Credit Control with KashFlow
Survey confirms: debt still a thing
A recent survey carried out by our parent company, IRIS Software, discovered that only 30% of businesses are being paid on time, while the government estimates that the amount of debt currently owed to small UK businesses is a jaw-dropping £26bn at any one time, not inclusive of the additional millions of pounds worth of costs incurred when chasing up said debt.
To put that into perspective, it’s almost enough to buy a bedroom under someone’s stairs in central London.
Bearing this in mind, this summer the government drew up plans to help firms tackle this issue head-on in the form of a Small Business Commissioner, who is to serve as a champion for SMEs that are finding it difficult to survive in the present climate.
A worthy-sounding position that will, hopefully, give small businesses the helping hand many of them so desperately need when calling in debts; but for now it remains a distant dot on the horizon, and no doubt countless businesses will fall more and more heavily into debt – or worse – between today and whenever it is that that dot manifests itself as a tangible benefit.
From Westminster, England, Weighing in at 275lbs…
The Commissioner (who, based on the name, may or may not have a side job as a professional wrestler) will primarily be focused on assisting with disputes (possibly in the form of bodyslams) between small businesses and large corporations – which is, of course, vital and honourable in terms of fairness of enterprise – but that leaves small businesses who’re trading with other SMEs, or individual customers, also in need of effective support when chasing up the money they’re owed.
As a customer (or potential customer) of ours, you must be wondering what we can do to improve your credit control, which brings us, rather handily, to the crux of this post.
You’ll be pleased to discover that KashFlow provides a variety of options, which we’ll be exploring in a series of blog posts. Unfortunately, none of them involve taking out serial late-payers with a well-timed chair shot to the head, Commissioner-style, but we do offer powerful features that have been specifically designed to speed up the rate at which your customers pay you (and are less likely to result in their untimely demise).
Your (metaphorical) weapon in the war against late payment
Introducing our brand new Payments tab – available now on your KashFlow dashboard, making it easy for you to take instant card and/or bank payments from customers via our secure payment gateways and giving you the option of automatically installing a ‘pay online’ button on all of your invoices.
KashFlow Payments are free to activate, and will automate each stage of the payment request process to accelerate the flow of cash into your company with immediate effect. Try them here and do away with the unwanted stress of overdue income.
If you’d like to know more about improving your credit control, you’re in luck: two upcoming blog posts will be delving deeper into how you can continually and effectively benefit from KashFlow’s robust features – keep your eyes peeled.
And if you haven’t experienced them already, what are you waiting for?