Analysis of receivables of various companies, enterprises and other business entities indicates that it does not arise on its own. Such a debt, in particular, may arise in cases where a company has sold a product or a service is provided, and payment for this product or service has not been received.
The emergence of problems of this kind is characteristic of companies that are not financially strong enough, and their goods or services are not among the most necessary. An audit of the accounts receivable of such companies shows that one of the ways to reduce it is a preliminary study of potential customers and the development of a more effective system of relations with them. Consider some issues related to the occurrence of receivables.
Let's start with the existence of the so-called normal receivables. The occurrence of such a debt is inevitable due to the existence of a certain time interval between the shipment of the goods and their payment in cases, of course, if the goods are not released after its full payment. The return of receivables (normal) by the buyer to the seller occurs at the time specified in the relevant contract between them. Perhaps the occurrence of overdue receivables, which occurs in cases of non-fulfillment by the buyer of the time parameters of the contract, that is, an elementary delay in payment for the goods by the buyer. Unfortunately, there is also a bad receivable. It arises in those circumstances in which the company has no practical chance or resources to return the funds laid to it under the relevant agreements.
When analyzing the receivables of an economic entity, naturally, customers are also considered, because of which it arises. In general, customers of any company can be divided into two groups: bona fide customers and unscrupulous.
The first group includes customers who, concluding an agreement on the supply of any goods or the provision of services, had a clear intention to fulfill the terms of this agreement, that is, to pay on time for the goods or services provided.
The other group includes clients who, at the conclusion of the relevant contract, did not anticipate its fulfillment (or knew reliably about the impossibility of its fulfillment) in terms of payment for the goods received or the services provided, or are looking for all possible ways to avoid the payments stipulated by the contract. Unfortunately, in times of crisis, such a division of clients into groups is very conditional, since some bona fide customers may be in the group of unfair due to economic circumstances independent of them.
However, as the same analysis of receivables shows, the division of customers into such “extreme” groups as bona fide and unscrupulous is also purely conditional and is carried out only to facilitate debt management. There are always customers, most of whom can be attributed to the intermediate group. Such clients, seeking for themselves the benefit of a possible loan at the expense of the supplier company, are deliberately in no hurry to pay for the goods received or the services provided, unless the terms of the relevant agreement provide for substantial penalties for late payments or such penalties do not seriously affect their financial position. At the same time, many customers use the crisis in the economy as an excuse to justify non-compliance with contractual terms.
As the analysis of accounts receivable shows, such clients do not allow themselves such relationships with supplier companies, on which the existence of their business directly depends, and also with business partners who resolutely require and achieve clear fulfillment of all contractual obligations under any circumstances, using all the stipulated sanction agreements.