Did you know the ‘A’ Team now has a ‘B’ Team too ?

Finally the Government are listening to us….!

For those of you that know us well, you will know that our editorials are always packed full of advice and guidance about :

-how to try to avoid a bad debt occurring in the first instance, then

-secondly should you sadly have the mis-fortune of experiencing a delayed invoice payment, how best to attempt to recover your debt thereafter.

Well it now seems that our publications are reaching higher plains ? The essential advice and guidance that we’ve been passing on to our valued contacts over the last few years has reached the corridors of power in Government.

It is clear that our wise words have been both read and understood in Parliamentary circles, as the very same steps, hints and tips we’ve been preaching for some time can now all be found on the website of the recently created Small Business Commissioner https://www.smallbusinesscommissioner.gov.uk

This Business Commissioner role is to act as a national champion for small businesses and support them in payment disputes with their larger customers.

The role was established in response to the discovery that nearly half of the UK’s small businesses experience late payment.

Payment processor, Bacs estimated that a total of £26.3bn was owed to these businesses and given that we all rely on the UK’s 5.5 million small and medium sized businesses for jobs, goods and services, an unfair payment culture that hurts these firms has no place in our economy.

“There is simply no excuse for a business culture where supply chain bullying or poor payment practice are acceptable. FSB research shows that poor payment practice is on the rise, causing 50,000 business deaths each year.” Mike Cherry, national chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses commented

Our advice is to keep the above link handy and use the information as a reference, to help you create a strong and robust credit control process.

We see our role in industry to be there for comment and to reflect both sides of any argument. As a result, we are often drawn into discussions on public forums such as LinkedIn and Twitter about the need of some people to name and shame the companies who purposely delay payments.

Although there used to be such forums as ‘Credit Circles’ in the past where like-minded similar industries shared knowledge on bad payers, this practice has fallen out of favour given the rise in credit compliance and data protection regulations.

Well now one of the Commissioner’s roles is to be that point of reference when it comes to naming. The Commissioner actively encourages that people who have suffered through unfair practices at the hands of late payers contact them and complain.

The naming part of the process may prove cathartic to some but sadly the likelihood of these companies being shamed will probably not materialize.

That being said, the creation and potential evolution of the Commissioner is a step in the right direction to resolving issues of late payment and we for one advocate the best practice the Commissioner’s office encourages… even if they have straightforwardly stolen from the industry experts… 😊

To read more of hints & tips check out our blogs