Spotting the Prompt and the Slow Payers - Businesses Get A Helping Hand

With late payment of sales invoices continuing to make life difficult for owner managed businesses, MacIntyre Hudson has stepped in with a new credit service - to identity the slow and the speedy payers.

Results from a recent MacIntyre Hudson survey found that late payment legislation was failing to make an impact, with less than half of the UK's owner managers aware that these Government laws were even in place.

Only 3 per cent said they had actually used this legislation against their debtors, while only 2 per cent said it had helped them overcome the problem of bad debt.

In the light of these results, MacIntyre Hudson has added a new service to its website, an online credit database - MacIntyre Hudson Credit Assist - which is designed to minimise the financial risk of working with third parties.

Steve Moore, Head of Business Advisory Services at MacIntyre Hudson, said: "Cashflow is vital to any business and late payment can be a major problem.

"With our survey illustrating that legislation has done little to help small businesses combat late payers, we have been spurred on to introduce this joint venture, based on Experian credit data to our range of ‘business solutions’.

"This is a valuable business tool which will give businesses the critical advantage of knowing more about who they are doing business with – and planning to offer credit to - so that both the business and its clients can assess the exposure to financial risk when working with third parties."

For details on MacIntyre Hudson Credit Assist, which has information on more than 4 million companies and credit information on customers, suppliers and competitors, log on to www.macintyrehudson.co.uk or call the credit assist helpline on 01494 790 614.