The management of customer, a vital function in the company!

In France the regulations prohibiting companies are often made on credit and payment terms vary effective for five years at a relatively high level of between 63 and
68 days (65 days in 2005) (1).
However, these payment delays may seriously affect the financial stability of a company at three levels:
• profitability: the company provides credit to its customer support expenses of administration of its claims and has to re finance loan from debt or equity;
• its risk: the agreeing payment terms exposes the firm to a risk of rupture cash payment default of its customers;
• its debt capacity: a credit policy in international business raising their working capital needs of the business (BFR), which reduces its borrowing capacity, necessary to finance its investment projects.
To control its risk client, the company must establish a simple and effective management, involving all the company's business (logistics, sales ...) throughout the sales cycle:
• the order is taken, the company must assess customer risk through a collection of relevant information (capital, age, financial situation ...), and create optimal conditions for payment by negotiating with the buyer on terms appropriate its profile;
• between billing and the due date, the company should focus on monitoring risk, recovery upstream to prevent litigation, and the financing of the debt;
• finally, after deadline, if the debt is not paid, the company must quickly proceed with the claim for payment under its own power or through the intervention of an intermediary. If
was insured against the risk of default or if it deals with a factor, the company will approach this phase with more serenity.