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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-imminent 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
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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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Credit Today Sample Articles
Thank you for coming to Credit Today's Members-only website.
Here are just a few samples of material you'll find here. Most is available only to Members. Take a look around and enjoy your stay here at Credit Today! We look forward to you joining our community of happy members and becoming a full member yourself soon!
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Energizing a Credit Staff's Potential
A credit staff can work for a long time without ever achieving its full potential. Lack of training, direction and/or up-to-date systems and procedures can lock it into consistently sub par performance. Then again, with the training and systems readily available today, the same staff can quickly blossom into super performance. That's what happened here under a new manager committed to excellence. . . .
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Credit Card Processing Billing Scams--Are They Ripping You Off?
Your costs for accepting purchasing card payments probably aren't big enough to warrant much attention. But they are a bite out of profits. And you might find that your processor has inflated them by two or three times what they should be. That's worth a hard look and maybe switching to another processor. This article reveals a company that was overcharged by thousands of dollars a month, including how the problem occurred and what they did about it. We also talk with a former processing insider who now helps credit execs with his advice. He offers up five questions you should ask your processor. . . .
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Leadership Profile: Norman Taylor, CCE
In the early stages of a job interview with a prospective employer, I was told, "We have historically made quite a few management overrides on our credit decisions." When I asked, "Why?" my soon-to-be new boss looked at me quizzically. I went on to say, "If it's in our corporate best interest to extend credit in risky situations, then I need to be able to understand the parameters." That conversation set the stage for what became a rich working relationship where, over ten years . . .
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey, Part 3: Selection Criteria For Collection Agency Outsourcing Services
By David Schmidt
Just as choosing a collection agency for third-party collections is a critical task, so too is selecting an agency to provide outsourcing services on a first-party basis. Maybe even more so than with third party collections, a bad choice can negatively impact your recoveries and your company's reputation, because an agency acting as a first party outsourcing partner is dealing directly with your active customers. A good choice will drive greater collection efficiency without raising customer service issues. . . .
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey: Credit Professional Perceptions of CLLA Certification
By David Schmidt
The Commercial Law League of America (CLLA) boasts it is the oldest existing creditor rights organization in America. Most of its members are attorneys, but it also supports a collection agency section known as the Commercial Collection Agency Association (CCAA). Agency membership is contingent upon meeting a strict set of professional standards, including bonding. This provides a valuable level of protection in terms of fraud protection and professional performance for the companies that place claims with CCAA agencies in comparison to non-affiliated commercial collection agencies. . . .
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey: Collection Agency Selection Criteria
By David Schmidt
Choosing a collection agency is a critical task. A wrong choice can negatively impact your recoveries or even your company's reputation. A good choice will ensure you achieve the highest possible net recoveries (receivables recovered less collection costs) in a highly professional manner. That professionalism will evidence itself in how your accounts are handled and how well the agency communicates with your staff. Ideally the agency will become a valued advisor in regard to your credit and collection practices. This month's benchmarking survey was conducted jointly with the Commercial Collection Agency Association to learn what criteria are most important to credit execs when selecting collection agencies. Learn: - The 8 top objective criteria for choosing an agency
- How important fees are in the decision
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Leadership Profile: Steve Savino
Credit Philosophy
The Credit function - especially in today's rapidly changing and competitive environment - cannot exist as an overhead department. Rather, we need to think of Credit as a revenue source. That's possible with the resources in the typical credit operation, but only if you think a little differently. At ASSA Abloy Credit, we're working on implementing a new business model whereby we can help our customers' customers obtain financing through an outside captive finance firm. This will help us book sales even if it's not in our customers' budgets. This kind of thinking really brings credit beyond straight risk-management (which is very important, of course) and is the key to not only surviving, but prospering in the coming years. . . .
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Benchmarking Credit Policies: Reasons Some Credit Execs Do NOT Have a Credit Policy
One of the questions in Credit Today's recent Benchmarking Survey on Credit Applications asked those who did not have a credit policy why that was the case. We also asked how they set policies and monitor compliance without one. Synopsis: Although only 18 percent of survey participants reported that they did not have written credit policies, most clearly feel having written policies is valuable. In fact, creating a written policy and procedures manual is an agenda item for most, though until now, other priorities or circumstances have gotten in the way. Here's what they had to say on this issue: . . .
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Benchmarking Credit Policies: Participants' Top Recommendations for Those Putting Together a Credit Policy Manual
One of the questions in our recent Benchmarking Survey on Credit Policies asked respondents for their recommendations on putting together a credit policy manual. Listed below is a wealth great advice on how to get the process going, resources to help make it easier, who you should work with (and why), what should be included, how long it should be, the degree of complixity of a policy (Note: we found some disagreement on this issue!), along with many ideas on the general philosophy required to making your policy most beneficial. . . .
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey: Keeping Credit Policies and Procedures Up to Date
By David Schmidt
Putting your credit policies and procedures in writing is one thing, but keeping them updated is another matter. To remain an effective tool, credit policies need to be kept up-to-date and that takes additional time and effort. In this analysis, we reveal: - how often credit policies are updated
- when the last update was for most companies' credit policies
- the impact that the size of your company has on how often credit policies are updated
- some great recommendations for getting and keeping the credit policy process moving
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey: Is Your Credit Policy Manual Comprehensive?
By David Schmidt
Credit Today's recent benchmarking survey on credit policies asked participants to identify the components that are included in their policy manuals. Our expectation was that there might be a dozen items that would be almost universally included. But we found only six items were included in more than 75 percent of all credit policy manuals, led by Approval Authorities and New Account Application Processing -- no surprise there. Read on to learn: which six items are included in 78 percent of all policies - Our checklist of 55 items in 8 categories that you can consider for your credit policy
. . .
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey: Smaller Firms Less Likely to Have Written Credit Policies
By David Schmidt
Whether they are written or not, every company has credit policies. Though not always recorded, they should be, and most companies (82 percent of our sample of 199 firms) do report having written credit policies, according to Credit Today's recent benchmarking survey on credit policies. Compiling a written Credit Policies and Procedures Manual is clearly a best practice. We cover: - The four primary reasons for having a written credit policy
- What percentage of small, medium, and large firms have credit policies
- Which industries are more - or less - likely to have credit policies in place
- Why some do not have a policy currently
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey: Electronic Billing and Payment Trends, Part II
By David Schmidt
Electronic payments are now becoming mainstream. Based on our survey of 165 firms, wire transfer, Automated Clearing House (ACH) and credit cards now account for 47 percent of all payments. While checks remain the most popular medium, they now account for less than half of all payments (45 percent). With AP departments determined to migrate more of their payments to ACH and credit card formats due to the associated cost savings and efficiency benefits, experts expect the use of checks to continue to decrease. Likewise, the cost of processing checks through a lockbox, still the most popular delivery point for payments, makes the evolution to electronic payment attractive to AR departments as well. Moreover, most bank lockbox operations can now also facilitate electronic payments and remittances. Read on to learn: - Why Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) is not taking off as originally envisioned
- The primary payment mechanisms being used today - broken down on a percentage basis
- The types of payments being received
- The advantages of Electronic Invoice Presentment & Payment (EIPP) portals and the surprising data on how prevalent they are
. . .
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Credit Today Benchmarking Survey: Electronic Billing and Payment Trends: Part I
By David Schmidt
While paper invoices still predominate, their usage is shrinking. Less than one out of every two invoices is now delivered by mail. Over the last two years, paper invoices invoices dropped substantially, from 55.8 percent to 47.3 percent, according to Credit Today's Benchmarking Survey of credit executives. Furthermore, we believe that the fact that paper invoices have now fallen below the 50 percent threshold marks an important benchmark in the migration from paper to electronic invoicing. Read on to find out: - what method of invoice delivery is growing the fastest
- why the data on EIPP implementation provided the biggest surprise in the survey (and what that surprise is)
- what percentage of credit execs are using an outsourcing firm to help with their billing processes, and what credit departments are reaching out for help much more than others
- what the cut-off number of invoices per month is to make outsourced billing a slam dunk decision
- what percentage of high-invoice operations are using outsourcers for invoice processing
- a dozen outsourcing firms that handle billing processes, along with hotlinks to their websites
. . .
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Fire-Starter Words: Four Things Never to Say to a Customer
Sooner or later, exhausted, overworked staffers will take their frustrations out on customers. They'll use what customer-relations guru Peggy Morrow of Peggy Morrow & Associates calls "firestarter" words. She lists four examples that can do your company immediate and lasting harm: . . .
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Benchmarking Survey Reveals Bad-Debt Reserve Levels; Bad-Debt Ratios, and Metrics That Matter in These Numbers
By David Schmidt
In early 2008, when we first conducted this survey, there was a huge difference between bad-debt reserves and actual bad debts. Companies appeared to be way over-reserving in relation to actual bad debts. It turned out, as the Credit Crisis unfolded later that year and on into 2009, that there was apparently some method to the madness of those high reserves. Three years later, our latest bad-debt reserve survey reveals that, while companies are still facing high bad-debt write-off levels, the allowances for bad-debt reserves have moderated since 2007/08. So if collective corporate credit department wisdom was amazingly predictive then, then perhaps the moderation in reserves is another good sign. Today, the ratio of reserves to actual write-offs has fallen back to more reasonable levels, with reserves now averaging four times actual bad-debt levels. Further, looking ahead to 2011, that number is expected to drop to three times. Two factors account for such a big variance. Our survey also reveals... - upper quartile, median, and lower quartile reserves and bad-debt ratios
- what receivable metrices are most predictive of conservative vs. less-conservative reserving practices
- what receivable metrics have the most impact on bad-debt ratios
. . .
keep reading
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Outlook 2012
This month's survey explores...
- What the top problems are facing credit execs currently, and
- What the top improvement initiatives are.
Click here to participate!
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