When a small enterprise has done jobs for larger businesses and one or more has renaged on the latest invoices, the costs of pursuing this via solicitors skilled in Debt collection or Debt collection firm can be high in comparison to the funds available to the small enterprise. In these times the small enterprise could think about an in-house choice where the purchase of Debt collection software can be a fraction of the solicitor or Debt collection business costs and so be an attractive choice. They will need to assess what is for sale on the market for a suitable package that has as many useful options as possible for a reasonable price, nothing unusual there then.
Before taking this path, the small enterprise ought to really firstly check the contract for a late payment clause and think about following up on that. Failing the presence of such a clause the “Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 2002” stipulates the late payment date as 30 days after the bill is received for work done, or after the supply of items. If the bill is still unsettled after this date the legislation allows the small enterprise to charge daily interest on the outstanding debt and also make a fixed one off charge to cover the costs of the Debt collection work. The small enterprise ought to in any event contact the large enterprise and find out why the bill has not been paid as this can on occasion prove useful if there is a simple explanation. It also shows the large enterprise that the small enterprise has an ethical and professional outlook to business and does not use a shoot first ask questions later approach to payment difficulties.
If the payment issue can be resolved from the communication, then that ought to be sufficient and there will be no need for Debt collection to be started. However if this does not resolve the issue and the small enterprise feels it has been harshly treated, they could well feel obliged to instigate Debt collection proceedings and start to use their Debt collection software.
The heart of a Debt collection process is the use of Debt collection letters as these can put the small firms position into context with the legislation in force, but in a non-confrontational and certainly unemotional way. This ought to show that the small enterprise means business but is behaving in an ethical and professional way. The Debt collection software ought to have either an on-line tutorial on the Debt collection process in general and Debt collection letters in particular, especially if the worker assigned to use the Debt collection software has not been too involved in Debt collection in the past. A good suite of Debt collection software ought to be written around both the composing of Debt collection letters and also recording key happenings for the purpose of later providing evidence of the work that been done in the Debt collection process on this occasion. The reason for this is because if the large enterprise still does not pay the bill then the small enterprise could need to take them to court and the court will want to see evidence of the small enterprise having made sufficient efforts to get the bill paid before the case can be heard.
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