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Extending credit to business customers can be an effective way to build goodwill and nurture long-term buyers. But if you extend customer credit, it also brings sizable financial risk to your business, as cash flow could grind to a halt if these customers don\u2019t make their payments. Even worse, they could declare bankruptcy and bow out of their obligations entirely.<\/p>\n
For this reason, it\u2019s critical to thoroughly research a customer\u2019s creditworthiness before you offer any arrangement. Here are some ways to do so:<\/p>\n
Follow up on references.<\/strong> When dealing with vendors and other businesses, trade references are key. As you\u2019re likely aware, these are sources that can describe past payment experiences between a business and a vendor (or other credit user).<\/p>\n Contact the potential customer\u2019s trade references to check the length of time the parties have been working together, the approximate size of the potential customer\u2019s account and its payment record. Of course, a history of late payments is a red flag.<\/p>\n Check banking info.<\/strong> Similarly, you\u2019ll want to follow up on the company\u2019s bank references to determine the balances in its checking and savings accounts, as well as the amount available on its line of credit. Equally important, determine whether the business has violated any of its loan covenants. If so, the bank could withdraw its credit, making it difficult for the company to pay its bills.<\/p>\n Order a credit report.<\/strong> You may want to order a credit report on the business from one of the credit rating agencies, such as Dun & Bradstreet or Experian. Among other information, the reports describe the business\u2019s payment history and tell whether it has filed for bankruptcy or had a lien or judgment against it.<\/p>\n Most credit reports can be had for a nominal amount these days. The more expensive reports, not surprisingly, contain more information. The higher price tag also may allow access to updated information on a company over an extended period.<\/p>\n Explore traditional and social media.<\/strong> After you\u2019ve completed your financial analysis, find out what others are saying \u2014 especially if the potential customer could make up a significant portion of your sales. Search for articles in traditional media outlets such as newspapers, magazines and trade publications. Look for anything that may raise concerns, such as stories about lawsuits or plans to shut down a division.<\/p>\n You can also turn to social media and look at the business\u2019s various accounts to see its public \u201cface.\u201d And you might read reviews of the business to see what customers are saying and how the company reacts to inevitable criticisms. Obviously, social media shouldn\u2019t be used as a definitive source for information, but you might find some useful insights.<\/p>\n Although assessing a potential customer\u2019s ability to pay its bills requires some work up front, making informed credit decisions is one key to running a successful company. Our firm can help you with this or other financially critical business practices.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2019<\/em><\/p>\n <\/body> Extending credit to business customers can be an effective way to build goodwill and nurture long-term buyers. But if you extend customer credit, it also brings sizable financial risk to your business, as cash flow could grind to a halt if these customers don\u2019t make their payments. Even worse, they could declare bankruptcy and bow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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