Update to your Credit Management Portal

We’ve been working hard to improve the user experience for our customers, and have made a few changes to both our reports and the portal.  

Reports
You may have noticed in the past couple of weeks slight changes to the look and feel of our reports.  We have moved the comments for each section from the right hand side and put them below. This allows us to include more information without making the report look lopsided and also allowing for better format of the comments section.  We have also updated the printouts of the reports, including: changing the fonts to be more readable, as well as adjusting some of the sizes.

Portal
We have made the majority of our changes to the portal and have added/modified the following sections.

My Reports
This section was renamed from Credit Applications to My Reports. A simple but needed change. The main reason you come to your portal is to access your reports.

Order A Report
This is a big one. Until this section was added we expected our customers to either email, fax or fill out their online credit application, but did not explain how this was done.  You now have a tab within your portal that gives you direct access to the most popular application submission methods.  We have also added a request form that allows you to submit a report order directly to us. This form also accepts an attachment allowing you to send us a client information sheet, or paper credit application.  When using any of these methods we take care of all of the data entry for you.  As we are manually entering these applications please allow up to 1 hour before they will be visible in your My Reports section (during normal business hours).

Usage/Billing
This tab gives you direct access to the usage and accounting portal.  Customers are billed once a month, therefore the information in this portal is up-to-date as of the last invoice (usually from the first of the month). We also give you a list of reports that are waiting to be invoiced on the next cycle. 

As always, your comments and suggestions are what drive changes like these. Please feel free to leave a comment on our blog, send us an email, or give us a call!

EDC Canadian Dollar Survey Results

As a proud member of the EDC research panel, we keep a close watch on any information that may be of special interest to our customers and blog followers.

In view of the recent focus on international currency valuations, and in particular the high Canadian dollar, the attached results of a recently conducted EDC Survey may be of interest.

Click here to access the Survey Findings Report

The 4 Cs of Credit - Which is Most Important Today?

I’m always curious as to what trends are developing in the world of due diligence from a trade credit risk perspective.  I have come across a discussion on this same topic from a banking perspective that I’d like to share with you.

Banks use 5 Cs while trade creditors use 4.

The one C that is in the first list and not the other is Collateral, as most trade creditors do business without the security of collateral being put up by the borrower.

Without Collateral, it’s Character that takes the higher importance of the remaining 3 Cs, which are Capacity, Condition & Capital.

The increased global focus on credit risk from banking, financing and trade perspective demonstrates one common denominator when carrying out due diligence, the importance of Character.  Character, the forgotten C of the 4 Cs of Credit, is making a comeback amongst B2B customers.

For the past 25 years the evolution has been towards evaluating a company’s ability to retire obligations.  The focus has been on Capacity, Condition, & Capital which helps answer the ability to pay question.  These three Cs of Credit do a very poor job of answering the more important question of Willingness To Pay.

To do a more complete job of evaluating over-all Risk, especially in the SME markets, the focus of due diligence needs to return to the “Character” factor. This means re-evaluating some of the questions directed to prospective customers about themselves when applying for credit; be it trade credit, loan financing or receivable insurance and financing.

Your comments are always welcome.

Best wishes to all….

Debunking Commercial Credit Information

Thousands of commercial credit reports are purchased in North America every minute. The credit information industry is driven by a few major players. While these companies sell information about specific businesses, the business world has very little knowledge of how the industry works.

How do they gather the information?
How accurate is the information?
How does the information affect my business as a user of the information?
How does the information they have on my business affect my business?
Who are the players in this industry?
Why do I hear so little about how they operate?

We will focus on these questions over the coming weeks as well as any questions that you may have. Feel free to place them in the comments section as they will be one of the driving forces behind what we post.

It's a Beautiful Day

CHANGE: defined as a transformation or modification, and at B2B Credit Chex, Inc. it was time. The change: our new website set to launch this weekend. The site has received an overdue facelift and a good dose of de-cluttering. We’ve also included a blog to facilitate an exchange of relevant information and share the goings on at B2B.

Our website release has acted as a spring board to implement our new system upgrades for all our clients’ Credit Management portals. These upgrades are a direct result of your feedback and requests over the past 6 years (SIX!! Really?!). Our services are continuously evolving to meet the needs of our clients and our tools needed the ability to keep up with that evolution.

The log in button can be found in the top right hand corner of the new homepage.

When you log on Monday morning you will be greeted with not only a new look and feel to your Credit Management portal but improved functionality. The portal allows our customers more administrative control, improved storage capabilities, information management as well as access to invoicing and account information. That’s right, no more hand written balances on the bottom left hand corner of your invoice, hello 2010!

Some of you have already had a taste of the improved Credit Management portal; others should have received their new username and password sometime over the past week. If this is not the case or you experience any difficulty logging on please call us and we’ll get you up and running ASAP. As usual, somebody will answer the phone in three rings or less. Good ol’ Kevin is still there too!

Let us know what you think and would like to see. Leave us a comment on the blog.