Book a demo

Five features of the best credit control software

Credit control software

Credit control software is a vital component of any business solution suite. The dangers and problems associated with non-payment and late payment of critical invoices are affecting more and more businesses all across the UK. Data from 2020 shows the following critical statistics

  • British businesses that fall into the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) category are owed collectively £50 billion in unpaid invoices
  • The average UK SME is owed approximately £8,500 in unpaid invoices
  • Only 4.7% of UK SME invoices get paid in full and on time
  • UK SMEs spend, on average, 90 minutes per day chasing unpaid invoices. The worst-hit region is London, where that number rises to 2 hours.
  • 50,000 SMEs go bust every year because of late invoice payments
  • Between March and April 2020 unpaid invoice rates (invoices that were more than 10 days late) went up in the UK by 23%. This was among the best figure in Europe – during the same period you saw 26% increase in the Netherlands, 44% in Belgium, 52% in Spain, 56% in France, and a gargantuan 80% increase in Italy

When faced with these kinds of statistics, the quality of your credit control software is a vital consideration. To ensure you’re making the best possible choice, check to see that any credit control software you’re considering features all of the five following features:

1. Pre-crafted chase letter templates

Your credit control software should be making the process as fast and painless as possible. Drafting the perfect letter in the ideal tone is time-consuming and can be tedious if you are needing to draft as many as the statistics would suggest.

Make sure that any credit control software you’re choosing comes with pre-crafted and pre-drafted chase letter templates. This removes one of the biggest and most frustrating aspects of credit control from your to-do list, making your day easier and your business substantially more efficient. You can instead spend your time doing new work, instead of chasing up people who should have paid for work already done.

2. Targeted chase tactics

While a credit control software that uses a one-size-fits-all approach might well be competent, it is far from optimal. Different customers will require a variety of approaches based on all kinds of different factors. Everything from the sector they work in, to how frequently they are late with payments, and the kind of overall relationship your business has with theirs.

For the very best in credit control software, you need to be sure that the package you pick can tailor and adjust its approach depending on a number of different factors. Be sure to ask any supplier of this kind of technology how and why the software adjusts its mannerisms and tone to your clients.

3. Proactive response plan

The best credit control software solutions are the ones that can stop the problems before they start. Having alarms in place for things like late payments and disrupted timetables are one thing. These are relatively standard features.

With the very best credit control software, you have a set of solution options that can contact and update your clients before delays become issues. This could even trigger negotiations and rearrangements in advance, allowing your business to plan for problems ahead of time. Staying at the mercy of unforeseen events is no way to operate long term. Make sure your credit control software can make proactive interventions before missed deadlines become a problem.

4. CRM Integration

Make sure that your credit control software isn’t an isolated aspect of your business management solution. Full integration with your customer relationship management allows credit control to become a natural extension of your normal business operations. Working far more intelligently and responsively to different and specific situations.

With this kind of connection, your credit control communications can exceed just regular emails or letters. You can choose what kind of contact specific clients are most responsive to. Maybe persistently late customers need a physical visit, while others who are only late once or twice need just a phone call. With full CRM integration, your credit control software moves far beyond the rest, and into the realm of ‘best’.

5. Complete credit visualisations

Your credit control software can be as sophisticated, smart, and advanced as you want. But if you cannot make clear sense of all the actions it’s taking, and the information it’s processing, it is contributing far less than optimal value to your business.

Clear visualisations are key. You need quality dashboards and well-styled interfaces so that you can make sense of everything you read and learn. With the right graphic rendering of your business’s incoming invoices and outgoing prompting messages, you can have the very best picture of what is happening, and what you need to do to handle it. That is the best possible credit control software you could ask for.

Discover OrderWise and Advanced Credit Control

With three decades of experience working with businesses of every sector, scale, and style, OrderWise has learned a great deal about the need for high-quality credit control software. That’s why we produced the advanced credit control suite featuring all of the above processes. Everyone engineered to ensure your business spends the minimum possible time on the wrong end of an unpaid invoice.

Speak to our customer success management team today, and learn what OrderWise has built to give its clients the very best in credit control software.