Accountancy

How to chase payment of invoices in a pandemic

*This article relates to business to business credit control and not collection from consumers. The current environment is unprecedented with companies forced to change working practices and policies quickly to adapt. Several businesses have sought advice from Sterling, asking whether they should suspend their credit control collection process completely until the lock-down is lifted, fearing that [...]

The late payment virus

In the current business environment caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19), it’s crucial for businesses to protect cash flow. Whilst many companies are taking positive steps, others are intentionally ‘washing their hands’ of their payment obligations and delaying or cancelling payments to strengthen their own finances. Whilst there are many businesses feeling the strain due to the [...]

SME business owners chasing overdue invoices themselves.

A study of 500 UK SME’s by Quickbooks has found that over half of business owners are chasing overdue invoices themselves, often outside office hours, eating into family time and putting a strain on their personal life. Sterling provide outsourced credit control to businesses as small as £0.5m t/o, acting entirely in our client’s name, giving [...]

Credit Control Service for London based Chartered Accountancy firm (outsourced)

“When we started the process of outsourcing our credit control and debt collection work, we were sceptical as to whether it would work – particularly we were concerned that clients may become upset.  We have had very few complaints and in fact less than when we had our own internal credit control team.  We have seen [...]

Credit Control Service for Accountancy Firm – 34% improvement after 5 weeks.

Sterling implemented our outsourced credit control service for a £1.5m t/o accountancy firm at the start of October this year. Service is carried out entirely under the firm’s brand, with invoice chasing 2 days per week and incoming calls answered 5 days, the firm gets the benefits of an experienced full-time team at the cost of [...]

Sterling reduce average payment days for a top 50 Accountancy firm by 58%!

Sterling Credit Management provide outsourced credit control service to a number of UK accountancy firms. Over 10 years of doing so we have perfected the difficult balance of maintaining sensitive customer relationships whilst getting paid promptly. One of these clients is a top 50 London firm who had a DSO of 95 days when they approached [...]

Outsourced finance and accounts for a global technology company

In 2016 Sterling were engaged by a $500m turnover global tech company to provide billing and accounts receivable services for Europe and the Middle East. This function had previously been run from the company’s US team, but restructuring meant that ownership had moved to their London office. Sterling were able to take on the function quickly [...]

Managing cash flow and customer relations for a top 50 UK accountancy firm

This client, a top London accountancy firm,  has used Sterling since 2009. Sterling began by having discussions with them regarding their credit control function. At the time it was being managed by a finance controller and assistant, both of whom had other responsibilities which they were giving priority to. The firm was very nervous about outsourcing, in particular [...]

Working around a restrictive system.

In an ideal world your credit control service should never be stuck completing admin duties. Any time away from the phone, chasing outstanding payments is time lost. Our goal is to reduce admin time as much as possible to ensure that our client gets the most out of our service and we can continue to collect [...]

Sterling Credit Management – Credit Control Testimonial

We started working with Sterling Outsourcing in March 2016, due to the need to have a credit control function, but not having enough to justify employing someone to do the job. I cannot give anything but praise to the team, as, within 18 months, they have taken us to a position where about 90% of our [...]