In our view, one of the biggest risk areas for our clients, even the profitable companies, is that their debtor book might go bad.

Watch out for these DANGER SIGNALS:

• Changes in order patterns. Instead of regular orders, they become more spasmodic.
• Unfamiliar faces. Staff you’ve dealt with in the past leave suddenly. New people appear.
• Complaints increase. A satisfied customer becomes less impressed for no apparent reason.
• Payment patterns worsen. Regular payers start to settle late. Regular late payers begin to delay payment further.
• Credit lines are exceeded. A customer tries to take unauthorised credit or ask for credit lines to be extended.
• Customers change banks. You find you’re paid with cheques drawn on a new bank.
• Industry in decline. The customer’s sector is going through a hard time – and it, too, may be feeling the pain.
• People are hard to contact. Regular staff you’ve dealt with for years suddenly find reasons not to talk to you.
• Calls are intercepted. Unhelpful secretaries won’t put you through, or claim the person you need to speak to is away.
• Debt alert. A customer hammered by bad debts could become the source of a chain reaction.