The news reports are beginning to fill with predictions of a 2nd Dip Recession. Not good. Not good at all. However, the jury is still out and that leaves the door ajar to permit a chink of sunlight in on an otherwise gloomy forecast.

But this is no excuse for you to sit back and think your business’s cash collection is recession proof. You should be asking yourself if your sales ledger will provide you the continued unemcumbered flow of cash required to meet your HMRC commitments, purchases ledger payments and payroll needs.

When the clouds gather and a 2nd recession smashes all progress you have made to survive and remain fluid after the 1st recession, you must assure yourself that your business can and will survive another crash.

If not you might be faced with the situation of having to borrow from the bank. And provided they do approve an extension, you will also be pressured by suppliers to pay them on shorter terms. Whichever way you look, you should review the state of your ledger(s) and your open trouble tickets. Do not forget your O2C processes either. Make absolutely certain your processes are adhered to by your staff and that the processes will support the business and debt collection efforts when critical periods occur.

Meet the recession head on with as few existing problems to resolve as possible. Be sure that your customers have no reason to not pay their debt. Create a checklist and spotcheck:

• All product/service prices are correct.
• Make sure copies of signed service contracts (if applicable to your business) for active debtors are on file
• Engage your account managers to help get contracts created and signed where needed
• Check the delivery and head office address details for correctnes and correct them if necessary
• Doublecheck your invoices are addressed to the correct payment centre and correct them is they are wrong
• Inspect and list all unresolved pricing or product disputes holding back cash
• Get these tickets prioritised for investigation and validation
• If credit notes are due, get them raised and the ticket closed down.

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