With time of the essence
Given the challenges the majority of businesses have faced in collecting unpaid invoices in recent months, Hilton-Baird always stresses to its SME clients just how important it is to act quickly once invoices exceed agreed credit terms in order to maximise the recovery.
For similar reasons, the same can be said for Insolvency Practitioners; the sooner a specialist debt collection agency can enter the process and begin collating all the vital paperwork to commence the collections process, the higher the collectable value will be.
Hilton-Baird Collection Services was recently instructed by a business recovery specialist to recover the ledger of a high profile case, a leading car manufacturer which had entered administration.
Recognising the size of the task ahead – the outstanding ledger of £100,000 consisted of over 150 debtors – the IP quickly turned to our award-winning team. By getting on site quickly, it was a much simpler task to gather the necessary documentation to support the ledger than it would have been had we been instructed two weeks later.
This consisted of securing purchase order numbers and proofs of delivery spanning several years, but by getting to understand the businesses’ processes and the nature of the debts – largely spare parts that had lost their warranty due to the client entering administration – the team was able to prioritise the most time-critical debts and commence the collections process.
This involved taking the time to speak to the clients, understanding why payment wasn’t made on time and then devising the most suitable recovery tactic on a debtor-by-debtor basis. For whilst some required a firmer approach, others simply needed more structured mediation to encourage them to pay.
In the end we were able to collect the outstanding ledger in full, demonstrating once again how crucial it can prove to be instructed as soon as possible in order to maximise the recovery.
