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 contact us.

In this website we shall explain the objectives of sensible credit management, and the part a credit department should play in the overall management structure of your business. This will involve studying the following:

  • the background of credit
  • brief history of trade and consumer credit
  • how much late payers cost your business
  • why you should provide for bad debt
  • the purpose of your credit department
  • accounting for inflation.

The term credit controller, or manager, is used constantly throughout. It is realised there are many small and medium-sized businesses who have no requirement for a full-time credit person. In these instances a reliable person should be given the responsibility for managing the sales ledger and the credit policy of your firm. Provision for adequate training should be automatic for this appointment, otherwise your business could fail.

Whenever the role of credit controller, or manager is mentioned anywhere, naturally it refers to anyone fulfilling these duties. The importance of suitable training can never be over­ emphasised.

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.