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Our Subscribers Say...
I think Credit Today is fantastic. You cover many practical topics in the credit field that I use regularly. Just one recent example—a conversation on the ListServ about preferential payments—gave me tips that I used in an actual case. The specific information I picked up from this one discussion saved me $10,000, enough to cover my membership for many years!
- Steve Savino
Manager of Credit & Collections, ASSA Abloy Americas Division, New Haven, CT
Credit Today's Resource Directory and their online e-mail forum (ListServ) provide information on almost any credit-related topic you can think of. It is a great way to exchange information with other credit professionals. As the saying goes, "You don't know what you don't know."
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Credit Manager, Big Lots Stores, Inc., Wholesale Division
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"Being a part of the Credit Today online community is like having the expertise of hundreds of credit managers at your fingertips. These credit execs are willing to help you solve topical business issues as they arise. In the current environment of ever increasing competing priorities which reduce our opportunities to meet peers out of the office face-to-face, this is the most valuable tool you can have on your desktop! It's important that we have a mechanism to reach out to our counterparts quickly to exchange knowledge as well as to stay on top of industry trends."
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The Credit Today ListServ has become the pre-eminent online forum, providing an opportunity for discussion and comments (and occasional humor) from an impressive list of credit professionals."
David Dungan, Director of Credit
Justin Brands, Inc. (A Berkshire Hathaway company)
Fort Worth, Texas
"There are numerous credit periodicals available to the credit professional today. How good is Credit Today? Is it relevant? I always have to read it late, or online because my credit analysts want to read it the minute it comes in. When my staff wants to read a publication before I have a chance to read it then something is working in that publication. We have cancelled our other subscriptions. When you have the best you do not need the rest."
Ron Woods
Corporate Credit Manager-World Wide
Thales Navigation, Inc.
"The newsletter, coupled with the website and the ListServ, are to us, more valuable than any other credit publication, bar none. I try to use at least one article out of each newsletter for departmental training/discussion sessions."
D. Mark Constantine
Corporate Credit Mgr
Fulton Paper Company
"I love Credit Today and read every issue cover to cover. For me, the greatest perk of a subscription is ListServ. I believe Credit Today's ListServ members may be the most knowledgeable Credit brain trust in existence today. I have saved and categorized hundreds of contributions on a wide variety of topics which I refer to often. It's an easy and cost effective way to network and learn."
Doug M. Thomas
Kimberly-Clark Customer Financial Services |
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Welcome to
Credit Today Online
Credit Today is the premier online portal for trade credit professionals. This web site and all the resources within are for Members of Credit Today Online. If you are new to our site, check out our most popular articles!
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Instant Decision Making With an Economic Parity Model
Ever wish you could sit in on sales calls and make terms and pricing decisions right then and there? Well, this credit manager can, sort of. An internally developed computer program on the salesman's laptop precisely calculates the consequences of any accommodation the customer asks for and instructs the salesman how to respond. In this article you'll learn: - How and why this firm developed a financial model to be used in negotiations with customers
- The key variables that go into it
- The powerful impact that empowering sales with a portable financial model has for this company and its profitability
. . . keep reading
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Can Forensic Accounting Stop the Surge in Fraudulent Financial Statements?
The stepped-up focus on business accounting fraud recently announced by the SEC, after years of concentration on cases resulting from the financial crisis, has been welcomed by the trade credit community. But seasoned credit managers we've spoken with are viewing it with as much skepticism as relief. Is there really any way, they wonder, of reining in aggressive and outright fraudulent accounting? In this article we cover... - What the SEC is now doing to spot & combat fraud and what that means for credit execs. Will their efforts work?
- Five top accounting issues that indicate high risk
- Five top governance issues to watch out for
- Why experience credit exec is more concerned about current info than audited info
- One of the biggest (and most common) flaws in reasoning that most people make when analyzing financial info
- A "forensic tip sheet" you can use
. . . keep reading
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Owners Lose Their Jobs Along With Their Business--Does That Cancel Their Personal-Guarantee Obligations?
By Ann Morales Olazábal
Because a bank held a perfected security interest in all of Jaeger Construction Supply's (JCS's) existing and after-acquired inventory, Credit Manager Jim Nugent of Tri-Am Building Supply never tried to secure the products he sold JSC on open terms. But, in 2009 and again in 2011 when they were executing new applications for credit, he did have both Scott and Sherry Jaeger, the co-owners, execute personal guarantees intended to assure repayment of the JCS account. This legal case study examines whether or not extreme hardship gives a debtor a legal excuse to avoid honoring a personal guarantee. We also take a look at the concept of "supervening impossibility" - in which an event or circumstance materializes after a contract is entered that renders performance by one or both parties objectively impossible - and what this means for the credit manager. . . . keep reading
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Nurturing Cross-Company Sales Teamwork with a Credit Department Dashboard
Ever get the feeling that you're invisible, that nobody notices Credit unless DSO or bad debts shoot up? This credit professional tackled that problem with a weekly dashboard detailing for management just what Credit is accomplishing. Then he went on to build on this new visibility by recruiting other departments to join Credit into a sales-building team. Learn... - the key elements of this company's dashboard
- how long the accompanying memo is and what is included
- how this helped the credit exec get closer to sales and in fact made him and important asset to help on sales calls
- how he has taken credit out of the backroom to a much more visible and critical role
. . . keep reading
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Designing and Implementing Your Ideal Credit App
Just about every customer relationship begins with their filling out your credit app. So there are few investments in time and effort that you can make with more lasting payoffs than designing an app that elicits exactly the information you need in a form that you can use most efficiently. Get the story behind one of the best online credit apps we've seen: - How it is structured in order to capture the most information possible
- What has been done to make the form as user-friendly as possible
- What has been done to have different answers cause different questions to be directed to the applicant
- The advantages of automation that go well beyond the data captured
- How it helps back office efficiency and accuracy as well as sales
- What the development challenges were
. . . keep reading
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Solving Payment Processing Problems Permanently with a High Performance, Cross-Functional Team
Pulling a team together to solve a cross-functional problem is standard procedure at many companies. And it's often a flop. Having more important things to do, team members often lack interest and commitment. Leaders many times lack experience in organizing meetings or driving effective change. Immediate problems may be cleared up, but root causes are left to fester. This is a company that is driven to change that course. Learn... - What this company has done to cut DSO substantially and save over $600,000 in just 9 months
- The five basic team skills required for success
. . . keep reading
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Smoking Out Terms-Extension Chiselers with a Meet the Competition Form
Looking for another tool to stop extended terms requesters in their tracks? Most customers who request extended terms from this firm are turned down. Some, depending on the circumstances, receive their "Meet the Competition" form, which requires them to certify, over their signatures, specifically who the competition is and in detail what they are selling and what terms they have offered. To learn how this works and why, as well as get a copy of the form itself, read on. . . . keep reading
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Measuring Collector Performance: Benchmarking the Key Metrics
By David Schmidt
Measuring the performance of your collectors is a critical task, and there are many metrics in use by credit departments today. This portion of our latest benchmarking survey takes a deep dive into the metrics being used. Learn: - What the most popular metric used to measure individual collectors' performancel; and is that really the BEST metric?
- How many metrics do most firms use to track collector performance?
- What are the primary metrics? How do they stack up?
- Which surprising metric is most popular with credit departments that are missing their collection goals?
- What is the minimum number of contacts expected of collectors? What is considered optimum? What is the range of these two critical metrics?
What is the impact of automation? . . . keep reading
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When Can Your Customer's Customers Become Your Customers?
By Ann Morales Olazábal, MBA, JD
When relationships go sour, sometimes they really go sour. For years PRL--a big American manufacturer of mining and extraction equipment--had had a great informal distributorship arrangement with Chastain, a regional seller of spare parts and attachments primarily to mining and construction companies. PRL would sell and deliver to Chastain, who then sold to its third-party buyers or, at Chastain's request, PRL would drop ship directly to Chastain's customers. The relationship was mutually lucrative for years. This case study examines a situation in which a supplier starts selling directly to its former customer's customers. Is this going to cause the top supplier any legal problems. What are the issues at stake? . . . keep reading
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Be Alert for Customers Dependent on a Growing Field of High-Risk, Asset-Based Lenders
Loans to small- and medium-sized, high-risk companies to be packaged for sale to investors who are looking for high returns and willing to accept high risks. That is the gist of the mission of Harbor Capital LLC, a new venture being launched by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. There are now a number of these business-development companies which use borrowed money to invest as asset loans to smaller companies that often don't even have credit ratings. But until now they have been run by private equity firms and other types of investment management companies. Liberty Harbor Capital will be the first to be operated by a bank. . . . keep reading
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Are Those 'Secured Creditors' Ahead of You in Line in a Bankruptcy Really Secured?
Several years ago while in a brief consulting assignment at a West Coast Sumitomo Electric affiliate, something caught Credit Management Director Chris Finch's eye. In the files of four customers that the affiliate had assumed it had UCC-1 security interests, there were none of those little green slips showing the notifications had been received by other secured creditors. Had those security interests ever been perfected? Learn Finch's simple (and easy) ways to double-check the status of other secured creditors. . . . keep reading
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Selling Where the Risks Aren't
You have plenty of information telling you where credit risks are. The same information also tells you where the risks aren't. It shows you which customers and prospects will be willing and able to pay if your sales people can get their orders. Are you using that information systematically and regularly to drive sales? This credit manager is. Learn how this credit exec uses positive data to motivate sales and add value for the customer financial services department! . . . keep reading
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Bankruptcy Issues
