FAQs

No. For most of our services, we work remotely with clients across the UK.

The exception is our half and full-day Cash Flow Focus Sessions, which we deliver in person. If you’re more than 30 miles from Swindon, we’d ask you to cover our travel costs. Being on site means you’re fully focused, without the usual distractions of the business going on around you, and gives us a much better picture of how things actually work. The one-hour session is delivered via Microsoft Teams.

We work primarily with service-based businesses with 1 to 20 employees: accountancy firms, IT and managed service providers, HR consultancies, marketing and creative agencies, and trades businesses. Though we do support a broad range of other businesses too.

Our outsourced credit control service is best suited to B2B businesses, where invoices are raised and payment terms apply. Our Cash Flow Focus Sessions and Terms & Conditions service are open to a wider range of businesses, including those with a mix of business and consumer clients.

If you’re not sure whether we’re the right fit, just get in touch and we’ll tell you honestly.

The best place to start is a free 20-minute discovery call. It costs nothing, and a quick conversation is often enough to give you a useful steer without needing a paid service.

If more support would help, we’ll talk through which of our services makes the most sense for your situation. No pressure, no obligation. Get in touch via the contact page.

Credit control is the process of making sure your invoices get paid. In its broadest sense, it covers everything from checking a new client’s creditworthiness before you take them on, through to chasing overdue invoices. You’ll sometimes hear this broader role called credit management.

In practice, many people use credit control to mean specifically the chasing part, following up invoices, dealing with late payers, and escalating where necessary. This is sometimes called collections, and it’s what our outsourced credit control service covers.

The two terms are largely interchangeable, and you’ll hear both used to describe the same thing: making sure your business gets paid. That covers everything from checking a new client’s creditworthiness before you take them on, through to the terms you set, the way you invoice, and how you monitor clients once work is underway.

Some people use credit control to mean specifically the chasing part, and that’s how we use it when we talk about our outsourced credit control service. What that looks like in practice is real conversations with your clients, spotting patterns, identifying issues early, and advising on anything that might be getting in the way of you getting paid.

Profit is what’s left when you subtract your costs from your income. Cash flow is the money actually moving in and out of your business account.

You can be profitable on paper and still run out of cash, if your clients are taking a long time to pay, for example, or if you’ve had a large outgoing before the income arrives to cover it. This is why profitable businesses sometimes fail. The money is owed to them, but it isn’t there when they need it.

Cash flow is what keeps the lights on. You can have a full order book and a healthy profit margin, but if the money isn’t coming in when your bills need paying, you’re in trouble.

For small businesses in particular, there’s rarely a significant financial buffer to fall back on. A few slow-paying clients or one bad debt can have a disproportionate impact. Keeping a close eye on cash flow, and taking steps to protect it, is one of the most important things a small business owner can do.

Usually it’s a combination of things. Payment terms may be on the invoice, but if the conversation about what you both expect never happens at the outset, clients default to their own payment process, which can be much longer than you’d like. And without consistent chasing, clients learn that your payment terms are more of a suggestion than a deadline. In many small businesses, credit control ends up being whoever can fit it in, and if that person finds it uncomfortable or time-consuming, it rarely gets the attention it needs.

The most obvious sign is cash flow that feels unpredictable, even when business is going well. Beyond that, look out for aged debt that keeps growing, the same clients appearing on it month after month, invoices that take several attempts to get paid, or the follow-up of overdue invoices always dropping to the bottom of the list.

If any of those feel familiar, it’s worth taking a closer look.

The earlier the better, because the more options you have. Getting advice when things are tight but not critical means you have time to make changes and see results. The difficulty is that when cash flow is really under pressure, you’re often too busy firefighting to step back and deal with the root cause. And that’s precisely when it’s hardest to think clearly about what needs to change.

It suits businesses in two situations. The first is where credit control is consistently slipping, invoices aren’t being chased as regularly as they should be, and it’s affecting your cash flow. The second is where you’re managing it perfectly well but you’d rather spend that time on something else.

It’s probably not the right fit if your invoices are very low value, say £30 to £50 each, as the cost is unlikely to make it worthwhile unless they’re concentrated across a small number of clients. Conversely, if you have a small number of higher-value invoices, it can still make sense, because getting even one paid a week or two earlier can make a meaningful difference to your cash flow.

It’s also not the right solution if the main reason invoices aren’t being paid is unresolved service complaints, because consistent chasing won’t fix an underlying delivery issue.

If you’re not sure whether it’s right for you, get in touch. We’ll tell you honestly, and if outsourcing isn’t the answer right now, we’ll point you towards something that is.

Yes. We don’t offer a white-label service, so your clients will know that Confident Cashflow is chasing on your behalf. We’re always clear about who we are and who we’re acting for, in our email footers and in phone conversations.

We encourage our clients to give their own clients a heads-up before we make contact, framing it as additional support rather than an escalation. A note on your invoice template is enough to make our name familiar before they hear from us, which makes for a much smoother first contact.

They operate at very different points in the process. Outsourced credit control is about making sure invoices get paid on time, through consistent, professional follow-up from the point they become due. The relationship with your client is still intact, and the goal is to keep it that way.

A debt collection agency typically gets involved when that relationship has already broken down, the debt is significantly overdue, and normal communication hasn’t worked. It’s a last resort, not a first step.

If we exhaust all reasonable options with an overdue invoice, we can point you towards a reputable debt collection agency. But reaching that point is rare, and getting there means something has usually gone wrong much earlier in the process.

We’re given access to your accounting or invoicing software, whether that’s a dedicated accounts package or a job management system if you’re in the trades. This allows us to see outstanding invoices, record our activity, and keep everything in one place.

We do need access to your software rather than a spreadsheet. Working from static data means we can’t see the full picture of what’s outstanding, and it builds in additional delays when queries come in, such as copy invoice requests or questions about what an invoice relates to. That either increases the time we need to spend, adding to the cost, or means we get less done in the hours you’ve paid for.

No. We work on a retained basis, managing your credit control as a whole rather than chasing individual invoices. If you have a single overdue invoice you need recovered, we’re not the right fit, though we may be able to point you towards a debt collection agency.

Our 6-month minimum term exists because credit control works through consistency. We’re a long-term partner in your business, not a last resort.

We don’t take legal action ourselves. As part of our outsourced credit control service, if we’ve exhausted all reasonable options and small claims court is the right next step, we’ll guide you through the process. You’ll need to lodge the claim yourself, but we’ll make sure you know exactly what to do and how to do it.

Reaching that point is always a last resort. We’ll do everything we can to get your invoice paid before it comes to that.

If you’re not a credit control client but have a debt you’re not sure how to handle, this is something we can work through together in a one-hour Cash Flow Focus Session.

Yes, we chase overseas debts on behalf of our UK clients. Due to potential time differences and language barriers, overseas chasing is primarily handled by email rather than phone.

If phone calls are needed and volumes are significant, there may be a small additional charge to cover international call costs. This would always be discussed and agreed with you in advance.

No. How quickly and easily an invoice gets paid depends on factors outside our control, from how a client was onboarded to how the work was delivered and how the invoice was raised. If any of those things haven’t gone smoothly, it affects collectability, and that’s not something we can be held responsible for.

What we can promise is consistent, professional, relationship-focused credit control that gives your invoices the best possible chance of being paid. Our goal is always to get results for our clients, and across our client base we typically see aged debt reduce by between 50% and 95% in the first six months.

Our pricing is based on hours per month, with a minimum of two hours. Full pricing is on our outsourced credit control page.

If you’re not sure how many hours your invoice volume would need, get in touch and we can talk it through before you commit to anything.

You’ll see it in your aged debt. You’ll have full visibility through your accounting software of what’s being chased and what’s being collected, and we keep notes of every contact so there are no surprises.

Across our clients, we typically see aged debt reduce by between 50% and 95% in the first six months. The early weeks can feel slower while your clients adjust to consistent chasing, but the improvement should be visible within the first couple of months.

Disputes are one of the most common reasons invoices don’t get paid on time. When we come across one, we establish what the issue is and communicate it back to you clearly so you can resolve it.

We can’t settle service complaints on your behalf, but we make sure they don’t just sit there getting older while both sides avoid the conversation.

Not at all. A Focus Session is for businesses at any stage. The earlier you get advice, the more you can do with it.

A one-hour session suits anyone with a specific question or challenge around getting paid, whether you’re a start-up wanting to get things right from the beginning, or dealing with a particular client situation you’re not sure how to handle. Our Focus Session page has plenty of examples of the kinds of things we’ve covered.

The half and full-day sessions tend to suit businesses at a point of growth, when they know they need stronger foundations in place.

Absolutely. Outsourced credit control isn’t the right solution for everyone, and we’d rather point you in the right direction than suggest a service that doesn’t fit.

A Cash Flow Focus Session is a great starting point if you want practical guidance tailored to your business so you can make improvements yourself. We also offer credit control training for businesses with a team involved in chasing, and a Credit Management Audit for a more in-depth review of your processes and policies.

Yes. The size of your business has no bearing on whether you need them. Ts & Cs set out clearly what your clients are agreeing to when they work with you, including your payment terms, what happens if things go wrong, and what you’re responsible for and what you’re not.

Without them, you’re relying on goodwill and memory if a dispute arises, and that rarely ends well. A well-written set of Ts & Cs protects both you and your clients, and often prevents disputes from arising in the first place.

Additionally, if any of your clients are consumers rather than businesses, Ts & Cs are a good place to set out the things you’re legally required to tell them.

You can, but a template is by definition generic. It may not reflect the specific way you deliver your services or the expectations you want to set with your clients, which means it could leave gaps you’re not even aware of.

If you do use a template, it’s worth getting it reviewed to make sure it’s actually doing what you need it to do. That’s something we can help with.

We’re not solicitors, and we don’t provide legal advice in that sense. What we bring is a thorough working knowledge of contract law and consumer credit law, developed through professional qualifications, which allows us to draft practical, commercially sound Ts & Cs for small businesses.

Our approach is as much commercial as it is legal. Good Ts & Cs set clear expectations from the outset, which means they rarely need to be enforced. But when they have been, they’ve stood up. If we come across anything outside our expertise, we have trusted solicitors we can refer you to.

In all honesty, probably not. Ts & Cs that genuinely protect your business and set clear expectations are rarely less than five or six pages, sometimes more.

That might sound off-putting, but length isn’t the issue. Readability is. We write in plain English, with decent spacing and a clear layout. Your clients aren’t going to wade through pages of dense legal jargon.

The goal is to cover every realistic scenario, not just the straightforward ones. It’s the difficult, vague, or high-maintenance client that makes Ts & Cs essential. And in practice, a well-written, professional document tends to reassure clients rather than put them off.