Debt Collection in Business Services

What causes unpaid invoices in business services?

In the business services sector, unpaid invoices often stem from more than simple unwillingness to pay. Payment issues may arise due to:

• Shifting client expectations
• Evolving project requirements
• Differences in how performance and outcomes are measured
• Delays caused by lengthy approval chains
• Unclear communication between multiple stakeholders

The complex nature of these situations makes recovering debts in the professional services sector a highly challenging task for regular debt collection agencies that lack the required sector-specific know-how.

As such, you will want to entrust the collection of your unpaid invoices to experts with in-depth legal knowledge and a deep understanding of how companies within the sector operate.

Preventing debt collection in business services

Because the situations leading up to debt collection in the business services sector are often complex, companies may wonder if there is anything they can do to protect themselves against non-payment. To answer this question, our experts have compiled 7 essential tips:

• Consider working with a retainer fee
  Besides being good for cash flow and limiting your exposure, retainer fees also provide you with a way to get an early warning if your client's financial situation changes for the worse. A missed retainer fee payment can be indicative of larger financial issues.
• Set up automated aging reports
  This will give you better insights into your Days Sales Outstanding and analyse the payment behaviour of individual customers over time. In addition, be sure to flag accounts with overdue invoices for manual review.
• Perform credit checks on new clients
  Credit checks are as important in debt collection as they are in preventing it. Besides performing credit checks on new clients, you will also want to monitor larger accounts on a monthly basis.
• Shorten payment terms in new contracts or when renegotiating existing ones
  By working with shorter payment terms, you can also improve your cash flow and limit your exposure to insolvency issues or "strategic" non-payment by your debtor.
• Add clauses about interest and debt collection fees
  In your contracts and general terms and conditions, you can specify that you will charge interest on overdue invoices. You can also include that you will bill any and all debt collection fees pertaining to overdue invoices to your customer. Doing so may also serve as a powerful deterrent against non-payment.
• Provide a clear timeframe within which any disputes must be raised
  Providing a clear and reasonable timeframe will make it much harder for clients to "fabricate" complaints later on. This prevents them from using any fabricated complaints as a reason to refuse payment.
• Minimise risk via security interests or retention of title
  Retention of title and security interests like guarantees, mortgages, charges, liens, and assignment of receivables can minimise your risk. They provide you with alternative ways to recover your claim if your customer does not pay your invoices, which can make debt collection in business services much smoother.

What to do if a client still does not pay?

The unfortunate reality is that even if you have done everything right, you may still end up with the occasional non-paying customer. In those situations, you will want to rely on a specialised debt collection partner to ensure you get the best results.

Why business services companies choose Bierens

Our firm has a long history of debt recovery in the business services sector, our international team of 115+ in-house lawyers and debt collection specialists is able to pursue claims strategically, ensuring our clients’ financial interests are protected efficiently and effectively.

Other reasons why business services companies entrust their debt collection cases to Bierens include:

• An out-of-court success rate of 95%
• No Win No Fee debt collection
• In-house expertise with national and international lawyers
• A detailed Web Portal for 24/7 tracking of your case
• Both extrajudicial and judicial debt collection

Our working method – No Win No Fee

During the extrajudicial phase, we work based on No Win No Fee. We believe it is important to try to solve the case during this phase, without court intervention. You will only have to pay €195 for administrative costs.

Should legal action be necessary, then we can help you perform a credit check and analyse your debtor’s financial status. We will discuss the costs with you and will only start working on your case after receiving your permission.

Debt collection lawyers in business services

Our specialised lawyers provide the most effective debt collection in business services and offer clear, detailed and practical legal advice regardless of the situation.

Our in-depth knowledge of the business services sector allows us to look at your organisation and advise on how to build in or improve checks and balances if necessary. In addition, we also ensure that these checks and balances are implemented and executed in the right way.

Our specialists are ready to recover

Do you operate in the business services sector and has your client left your invoice unpaid? Entrust your case to our in-house team of international debt recovery lawyers. Whether you have a debt collection case in your own country or abroad, Bierens is happy to help.

Simply transfer your case via the button below and leave the rest to our specialists.