Main Warning Signs ....................................

 Has stopped payment on time  - after 60 days you may have a bad debt 

A change in order patterns

Is changing banks

Signatories away for longer than 2 weeks and no one else authorised

A change of director

Customers product constantly changing - out of normal goods/services supplied

A change in payment patterns - lump sums

Customers premises and staff attitudes declining in standards - stock levels low

Customer previously on account starts to pay cash on delivery

Rumours in the industry, from customer’s staff, your sales staff, other creditors

A change of delivery/invoice address

Cannot contact customer - constantly "in a meeting"

Customer will not return messages or answer the phone

Customer will not accept reasonable attempts to resolve queries
 
It is difficult to turn away sales on a hunch, gut feeling or any one of the above warning signs.  But think about the damage that could be caused to your business and cash flow if the creditor was to go into receivership or bankruptcy - if a default in payment means having to get more bank funding to meet the shortfall in cash flow, you need to make hard and fast decisions.