Understanding debt and how it’s crucial to running a successful recruitment business

If your recruitment agency works within the contract market supplying temporary workers in any capacity at all, then debt is unavoidable.

How you and your funder manage that debt is crucial and will make all the difference to you, your business, and its future.

Here are a few of our key factors that are absolutely essential in reducing your exposure to debt and managing its performance.  

VISIBILITY OF DEBT 

The first step in taking control of anything is understanding what you’re dealing with. Having visibility of your debt and the age of your debt at the click of a button will give you all the details you need whenever you need to know.

Growing your business is exciting but if you’re continually placing contractors, paying those contractors weekly or monthly and not being able to see when those clients are paying can increase your exposure massively.

Partnering with a financier that can provide this visibility will safeguard your business from running into bad debts.  

Quba’s online dashboard DynamiQ will provide full visibility of your debt both in the form of a total debt balance and a full aged debt report, showing the age of the debt in current, 30, 60 and 90 days. Alongside this our dashboard will also provide you with visibility on your clients and their specific credit limits alongside how much of the credit limit you have in use, with a green, amber and red flagging system to visually demonstrate which clients are approaching their credit limits. This information is updated by your credit controller in real time so will always be up to date for your reference. 

With this information at the tips of your fingers, you have the ability to be able to make fully informed business decisions, reducing the likelihood of you overextending yourselves financially in any manner.

CREDIT CONTROL  

Controlling your aged debt and having your invoices paid promptly is another key factor to ensuring your debt doesn’t spiral out of control.

Having an experienced and committed credit controller to manage the credit control process on your behalf is critical. Quba provide all agency partners with a knowledgeable, personable and dedicated credit controller who will work alongside you from the very beginning to build longstanding relationships with your clients and develop a comprehensive understanding of how they operate.

Having a back-office provider who understands recruitment and can be flexible depending on your requirements is key to ensuring client satisfaction and protecting your client relationships. We never send out threatening automated emails and will always consult with you first, as we recognise that every client is different and your relationship with them is paramount. 

DEBT PROTECTION 

Guaranteeing your outstanding invoices are insured in the rare or unfortunate instance that a client was to fall into administration or liquidation prior to them having paid you is another essential part of controlling your debt and protecting your business.

Essentially this provides you with a safeguard against a ‘worst case’ scenario and minimises the cost to you, the agency. The debt will be insured up to the value of the agreed credit limit and as long as you are trading within the agreed limits and within terms then the only exposure to you will be the excess on the insurance; 10% or £1,000 – whichever is the greater amount.

Quba provide comprehensive debt protection working alongside the world’s largest credit insurer as well as a number of other brokers with whom further funding can be secured where sufficient limits are deemed unavailable.

FUNDING 

It’s all well and good arming your business with debt protection, credit control and complete debt visibility, but what about the company providing you with the finance? 

With many established companies struggling in the current climate it’s always worthwhile running a background check prior to signing an agreement and running up debt with a financier. If your funder were to go into administration, then you would have to find a new financier within a week that would be able to purchase your debt and also provide credit limits for all of your clients – a mammoth, and potentially expensive, task to undertake in that timeframe as well as doubtlessly causing disruption to your clients too.

Having an established and stable financier will again further reduce your exposure to bad debt. Checking a potential financier’s accounts online at companies house to put your mind at ease about the working relationship you’ll be getting into is always advised, as well as taking independent references. Getting your funding solution right from the start will save you no end of time, money and stress further down the line.

If you’d be interested in discussing how Quba can assist your business and reduce your debt exposure, please feel free to get in touch with us on 01305 233178.