Over the past few years there have been persistent rumours that South African banks will no longer be providing bank codes. In October 2019 this possibility became a reality when Citibank and Investec announced that they will not be supplying codes. Following this, Standard Bank announced that they will also not be providing bank codes with effect from 1 November 2019. While none of South Africa’s other big banks have yet followed suit, it is expected that they may well do so in the near future. Bank codes have been a uniquely Southern African phenomenon for many years, as international banks do not provide bank codes. Local credit providers in […]

In an increasingly strained economy, what are the top credit management tips for businesses? Growing a business in a strained economy is tough. Getting paid by your customers in a strained economy is even tougher. With the economy having contracted by 3,2% in the first 3 months of 2019; April liquidations up by 53,1%; and business confidence at some of its lowest levels since 2011, there can be little doubt that the South African economy is strained. Businesses that sell their goods and services to other companies on a trade credit basis are specifically under pressure as they face the prospect of limited growth, coupled with cash flow consequence of […]

Access to trade credit facilities is critical for business success. Business financing may come via loans from business owners or even facilities from banks, but it is very likely that the majority of your business funding will be via short-term supplier credit. In simple terms – you probably owe suppliers more at any time than you owe the bank or shareholders! Having established that your suppliers are the main source of business funding, you may want to stop for a moment and consider what criteria they apply in order to assess whether you are worthy of their terms or not. Frank Knight, CEO of Debtsource – a specialist B2B credit […]

With South Africa’s relatively high (and increasing) interest rates, it has never been more important to ensure that credit control happens effectively within a small business. For any business that sells the bulk of their goods and services on credit terms to other businesses, collecting their money timeously is critical not only to their cash flow, but to the survival of the business. All too often though, business owners think of credit control as “phoning for the money”, but sadly this approach will not yield the required results. Here is a list of tips that businesses need to focus on in order to ensure that their cash keeps flowing! Understand […]