........describe DUE2PAY a must have business membership for all Limited Companies as necessary to financial well being as normal credit checks. DUE2PAY goes much further than telling you if a business is credit worthy. It lets you speak with other business which are having trouble getting paid by any company you find listed as as a late payer on their site. Businesses are facing increasing problems with late invoice payments, bad debts and Debt Recovery. DUE2PAY is a website which encourages late payers to pay the bills they own. The view is that instead of the headache of court action or a solicitor’s letter, you can list a company as a late payer with www.due2pay.co.uk and share that information with other members. Dispensing with solicitor’s letters and court action. DUE2PAY can be thought of as a UK wide business club, bringing members together over the internet to discuss business in the same way that they would if they were members of a local club having breakfast meetings.
The best thing about DUE2PAY is the incredible low cost for such a needed service. Free membership for the first two months, this is followed by only £15 a month. Compare this with the high costs of sending a solicitor’s letter, the interest you pay your bank or the costs of factoring.The success of local business clubs and networking is recognised by those who join them. Late payment is a common topic. In some industries is recognised that the longer you wait to chase a late invoice debt it is less likely the invoice will be paid. Add to this the interest you are paying out to fund the product or service supplied, the internal costs of employing someone to make the chasing phone calls, to write letters or the cost of taking legal action the overall cost is usually hidden. The warning signs are easily read but companies choose to take a positive point of view expecting to receive payment soon. However it is common to discover that your debtor is also a debtor to other companies. If you delay in recovering monies owed, your debtor may be wound up or made bankrupt before you get the money you are owed.The government has introduced legislation allowing companies to add late payment interest into their invoicing structure. Take up has been slow and is considered to be an administrative obstacle for small businesses which just want to be paid for the goods or services supplied. Using www.due2pay.co.uk will highlight to your customer that you expect payment. If he is doing the same with his other suppliers, they will soon find out through the site. In addition, other companies which he approaches will be forewarned with the site’s Watch List. This is a useful feature which allows members to list companies and as soon as that company is registered as a late payer they receive an email letting them know that their Watch List has been ‘triggered’.DUE2PAY is up there with other traditional methods of business vetting such as business debt collection and company credit checks. It has an advantage of alerting members to things which are happening recently. The historical or traditional check methods should not be ignored as they are valuable indicators of how a company trades, their profitability and ability to weather hard times.
3 posts tagged “collection”
Tips for getting late payments paid earlier or on time
Don’t listen to the excuses
You already know most of them, “Can you resend the invoice”, “it’s passed
for payment” and ‘the cheque is in the post’. Get invoices paid directly
into your account. Your customer can not themn use the excuse that the cheque
may be lost or that it is waiting for signature. You can also list a late payer on sites which offer business debt collection services, websites which are cheap and cost effective.
Work at it
Don’t think that businesses will pay you on time. You need to build
relationships with people who hold the purse strings in companies which are
slow in paying. Phone them, talk to them, smile on the phone to them, get them
on your side. Be like a rat up a drain pipe and pester them in a nice way.
Before you know it you will be the first to be paid. A phone call in
advance of the payment date confirming that you will receive payment puts your
contact on the spot and he might not want to let you down. Paying direct into
your bank is good, meet with your customers and press them into this
Ask for interest and ask for prompt payment
It is possible and legal to ask for interest on late paid invoices.
Encourage prompt payment, if your pricing allows , hard in today’s climate,
offer a prompt payment discount and link it in with Bacs electronic payment.
You will see a positive cash flow with money going into your account quickly.
Not waiting for money to clear means that you can use it immediately and don’t
have to rely on costly loans.
Do as you ask
Don’t get a bad reputation yourself as a bad payer news travels fast so pay
your suppliers on time.
Is a business a bad risk ?
Check them out through debt recovery companies or associations they may be in, check out Companies
House which can provide reports on line to you. Prevent risk by doing a credit
risk check on all new potential customers. risk by performing a credit
check on all new customers. Beware of companies which give may give
referees which provide a big proportion of their supplies, ask what percentage
they are responsible for. That supplier may be paid on time every month because
not to do so could influence deliveries. Business debt collection is hard, one needs to be tough to make it work.
Internal Cost of Late Payment
Some companies are paying for dedicated staff to chase late payment others are not so fortunate. On average the internal cost for those not able to afford dedicated staff can be up to 20 lost working days per year.
One main factor s that businesses in the UK have taken to increase their payment times was the increase in interest rates. During periods of high interest rates businesses naturally resorted to using their suppliers as a bank able to give low interest loans but in their case, it is interest free. When a company extends paying an invoice by 1 month, that business will not have to fund the equivalent amount with their bank, it also means that they do not have to approach the bank for a loan for that amount. We now know that banks are more reluctant than ever to advance loans. Even today even considering the reduced interest rates the delay of paying continues as a way of managing cash flow.Never before has the need for businesses to pull together been as important as now. For many a day UK companies have been regarded as ruthless and with a reputation as being the latest of the late with regard to being late payers. The government has put in place legislation over the years to stop payment delays and with the extra bonus of adding interest to overdue invoices. There has been no indication that take up has been popular
All businesses which supply others have to be aware of tools
which can help them be more successful. When considering new business, a
company credit check is usually the first port of call, although giving
historical information they are extremely good to use. Other methods which are available such as http://www.due2pay.co.uk/
, business debt collection and solicitor’s
letters may be thought to be aggressive but can be essential today. DUE2PAY has
a novel way which to tackle late payment
taking the company credit check to a new level. Companies have been wanting a
central register of late payers for a long time. These businesses can now list
a late paying company and other members
have sight of this information, simple.
Late payment has traditionally been very one sided in favour of the late payer,
DUE2PAY addresses this in giving the late payer the chance to flag up a reason
for his late payment of a specific invoice or invoices. Every member of DUE2PAY
can access this information and all
members can contact the late payer or other members. Court action or
solicitor’s letters do not offer this service. Debt
recovery now has a meaningful alternative with DUE2PAY.
Industry late payment figures have surprised
observers of industry trends, they fear that the uncertainty in the
economy will make things worse for those who supply the late payers. The downturn
in the economy, the heavy discounting by retailers is getting worse and with
the global economic conditions and anything that a company can do to
retain cash for as long as possible will
be even more attractive. This trend to
late payment is in spite of the legislation phased in since 1998 which was designed to
develop a better payment practice by letting
businesses ask for or claim
interest on Invoices that have not been paid on time.
The UK dependency on late payment is detrimental to business, jobs and also global trading. It is thought that
one of the biggest challenges to increasing the growth of business is late
payment and lack of bank loans. They go hand in hand. If a bank is not lending
to businesses, the supplier will be put under pressure and will suffer.
