The ability to open new accounts in under 3 minutes provides many efficiency advantages…for both you and your potential customers.

This starts with your office setting that all-important professional first impression to new customers by making both of your lives easy with providing a slick onboarding into your customer base, using pre-populated fields wherever possible, for the applicant’s convenience.

How many paper account applications never get completed by prospective customers because it’s just too much hassle, time and effort to complete it all in by hand? Often twenty to thirty minutes in fact…no wonder therefore!

How much of your invaluable staffing time is currently being wasted within your own business on getting a customer signed up and set up in your systems by manual less-efficient ways?

How many write-offs could be prevented, or would have been avoided entirely, if only you had a Directorial Guarantee in place to back up your credit risk?

Can you honestly fully trust plain old credit reports in the current economic climate given what has been happening in recent times?   

Would having access more dynamic systems provide your business with a distinct credit advantage?

A positive change that saves everybody time and effort will always result in greater focus on customer recruitment and increased efficiency. This service is your opportunity to raise the bar and set yourself apart from your competitors in terms of professionalism within your new customer acquisition processes.

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Understanding precisely the correct legal entity of your customer, and in turn who and what exactly you are dealing with, is vital in engaging with prospective customers that you have not dealt with before.

Ensuring that new customers sign up and agree to your Terms and Conditions* is equally crucial.

The legal process does not like uncertainty and inaccuracy, and should you get this basic information and process wrong at the outset of new customer dealings, then the chances are that when you do have a payment problem, then you may soon after have a much bigger self-inflicted secondary problem…with a distinct possibility that you will not get paid at all.

Eliminating illegible handwriting, misreading and/or typographical errors are both efficient and beneficial for your business in addition.

Obtaining Credit Guarantees (or Director’s Guarantees) as an optional integral part of your day-to-day account opening process is ground- breaking and will almost automatically prioritise your overdue invoices chances of getting paid in the future. This is particularly the case, when flagged at the right time within your chase processes, to overdue customer Guarantors. See our Crucial Guarantor Advantages page for extra information on this subject.

The advantages of forming contractual positions electronically instead of on paper are almost endless.

*No terms and conditions? No problem. If you’re a small business that doesn’t have any our system provides a free standard generic set for your use to get you started.

A subtle practise that introduces director Credit Guarantees as an integral part of your routine account opening process creates numerous negotiation advantages, to be kept in the background for times when you may need them.

Ideally of course you will never need to rely on a Credit Guarantee, or at least this should be true for the vast majority of customers who will regularly pay you on time, or very close to terms.

We have lost count however of how many conversation direction changes we have seen as soon as a non-paying Limited company customer director suddenly realises that they are personally liable if the company does not pay. Often companies in supposed distress, that allegedly have no monies available, remarkably, and instantly find funds once an overdue account is flagged to the guarantor owner director!   

Occasionally the ‘Credit Guarantee advantage’ may be used within day-to-day credit control chasing. More often however, this inbuilt optional feature of Direct Route AccountAssyst new customer account opening, is used as a tool to help when a debt is significantly overdue, very likely at the point where a third party is engaged. Potential company insolvency or alleged imminent company failure becomes somewhat irrelevant in such circumstances.. The guarantor director is personally liable, and always remains so until such a time as the debt is paid in full, even if the company fails or ceases to trade for any reason.

At Direct Route AccountAssyst therefore we have proven debt collection processes that will automatically generate copies of formal demand letters to guaranteeing directors. Basically, accounts opened through our system, instructed through the credit control channel, carry markers into our ultra-efficient and proven debt recovery procedure that does all of this automatically for you. The inevitable end outcome is previously unthinkable superior collection performances and returns for you. Writing off unpaid monies can almost become a distant memory, as it is very rare indeed that you do not get paid with such extraordinarily robust systems in place.

Kindly note that a company does not need to have failed or ceased to trade for a guarantee to be enforced. This more commonly can be done in tandem legally when issuing court proceedings.

Interested? We would be a little surprised if you were not.

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Presuming that you have some Credit Guarantee’s in place for new customer applications (see the sections above on Rapid B2B Account Opening and Crucial Guarantor Advantages) there are other services, exclusively available from Direct Route AccountAssyst, that can help you further your business cash flow.

One such service is a slick Credit Control chase process, that importantly includes several game changing features.

Chasing monies efficiently is largely process driven and readily available from several alternative sources, but often this comes with flexibility limitations and questionable presentation. With Direct Route AccountAssyst the complete opposite is true…you customise your own letters, making them bespoke to your requirements, building on established proven chase templates white-labelled to you.  

Additionally, you can upload CSV files to chase literally hundreds and thousands of customers in minutes. Credit control chasing does not need to be a chore.

Management reports generated throughout the system constantly help you to diligently adjust, enhance and maximise returns.  

For example being able to see at a glance and regularly monitor what percentage of customers or value pay at first, second or final reminder stages of your chase cycle will soon identify any tweaks to be made within your process and wording - there is a certain inevitability that certain tardy paying customers will over several months become familiarised with your process, and thus simply wait for the Final Demand before paying. Mixing it up is advisable.  

With information at your fingertips highlighting regular late paying customers, adjustments to accelerate Final Demands for specific customers will bring payments in quicker. You can only adapt and take such positive actions however, if you do have the necessary information readily available. It also needs to be easily manageable by making process driven changes.

You’ve guessed it – the Direct Route AccountAssyst system contains the above as standard, and much more. 

Imagine a world where, when considering a new customer credit application, you could see that the applicant had a history of paying other suppliers late.

Might it be useful when setting a credit limit to see real-time data on your applicant of unpaid outstanding sums at various credit control stages; provided by other anonymous suppliers?

Well the good news is this long overdue and much needed service does now exist:

Traditionally, most suppliers have used credit reports as a mainstay of their decision making process when assessing credit risk, but perhaps a misleading flaw within this is where a business gains extra profit simply by paying suppliers late.

Theoretically, an applicant may appear ok at first glance (at least based on a credit report generated from the latest accounts filed), but when it comes down to it, do they pay to terms? What is the exposure to other suppliers currently? Why are they making an application with you right now? Is it perhaps because they are on stop or severely restricted elsewhere?

Implementing a Credit/Director Guarantee within your account opening process will greatly help, and a director reluctant to sign may raise some legitimate concerns or questions…why, for example might a director not be prepared to put his or her name behind their own company, but still expect you to do it as if credit is some sort of right?

If we now introduce the vital influence of additional payment information, that in turn indicates the applicant company owes significant monies to other suppliers and are paying beyond terms, then would you still readily open a credit account for them without a guarantee, irrespective of what a credit report limit (based on outdated accounts data) might suggest?

Recognising an existing customer’s exposure to other suppliers might therefore make you think more carefully about big order values or requests for increased credit limits, with the consequence that you might insist on a credit guarantee, pro forma dealings or 50% deposit payments up front for example.

Could having access to this exclusive real-time information benefit your business?

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Once all components of your credit management process are fully in place, including robust customer account opening and efficient credit control chasing, then cash will begin to flow far more easily than you may have previously imagined.

As an extra bonus, the staffing efficiency created for your credit control personnel will free up extra time to be spent on more productive company activities.

Notwithstanding the above, no matter how strong your prevention systems are at customer inception, or indeed how slick your credit control chasing might be, there could still be occasions where you may need third party support to help bring in monies. This can happen for example when a customer’s financial position has changed for the worse since the last filing of their accounts (which of course is increasingly common during recent times, for fairly obvious reasons).

Consider therefore, some of the renowned zero cost debt recovery services from Direct Route AccountAssyst. Available support solutions include:

Fairway Gold – zero cost debt recovery on all debt values up to £3,000.00 with just 2% commission chargeable on greater values collected (commission incurred on successful recoveries only, else no collect no commission fee).

Bronze – a more considerate commission-based debt recovery at 10% in circumstances where you would like to retain the customer but still want your monies paid. No collect no commission fee.        

Platinum Club – our flagship service. Zero cost debt recovery on qualifying debts of all values, inclusive of all court issue and standard enforcement fees paid out on your behalf when legal action proves necessary. For full information on Platinum Club see the section immediately below.   

Platinum Club is a Premium Credit Management Solution available exclusively through Direct Route AccountAssyst.

It is offered to selected qualifying clients “By Invitation Only”.

Platinum Club works by the invited membership combining resources to collectively create zero cost debt collection. It is for B2B transactions and has now evolved to include court issue and enforcement fees for occasions when legal action is unavoidable.

Platinum Club is quite simply… NO FEE RISK TO YOU WHATSOEVER, COLLECT OR NOT, INCLUDING LEGAL!

If your company is invited to join this elite club, then it is an endorsement of your credit management processes. It is undoubtedly the most efficient way imaginable of obtaining zero cost and risk free debt collection.

Platinum Club Members with qualifying debt receive:

✔ Zero Cost Debt Recovery on all debt values (no account is too high, no invoice too small)

✔ All Legal and Enforcement Fees Paid by the club on their behalf*

✔ Pro-Active Daily Activity and Outbound Calling to ensure speedy results

✔ A Professional Dedicated and Focused Account Manager on hand when needed

✔ Online Progress Updates Available 24/7

For Platinum Club to be a success for you, then your company account opening systems and credit management processes must be robust.

Qualification for Platinum Club is subject to successful vetting of your credit management procedures. If you have satisfactory processes in place then qualification is a quick and easy formality.

Direct Route AccountAssyst Platinum Club members also receive the bonus of customer early warning alerts provided by The Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI). Such alerts highlight common customers that have not paid a formal 7-day debt collection demand stating that late payment information is going to be circulated to other suppliers. Undisputed ROSI entries are therefore a clear sign of significant cash flow problems.       

When a customer isn’t paying and ignoring you, and you need to act, then Direct Route AccountAssyst has a solution for you. Simply call us on 01274 223190 for support.   

For full details of what constitutes a qualifying debt please refer to the Terms and Conditions of Platinum Club Membership. * Standard enforcement of bailiff or High Court Enforcement Officer through the court process applies. Other enforcement methods subject to negotiation and charges as applicable.

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Yes, we do offer credit reports as part of our processes to help with your credit decisions. 

Credit reports certainly play a part when considering financial exposure and in risk. They are of course always subject to the long-understood caveat that they are out of date even as at the first date that they become available…and what’s more they can be manipulated to read favourably, and unfortunately this happens more often than might be imagined.

What is better, a report that says a business is good for a supposed credit limit, or the real-time and up to date payment experiences of other suppliers and how well they have historically been, and currently are, getting paid? Revisit our Invaluable Data Share Edge section above for more information.     

To summarise, Direct Route AccountAssyst monitoring services not only provide the standard Companies House and CCJ alerts therefore, but in addition highlight shared anonymous data and information on unpaid invoices from other suppliers for credit control users and contributors to our systems. Add in additional early warning alerts from unpaid formal 3^rd party 7 day demands that have been ignored and it soon becomes apparent how damaging relying solely on truly out of date credit reporting information can ultimately prove to be. 

Remember, a flood starts with a small drip…if you can spot the drip early and properly set up your own flood defences and barriers then you are far less likely to be badly damaged when the real downpour occurs. And, so it is with credit risk and early warning signs. If you are not in the ‘Circle of Knowledge’ and so don’t have access to the all-important source of information then how can you properly protect your business?    

Want to know how to give yourself the best chance at avoiding the damage?

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Might it be inspiring to know at the click of a button how many new customers you have recruited this last week, month, or year alongside what value of credit you have offered to them? 

Is it useful to understand instantly how effectively your credit control chasing is working, what you’re your current risk or exposure is, and which customers need urgent attention for whatever reason? 

Your Homepage once logged in to Direct Route AccountAssyst provides it all at your fingertips. 

Whether you need to look at your overall company activity and performance or simply the individual workings of say one single credit control team member our system makes it easy for you. 

Management Reporting possibilities are both endless and occasionally bespoke. 

At Direct Route AccountAssyst we have a simple policy therefore – if your Management Reporting requirement isn’t already there then please simply request it. Should we agree that it would be useful to all users then we will commission it and introduce it to our development schedules as an upgrade for you, as quickly as we can fit it in. 

Once you’ve joined us, and have started using the system to good effect, then please just ask us and we’ll see what we can do. 

We’re always here to support and help.

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At Direct Route AccountAssyst we recognise that before you came across us you will have had varying levels of processes, some good, some bad, others perhaps a little indifferent.  

Accordingly, our Customer Account Review process enables your business to have the option of bringing established customers records up to the same standard as your newly engaged robust account opening service. You can do this either on a selective customer-by-customer basis or across the board.

In using the Customer Account Review service to backfill any holes, errors, or uncertainties in your previous records you have the opportunity to effectively re-form contractual positions with customers that you are unsure about in any way. 

Of course, we all fully recognise that you do need to be very careful with long established customers. With this in mind the Credit Guarantee facility for Director Credit Guarantees is entirely optional on a case-by-case basis. You may also wish to use one of our helpful scripts or templates to contact more established customers to forewarn them or your review being sent…like with all things credit management this is common sense.  

You can re-form contracts with customers, have them agree to your latest Terms and Conditions, with or without a Director Credit Guarantee. The choice is yours.    

If you’re not quite sure what entity the customer is that you are dealing with, because perhaps some of your records are too old, or you simply want to clean up your customer base then this is very much the solution for you. 

A once-off exercise usually is sufficient for these purposes.  

At Direct Route AccountAssyst we always have a helpful solution!   

Direct Route AccountAssyst is fully desktop, mobile and tablet compliant.

This means you or your team members can send applications 24/7 from whatever device or medium that you choose to.

Equally you can log in from these devices and make credit decisions, chase overdue customers and check on the progress of just about any customer at whatever stage they are in within your company credit management cycle.

The flexible easy to use interface makes it possible to operate your login and quickly keep on top of matters from wherever you are.

Additional options exist or you to have credit application links and pages on your own sales websites.

You can even manage a team of sales personnel by providing them with their own logins that ringfence their customers so that they can see who has signed up and when, or alternatively who they need to chase for an unreturned application.

Of course, permissions exist so that you restrict who has the ability to do what when offering credit to a customer so sales representatives rarely have decision making options activated.

The decision is always yours.