Remove Accounts Receivable (AR) Remove Bad Debt Remove Default
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Storm Warning: Private Company Red Flags

Your Virtual Credit Manager

The Customer Delinquency Challenge Successful accounts receivable (AR) management involves minimizing past due balances to ensure steady cash in-flows and limit bad debt losses. In contrast, customer bankruptcies or other defaults typically cause the loss of most, if not all, the AR owed.

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Gain Leverage Over Slow Paying and Risky Customers by Holding Up Their Orders

Your Virtual Credit Manager

Meanwhile, customers who previously were approved during your initial credit evaluation may become past due, max out their credit limit, or, worse yet, be in a deteriorating financial situation, all of which become even more likely when the economy is volatile—the result: cash flow problems and more exposure to bad debt losses.

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Are Your Credit & Collection Policies Aligned with Company Goals?

Your Virtual Credit Manager

In most companies, sales are given a strong priority over the risk of slow payments and bad debts regardless of gross margins and the resources the credit and collection function can provide to mitigate risk. Photo by Piret Ilver on Unsplash ) Too often, credit and collections are an afterthought. Customers default.

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How Are Your Customers Doing?

Your Virtual Credit Manager

This company was fortunate to avoid significant bad debt loss until Ames Department Stores, Kmart, and Fleming Foods (a distributor) all filed bankruptcy within the same year. Bad debt losses were understandably huge. To receive new posts and support my work, please subscribe for just $5 per month ($49 yearly).

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Big Company Red Flags You Can't Afford to Miss

Your Virtual Credit Manager

Consequently, a large percentage of your accounts receivable (AR) is likely to derive from large firms. If you are not on the lookout for customer red flags, especially those raised by public firms and other large enterprises, you will be at increased risk for incurring bad debt losses.

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Are Your Collection Efforts Myopic?

Your Virtual Credit Manager

A high degree of transactional transparency across the entire Order to Cash Process (O2C), coupled with 360-degree visibility of customers and their life-cycles, is necessary to optimize accounts receivable (AR) performance. Too often, customer and AR information is kept in an assortment of data silos.

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Top 10 Strategies for Reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

Your Virtual Credit Manager

How was your accounts receivable (AR) performance last year? This is a very important question because AR is typically one of the top two or three largest assets for a B2B vendor. The primary way most companies measure AR performance involves looking at the Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) metric.