Benham Publishing Businesss Magazines December 2013 | Page 18

AskTheExpert

Prompt Payment?
What can SME’s do to secure it?
Maria Koureas-Jones,
Head of Commercial Services, Breeze & Wyles Solicitors LLP
The key is to truly know your customer – are you trading with a Limited
Company? what is the full name of the Limited Company? Are you trading with
a Partnership or Sole Trader?
If you start trading with a Limited Company,
“health check” the Company using software
checking the Companies financial status. If
the Company seems to represent a risk, ask
for a Personal Guarantee if appropriate, if not
appropriate, limit the credit limit applied to the
account.
Trading with a limited Company? Monitor the
Company throughout the life of the account.

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INSPIRE

Many systems that allow you to health check a
limited company provide a monitoring reporting
system, alerting you to any detrimental changes
in the Company, allowing you to take a view
regarding future trading with that customer.

unpaid, the greater the risk that your customer
will cease trading. Companies facing financial
difficulties are often juggling creditors, so
regularly chasing your debtors will help to push
you to the front of the queue.

Actively chase debtors. Timing is sometimes
difficult to assess where you hope for an
ongoing relationship with the customer.
However, remember the longer the debt is

Breeze & Wyles Solicitors LLP
Tel: [phone]
www.breezeandwyles.co.uk