Christmas is always a time of both joy and strain. Joy, because we all look forward to enjoying the season with our staff and strain because it is a time when holiday salaries and bonuses need to be paid and we enter a season where cash-flow will be slow until businesses are all back on broad.

So what can your business do to mitigate against the ensuing strain?

Here are our top 5 tips:

  1. Review your ledgers to establish which debts are beyond terms;
  2. Confirm you have paperwork or records to prove the debts are owing and unpaid;
  3. If your previous demands have been ignored, send the debts to us for a letter of demand to be sent requiring payment well before Christmas;
  4. Depending on the response, decide which debts are not economical to pursue or are unable to be recovered; and,
  5. Then, issue instructions to us for legal recovery action to be taken.

Having a structured and systematic credit policy in place to follow up unpaid debts is crucial. Outsourcing recovery efforts can also assist you as it puts some objective space between you and your customer and minimises impact on your staff.

So, as we enter the Yuletide season, avoid the strain that it brings by seeking to recover unpaid debts early. The demand in itself may at least establish a committed plan for payment of debts from your customers.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.