We recently presented a webinar “Debtors’ System – Vital for Effective Fiscal Management”. To view this webinar, please click here.
Thousands of SMEs around Australia are in financial strife. A significant contributor to this strife is a lack of Fiscal Management Knowledge.
Accountants and Bookkeepers who are servicing the SME market are the obvious group of professionals that can assist SMEs to implement systems which will contribute towards a more professional approach to the management of debtors.
The CEO of MYOB, Paul Robson wrote an article in “The Financial Review” in February 2024 in which he indicated that the MYOB survey of new business operators had identified, a number of deficiencies after six months trading relating to financial management. Those deficiencies categorised as “Debtors Issues” included:
- Not understanding that credit terms did not have to be offered to every customer.
- Not having a systemised approach to debtors’ management.
- Not appreciating the need for ongoing monitoring and follow-up of debtors when payments are due.
- Not having an awareness of the importance of the “Debtors’ Days Outstanding” figure as an important Key Performance Indicator that all members of the business’ Leadership Team should have an awareness of preferably weekly but most certainly monthly.
In 2016 Australia received a “very dubious international award” when an international organisation based in the United Kingdom announced that “Australia had the longest Debtors’ Days Outstanding in the world” calculated at 56.4 days. At the time the Australian Small Business and Family Business Ombudsman indicated that this was a disgrace and that governments and large businesses should review their processes to ensure that small businesses were paid within 30 days of their invoice date.
The immediate response from the Australian government was that the then Prime Minister ordered Federal Government Departments to ensure that SMEs were paid within 21 days of the invoice date.
In 2020 the Australian Parliament passed legislation for the “Payment Times Reporting Act”.
Whilst this legislation was intended to lead to a significant reduction in “Debtors’ Days Outstanding” unfortunately this did not occur. The government appointed a review of the functioning of the legislation in 2023. That review culminated in the government overhauling the “Payment Times Reporting Scheme” with effect from 1 July 2024.
This legislation is targeted at businesses with turnovers in excess of $100 million annually and requires businesses to report to the Payment Times Reporting Regulator.
The penalties which now apply to large businesses relating to their dealings with small businesses include:
- A business which is within the slowest 20% of small business payers across all payers or within their ANZIC division for two consecutive periods can be given a direction from the Minister to publish that they are a “Slow Small Business Payer” on their website, Financial Statements and other documentation.
- As a reward “Fast Small Business Payers” will be publicly listed by the Regulator if their reporting period is 20 days or less.
It will be interesting to observe whether these changes to the legislation leads to an improvement in the payment times being made by large businesses.
The changes in the legislation affecting large businesses came at the same time that the current Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman revealed a 50% jump in requests for help from business owners who are fearful that another business who owes them money has become insolvent or who are worried about their own ability to meet their financial commitments.
The Ombudsman, Bruce Billson, said payment disputes were an early warning sign of a cash flow problem and can have a ripple effect that threatens the viability of other businesses.
“Cash flow is the oxygen of enterprise, the difficult conditions mean when one party is late in paying, it can cascade through this support chain” Mr Billson said
“Payment disputes are by far the greatest area of concern for small and family businesses and now account for 42% of assistance cases, up from 36% last year” from the Ombudsman’s office.
What Is the Accountant’s Role in Assisting SMEs to Monitor Their Credit Sales?
Small and medium-sized accounting firms who are traditionally offering services to SMEs are in an ideal position to broaden their range of services to offer a range of Chief Financial Officer services to assist their SME clients to survive.
Unfortunately, a large number of SMEs whilst knowing they need some assistance, do not know who to go and talk to because they have an image of their Accountant only being interested in supplying taxation advice, not business advice. We all know that this is wrong, but this is the interpretation of accountancy services that thousands of SMEs have because basically all they ever hear from their Accountant is matters to do with taxation.
Accountants can change this perception by proactively reaching out to your SME clients and talking to them about the management of debtors and other commercial matters affecting their business.
ESS BIZTOOLS has been supplying product packages and training on Advisory Services to accountancy and bookkeeping firms all over Australia and New Zealand for the last 25 years, to assist in the delivery of a wide range of services to SME clients including debtors’ management.
It is important that a system is established covering all aspects of the relationship when a business agrees to offer credit terms to a customer and that the process is transparent and appropriately documented at every stage similar to the following:
- Undertake a review of the present system in operation
- What preprepared forms, letters and other processes are being used?
- Is your client dispatching Debtors’ Statements or has an indication been given to all credit customers that statements will not be sent and that payments should be made on the due date of individual invoices?
- Are the Directors of companies who apply for credit required to complete a Director’s Personal Guarantee and Indemnity Form?
- Who monitors debtors?
- Is there a “Welcome to new customer letter” which summarises the terms of trade and retention agreement that applies to an individual customer?
- Do potential credit customers complete an Application to open an account?
- Who reviews and then approves a Credit Application for an account?
- Do the people involved with negotiations with a new customer understand the operations of the Personal Property Securities Register relating to debtors?
- Is someone responsible to ensure that if a registration is going to be made relating to a particular customer on the Personal Property Securities Register that all of the documentation is signed by the new customer and then processed for the registration on the register?
This is a brief overview of system requirements for an effective Debtors’ System.
You could take the time to prepare all of this documentation and more so that your client could implement the process or you could take advantage of the preprepared forms developed by ESS BIZTOOLS that you could implement with your clients.
ESS BIZTOOLS has launched “BIZAID” to assist Accountants and Bookkeepers to assist SME clients through these difficult times.
The DEBTORS’ MANAGEMENT component of the “Advisory Intro Product Package” has been established as a “standalone product” and “Debtors’ Management” is available for a subscription of $300 plus GST which an Accounting/Bookkeeping Firm can utilise with as many clients as you wish to guide your clients/prospects through the establishment of appropriate systems.
Our costing on the services to be provided indicate a professional fee of $,1000 – $1,500 for the complete review and installation of the Debtors’ Management system.
If you are interested in subscribing to this package please go to www.essbiztools.com.au – packages and pricing and then click on Debtors’ Management where you could then complete the subscription order form.
If you would like to have a conversation about this service and others supplied by ESS BIZTOOLS please send us an email: [email protected] and we will respond to your questions.
Thank you for your interest in the “BIZ AID by ESS BIZ TOOLS” campaign wherein we are endeavouring to supply a component of our consolidated product packages to Accountants and Bookkeepers at a reduced subscription rate to assist you to offer an outstanding range of professional services to assist your SME clients to survive the current difficulties.
If you would like a one-on-one complimentary review Zoom meeting with our Founder and Managing Director, Peter Towers please send us an email: [email protected]
ESS BIZTOOLS Pty Ltd
Peter Towers – Managing Director | 07 4724 1118 | [email protected]| www.essbiztools.com.au
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