Credit control is a tricky task. It’s time-consuming and stressful, meaning you may find yourself wanting to avoid it. Avoiding it means risking your financial stability and, ultimately, your small business. So, what do you do if you’re stuck in the middle?
Investing in the support of credit control experts can make all the difference. Let’s explore why doing so can prove so beneficial for your business…
Working with Credit Control Experts: The Benefits
Improved Cash Flow Management
Not much about running your small business is predictable, but you cash flow should be. While workload may ebb and flow, maintaining a consistent, predictable cash flow is key to being able to successfully navigate those changes. Late payments and unpaid invoices can disrupt your operations, causing problems when it comes to meeting expenses, paying your employees or reinvesting in business growth.
Credit control experts have the skills and knowledge required to help your business avoid this. They can tactfully and effectively follow up on overdue or unpaid invoices, set clear payment terms and establish solid systems to ensure timely payments going forward. This keeps your cash flow reliable and predictable, enabling you to see where your business stands financially each month, and adjust your goals accordingly.
Reduction in Stress and Time Management
Credit control can be incredibly time consuming, and when time is something, you’re lacking, the whole process can become quite stressful. There are invoices to send out, chasing calls to make, data to update, paperwork to file… it’s a full time job in itself. Understandably, you may struggle to find the time to fit it all in.
Experts in credit control can remove this burden from your shoulders. By delegating some or all of your credit control process, you can simultaneously free up your own time and rest assured that your accounts are being effectively taken care of. From handling the admin side of things to managing customer service, credit control experts can employ a seamless credit control process without it eating into your own hours.
Improved Customer Relationships
Credit control can be a bit tricky when it comes to communicating with your customers. Having to ask for payment, and, on the flipside, being asked to pay can cause both parties to feel a bit prickly – cue awkward phone calls galore!
Credit control calls are no one’s favourite task, but credit control experts are trained to handle them in a way that maintains strong customer relationships. Their impartiality and communication skills help prevent that awkwardness we all dread, and tricky situations are nipped in the bud effectively and with professionalism. This approach fosters goodwill and trust with your customers, while also ensuring your accounts remain healthy.

Setting and Enforcing Terms
Credit control can become complicated if the setting and enforcing of terms is overlooked – even if it may seem easier to turn a blind eye occasionally! Credit control experts can help you establish terms and conditions that work for all involved parties in ensuring payments are made on time. They’ll make sure these terms are communicated effectively from the very first point of contact with your customer, minimising room for misunderstandings or disputes and maximising the chance of timely payments. Having the support of an expert in setting and enforcing terms from the get-go keeps your accounts healthy, credit control process smooth and risks minimal.
Enhanced Financial Planning and Stability
By ensuring timely payments, credit control experts can also contribute to more accurate financial forecasting for your small business. When your credit control process and thus payments are erratic, it can be difficult to get a solid picture of your finances, making forecasting and planning difficult. Stability within your credit control, process, however, gives you a more accurate overview of your financial situation, allowing you to more informed decisions in the present, and for the future.
In turn, this removes some of the stress and uncertainty small business finances can bring.
Preventing Bad Debt and Financial Losses
Running a small business is challenging enough as it is – the last thing you want is the burden of aged debt hanging over you. Invoices that remain unpaid for the longest become the hardest to obtain, sometimes impossible. These missing payments can skew your figures and have a negative knock-on impact on your finances indefinitely. Not to mention the stress and time wasted on trying to secure those payments. Credit control experts use their expertise not only to chase and obtain payments when they become late, but to prevent late payments becoming a recurrent project in the long run.
Credit control experts can also keep a close eye on your clients, carrying out detailed credit checks and highlighting any red flags before you work with them. This helps prevent any financial losses that may come from working with unreliable clients.
Credit Control Expertise at The Edwards Company
Working with credit control experts comes with a range of benefits. From minimising risk and maximising risks for your business, to taking workload off your plate and reducing the stress involved with credit control, investing in an expert can be critical for the success of small businesses.
Here at The Edwards Company, we provide our clients with expert credit control services to keep their accounts looking healthy and their business pushing forwards. For more information on how we can support your credit control processes, please do not hesitate to get in touch.