Imagine that a document exists that gives you a debtor’s financial history, addresses and phone numbers, outstanding and disputed debts, and many other salient facts about your debtor’s financial health. There is, of course: the debtor’s credit report. However, given the power of this document, access is limited and protected by California and federal law. […]
Why Use a Credit Application
1) Protection From Bad Debt At the inception of a new business relationship, it may be difficult to imagine that this exciting new client will one day become a frustrating debtor. However, all debtors start out as customers. It is crucial to protect yourself from the beginning, and it is easy to do so with […]
Certificate of Insurance – Do You Ask for This?
This article is reprinted with permission from CreditBytes. The scenario: Your company has a customer that has consistently ranked in your top 20 for the past 5+years, which accounts for a significant portion of your company’s annual sales. Recently, the customer has placed another significant order along the lines of what they’ve been submitting regularly […]
When a Client Becomes a Debtor
Tools and Pitfalls When Collecting Delinquent Bills When a client becomes delinquent on its bill, but there’s still some hope the situation will be rectified short of writing off the account and placing it for collection, there are several tools available to a creditor to pressure the client to pay. Attaching Interest on a Debt […]
Days Sales Outstanding
I recently mentioned the “DSO” statistic at a meeting of sales managers and was not surprised to see many blank faces staring at me in return – they had no clue what the statistic is or what impact it has on their business, even though most of them were also owners of their businesses. Most […]
Final and Binding Arbitration
A Quicker, Cost Effective Alternative to a Lawsuit Move your receivable disputes out of the courtroom and into the conference room – and you could drastically cut your international litigation budget! Opting to go with Final and Binding Arbitration not only reduces expenses – it can speed up your recoveries as well. What is Final […]
D/P, D/A, and Their Use in International Sales Transactions
Most sellers are very familiar with Open Account (O/A) and Letter of Credit (L/C) transactions. In the international arena, open account sales are regarded as having the most risk; letter of credit transactions as having the least. Between these two poles, however, are two lesser-known transaction types: Documents Against Payment (D/P) and Documents Against Acceptance […]
The Choices of Law and Venue in Sales Contracts
Throughout the world, there are competing legal systems of civil law used to govern the transactions occurring between international buyers and sellers. Here in the USA, our laws are mainly derived from English Common Law. The French have Napoleonic Law, while most Latin countries are steeped in both Roman Law and Spanish Civil Law and […]