We are going to do a series of hints and tips on free credit control resources that are available to help you manage your credit control better. We are starting with Companies House today.
Using the Companies house webcheck service is a much under used resource that we are going to shout about from the roof tops in order to help reduce your exposure to bad debt…!.
Their webcheck service allows you to get lots of invaluable information on any UK Limited Company. You can check companies out by name or by using their company registered number. Even if you don’t know the precise name of the company, you can find them by simply typing in the first few letters of their name and tabbing through the list until you find them. Anyway, back on track….
By using the webcheck service you can find out basic information such as:
· Date the company was incorporated (this is useful to help you assess whether or not you wish to do business with a new prospect. If it is newly incorporated, you may wish to ask for a deposit, or to put them on an automated form of payment, such as: Direct Debit or Continuous Payment Authority etc)
· Company Type
· Nature of Business (SIC Code)
· Accounting Reference Date
· Last Accounts Made up to
· Next Accounts Due (This is very useful and will highlight if they are late filing their accounts. Normally, if accounts are filed late, this is a red flag and means that the company is in some form of financial difficulty)
· Last Annual Return Made up to
· Next Annual Return Due (This is also very useful and will highlight if they are late filing their annual return. If annual returns are filed late, again, this is a red flag and means that the company is more than likely in some form of financial difficulty)
All of the above information is free; you can however download copies of annual returns and company accounts directly from companies house website for a nominal fee. However, unless you are an accountant, it can be difficult to asses a companies creditworthiness from a set of accounts.
We would suggest that you always check out new customers using companies house webcheck service. This is better than not checking them out at all and will at least give you more of an idea as to their creditworthiness. If for example a prospect is late filing their accounts and or annual return, we would suggest that you check them out further by doing a credit check on them.
Free resources can be very useful, but, you do normally get what you pay for and if you pay nothing, you normally don’t get very much. Having said this, Webcheck is a useful service and without a doubt if used wisely, it will certainly help you to reduce your exposure to bad debt.
Far better though, is to credit check any new prospect before you do business with them. Credit Check existing customers at least once per year – especially if you have noticed a change in their payment habits, or, if they have started to trade with you more than usual, meaning of course that your risk of bad debt is a lot higher.
If you require further information on our credit checking service, please email us. We can give you online 24/7 access for a silly price, or, you can email us your list of debtors and we will check them all out for you and email you copies of the credit check reports, or you can use us for the odd credit check here and there – the choice is yours
Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"
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