One question that business owners often have to wrestle with at tax time is whether or not to write off a debt as “uncollectible.” If your business uses a cash basis accounting system, this isn’t an issue for you. In a cash basis accounting system, you don’t count money that you’re owed until it’s paid … Read more
The end of the year always brings some predictable events. You know that magazines and websites will be releasing their lists of “best movies” or “most memorable events.” You know that car dealers and other large item retailers will be trying to sell off expensive merchandise. You know payroll departments will be preparing to … Read more
The end of the year is a hectic time for most businesses. I’ve always appreciated Thanksgiving as a time to pause before things get more intense. At The Kaplan Group, we love all of our clients, but we especially appreciate the clients that make our jobs just a little bit easier. These aren’t necessarily the … Read more
Is hiring a commercial collection agency truly better for your business? Undoubtedly the answer is yes. It frees you from the hassle of having to collect from your delinquent debtors, allowing you to focus on what’s more important– your business. But hiring a commercial collections agency can offer you more than just convenience. Doing … Read more
In movies and pop culture debt collectors are almost always portrayed as the bad guy. That’s in part because a lot of people have had really bad experiences with personal debt collection, known in the collection industry as “retail debt collection.” If another business owes you money portrayals of debt collectors in pop culture, … Read more
In our last blog post we talked about how to make sure you get paid even after you fire a client. For the most part we focused on what happens when you terminate the relationship because they are no longer a good fit for your company. Another common reason for termination is that the … Read more
Just like newlyweds who never imagine divorce, when you first start a relationship with a new client you probably don’t expect to one day be firing him or her. But, it happens and just like with divorce, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and embarrassment can often get in the way of legalities. Every situation is different, … Read more
We are excited to announce that The Kaplan Group’s 3rd Annual $1,000 Scholarship has been awarded to Audriana Rodriguez, a senior at Florida International University! Three years ago, The Kaplan Group, a commercial collection agency, created the annual scholarship hoping to encourage young students of today to consider pursuit of a career in the … Read more
There are typically signs beforehand that a customer is in financial trouble. Your entire organization should be trained to spot these red flags long before those customers hit 90 days past due. Often times your sales or service teams will be in a better position to spot these problems than your finance or credit teams, so this … Read more
One of the most common excuses we hear in B2B debt collection is a business is struggling to collect from its customers and therefore can’t pay its vendors. Typically the business owner will commit to paying when they get paid, but the problem has been going on for months and there is no end … Read more
Every business owner has experienced the pain of a late or non paying customer. The Commercial Law League of America research shows that as soon as an invoice goes delinquent, the chance of successfully collecting declines by more than 1% per week. If an invoice is 90 days past due, the chance of collecting … Read more
Airtech Corporation is an Arkansas based distributor of HVAC equipment with annual revenue of $35 million. Despite giving net 30 terms, their average days sales outstanding (DSO) was running at 60 days. Management recognized there was a significant problem and with changes in technology and procedures was able to reduce DSO to 42 days and … Read more
The Kaplan Group, Inc. is pleased to announce that the 2015 Kaplan Group Annual $1,000 Scholarship has been awarded to Pedro A. Rodriguez, a junior Business Management major at Miami Dade College. The scholarship was introduced in 2014 and was designed to promote career opportunities in commercial debt collections and credit management to young adults … Read more
The website how-old.net can take any picture of a person you upload and estimate the person’s age. I uploaded two different photos of myself, taken 6 years apart, and it correctly guessed my age both times. Try it yourself – it’s free. What is also amazing about this technology is that 2 developers put … Read more
We recently were contacted by a prospective client who was owed over $30,000 for a consulting project. They had a solid contract with their customer and proof that they had performed the work. They had written acceptance of the work product from their customer and a written promise to pay. But six months had … Read more
For decades, a common sales mantra was to “Always Be Closing.” The Internet and social media have made this an outdated and potentially dangerous approach. Always Be Helping is the updated mantra, and it applies not only to sales, but credit and debt collections, as well as professional and personal interactions. ABC meant that … Read more
All too often, when a small business is up for sale, the net result for many of their vendors is bad debt expense. If you hear that one of your customers is selling their business it’s time to be very careful with outstanding receivables and new orders. WHY WOULD THEY SELL THEIR BUSINESS? If … Read more
Article by: Jeanne Lee of Anytime Collect Managing invoices and collecting them on time is not an easy job. It requires a significant investment of your time and energy and even then many of your invoices are likely still going beyond terms, being written off as bad debt, or being sent off to a … Read more
Article by: Kathryn Brown What You Need to Know About Credit Profile Number and Synthetic ID Fraud There are numerous fraud schemes out there – if there is money to made, there is going to be fraud of one kind or another. One type of fraud that is becoming more prevalent is Credit Profile Number … Read more
According to a study at Duke University, 40% of our actions are out of habit, not actual decisions. If all your habits are good, this makes life much easier. But, if you are like me and have some bad habits, this statistic helps explain why changing the Habit Loop is so difficult. This is what … Read more
