When a small company is faced with their first overdue account for jobs they have done or goods they have sold to a large company, they could wonder why now the large company has not paid on time as usual. Obviously their first step should be to get hold of their normal contact in the large company and learn why the account hasn’t been paid so far. If the answer is not positive then the small company could well feel that they have no other way but to look for a Debt Collection solution.

This is where the fun can start; the usual procedures for Debt Collection would seem to be legal practices or Debt Collection agencies, which have expertise in commercial Debt Collection. With these the small company can get a team of professional people who know how to get the large company to clear the account, hopefully by using only ethical techniques. This service comes at a price, of course, some 8% to 10% of the account plus expenses, which could well be deducted from the debt, once collected and the small company gets paid the remainder. The legal practices and Debt Collection agencies clearly don’t take chances with their revenue stream! Some could charge up front costs, perhaps for Debt Collection Letters or some other immediate expenses.

The significant other option for Debt Collection is to use Debt Collection Software, which lets the small company to do the job with their available resources. The drawback here is that there is no team of professional people on hand, so the small company will have to provide their own resources to operate the Debt Collection Software. The main advantage lies in the cost since the small company will be paying something like £100 for a good Debt Collection Software package, but they pay this only once and can use it for as many Debt Collection projects they want with no other fees to pay. The Debt Collection Software package chosen will need to have a good quality documentation or help section since the small company could well need bringing up to speed on how the Debt Collection procedure works. There will also need to be assistance when it comes to composing Debt Collection Letters as these will be sent to the large company and will display the small company in a different light, so any spelling or grammatical errors, or emotional or threatening language could well put them in a bad light. This could then break up the commercial relationship and result in the small company being denied any further jobs with the large company.

Thus Debt Collection Letters form the core of the Debt Collection procedure and great care should be employed when composing them. The Debt Collection Software can help here by coming with templates for the Debt Collection Letters as used in each stage of the procedure. Since these will be templates, the Debt Collection Software could need to have different access levels so that an administrator could modify the templates for example to add the company branding, but a normal user would only be able to use them as the basis for actual Debt Collection Letters.
With a dedicated workforce and attention to detail the small company should be able to get the best out of the Debt Collection Software and create convincing Debt Collection Letters so that the large company pays the account and the commercial relationship remains intact.

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