Vermeulen Attorneys offer a unique Bad Debt Prevention service, aimed specifically at preventing your company’s debtors from getting out of control. Our aim is to asses the current contracts you have in place; and the processes that you follow to determine if there are any obvious gaps in your process that can be changed to safeguard your company from bad debt being brought in to your business.
We work with your company across both sales and administrative staff to assist companies to put in place the right contracts, staff training, client vetting – and debtor processes that will decrease the likelihood of bad debt in your company by up to 90%.
Services:
1. Drafting of Agreements
The contracts that are signed by new clients create the foundation of your relationship. The contract safeguards both yourself and the client, specifying services, products, payment schedules etc. that have been agreed on, and will have to be adhered to.
With the experience and specialization that the Vermeulen Attorneys team have, especially in debt collection, we understand what the agreement must provide for and which clauses are an absolute necessity to best prevent payment loopholes.
2. Vetting Policy
Vetting should be a critical part of every business’ process of onboarding of new clients.
Vetting in broad terms means that the potential client is investigated in order to ascertain whether the information given to your company is accurate and to get an idea of who your client is. The process will also uncover other necessary information which may influence your decision to accept the client on your books, or to move to a cash on delivery structure for example.
A policy in this regard will give your employees who deal with new clients, a checklist of what must be investigated and the client passing the necessary checklist will lead to acceptance of the client.
3. Debtors Policy
A debtors policy is critical if cashflow is important to your business. This policy will dictate how accounting and collecting of payments are dealt with. The policy will contain dates that certain actions must be performed as well as consequences of non-payment of clients after a certain amount of time has elapsed.
The services provided by Vermeulen Attorneys will also include notices which are sent to clients who have neglected to make payment in time.
Having a policy created and personalised for your company and clients will eliminate any excuses or confusion when dealing with debtors and the result will be significantly improved cashflow.
4. Training
Our service offering is quite unique to the market, as it is a preventative service, that works to remove the need for collections.
Due to this, it’s highly advisable that the staff responsible for the duties regulated by policies, should be trained accordingly. Our training will empower the staff to make your policies successful, and in turn – make the business more successful.
Training will be offered across the board, with the primary staff being the sales and administration (specifically debtors/finance) representatives. We will happily work through the policies with any staff member that would like to be across this information too.
Training on contracts ensures that the staff-members understand every clause of the agreement and, more importantly, understands the implication of that clause should a client request that it be removed.
Training for the administrative staff on how to implement to policy and how to deal with debtors, especially when they are difficult, will also be provided.
Contact us now for our Bad Debt Prevention service.
See our case bad debt prevention case study where we help you get a clearer view of debt prevention and how an attorney can help you minimize your exposure to bad debtors.
