. Given that the work has already been done or the goods delivered what can you [...]

It is not commonly known that your personal credit score can affect your ability to secure a business loan as well as other forms of business financing. This is especially true for small businesses that employ less than 20 people. Even if you can secure credit you may be required to pay a higher interest rate due the perceived higher risk or have other obligations placed upon you. So [...]

It is hard to believe but Australia has the reputation of being the slowest in the world at paying outstanding invoices - even worse than Mexico, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Even more surprising, numerous European counties - including Switzerland and Germany- actually pay their invoices early! The average time it takes for an invoice in Australia to be paid is 26.4 days past the due date. [...]

The period leading up to the financial new year is a good time to review what you have been doing in respect of offering credit to your customers and implement new strategies where required. As a small or medium sized business owner you need to ensure that your interests are protected when you deal with other businesses and that you are paid for the services or products that you provide. [...]

To be able to grow a business, access to reliable cashflow is essential. This means that there is cashflow available for growth initiatives when they arise. Quite often, the window for growing a business is quite narrow, so having the funds available to utilise at short notice gives a business a great advantage over its competitors. However, the reality for many businesses is that they do not have a [...]

It is estimated that Phoenix Companies cost the Australian economy up to $3.2 billion per year. It is not just businesses who don’t get paid for goods and services but employees often don’t get paid their entitlements, including superannuation. In addition, State Revenue Office and the Australian Taxation Office are left with large amounts of tax debts outstanding. It is a large complex problem which has seen many recommendations [...]

Every day in the news it seems there is another story about a business going ‘bust’. Normally, this is not of much interest to you unless your business is owed money from them.  If you are owed monies from a business that has gone ‘bust’ you may decide it is best just to write off the debt as there is little or no chance of recovery since your debt [...]

With a new financial year upon us, coupled with further weakness in business conditions being exacerbated by political uncertainty now is the time to review your business processes. It can be frantic at the end of a financial year, which means things, like the collection of outstanding invoices, can slip. But with an estimated $26 billion owed to small businesses in unpaid invoices at any one time it is [...]

Offering Credit Terms is essentially providing finance, often on an unsecured basis - what can you do to protect your business? It takes a lot of hard work to generate sales, but it's equally important to make sure sales are converted into actual revenue that flows into your bank account. As a business, you should always be aware and make informed and careful decisions when dealing with other companies. [...]

It is a common scenario. You have tried to chase a debt but are getting to a point where you think it might be easier to just write it off. You think to yourself there is no point in wasting more time - so you make the decision to 'cut your losses' and just write the debt off. But did you know the actual cost of a debt is [...]

Our blogs often focus on tips to help you collect debts owing by your customers. For example, simply by calling a customer, rather than sending an email, increases your chances of receiving payment. In addition, if you have a policy of verifying credit applications and personal guarantees forms then you can make a more informed decision about the risks involved in extending credit to a customer – so you [...]

When providing credit to a customer you must always be alert to try and avoid problems later on. It is imperative that you seek out as much detail as you can to make an informed decision about whether to issue credit. For small businesses in particular, even just one customer not paying can cause significant cash flow problems. Getting all your customers to complete credit application forms is a [...]

You are busy trying to recover a long outstanding debt from a customer – but are you aware that there are debtor rights guidelines issued jointly by The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) about how you can go about collecting it? The debtor rights guidelines explain how Consumer Protection Laws apply to both debt collectors and businesses who seek to [...]

There is an old saying that prevention is better than cure. This definitely applies when you are making the decision about whether to provide a credit facility to a new customer.  If you take the time to find out more background information about your new customer you can prevent a lot of stress later.  The last thing you need is for any customer to turn into a bad debtor. [...]

It might sound familiar.  You are busy growing your business. You get a new customer (the biggest one yet). They place a large order and promise to pay you within 30 days. Six months later you are still chasing the debt and all your focus has been taken away from growing your business. It has become a struggle to stay afloat and pay your own creditors. At this stage [...]

You tried to recover the debt yourself. You then engaged a professional debt collection firm without success. The amount owing is large, so you are not sure whether to give up or keep going - and if you keep going what is the next step? If you do decide to keep going the next step is to commence formal legal proceedings. If you have not been involved in taking [...]

Legal recovery is when legal action is taken over an outstanding debt, there are a number of steps involved and it is important to understand this process. The initial steps by a lawyer are to instigate legal recovery proceedings in the form of a complaint against the company as the first defendant, with the director as guarantor as the second defendant. The complaint is usually filed in the Magistrates’ [...]

If you are doing business with small to medium sized companies and providing them with a credit facility of anywhere between $5,000 to $150,000, then an ASIC business name search and company search is extremely important. We will discuss steps you can take to reduce the risks of being swindled by corrupt operators and unreliable directors due to their limited personal experience. This article is not personal advice, simply [...]