Welcome to the only free guide to credit control on the internet, as far as we know.  If you know of any others please let us know and we will add a reference to them.  This guide is still being written, perhaps it will continue to be written for the next few years, as the credit management industry is under pressure at this time and we look to help with adding more information here.

Is there anything you would like to see added to the site?  Would you like to write an article on credit management in your industry?  If you have any suggestions, question, or additions to the site please email me lesliegilmour@gmail.com.

The First Problem

The UK & Irish business sector is universally recognised as having an incredibly slow payment culture. Everyone appears to agree that this culture is not good for business, it is unfair, especially on small businesses and borders on the immoral. The slow payment culture in Britain is worse than all other European countries except for perhaps Ireland.

The UK Government have taken step to try and adjust the risk with the Late Payments Act which provides for interest on overdue invoices and changes in the court procedures to make that process more speedy. But these are not the solutions that businesses need – as everyone who works in credit control will tell you.

Controlling Risk

Credit control is about controlling risk, the risk of non-payment and the risks associated with late payments, the risks of opening some accounts, while at the same time keeping good customer relationships. These are the main problems inherent in the late payment culture – how to get your money while keeping good customer relationships. The larger the company the easier this task is, and the converse.

This Guide

is intended to help new and experienced credit controllers alike.  There are sections on:

• Credit Control Policy – what it is and how a company should decide on their credit policy and then communicate that.
• Salaries – a discussion on different way to motivate credit controllers.
• Attitude for Credit Control – this section touches on how the credit controller should behave but also on the company attitude towards credit control.
• Cost of credit – until I worked in credit management the cost of credit was never discussed with me as a credit controller, I believe that is a mistake.  These pages give many examples of the cost of credit and how that cost can be reduced.
• Credit control duties – a brief out line which is cover in more depth in other sections – but if you want a quick overview of what a credit controller does look here.
• Credit blog – here we will update with any news items relevant to credit control.  Would you like a news item published – email us the story.

At the bottom of all pages bar this one you can leave comments.  If something is not explained enough please let us know, if you want to add something do so.  If there are questions you have on credit control please ask, we are here to help, as far as we are aware this is the only guide of its type on the internet – if you otherwise drop us a line.