According to the Fed’s 2024 Report on Employer Firms, 93% of businesses surveyed reported financial challenges last year. Inflation, rising prices of goods and wages, and labor struggles are all taking a toll. For many businesses, these changes in economic health meant challenges with getting credit. In fact, nearly half of small businesses were unable to get the financing they wanted.
That can be a challenge if you need a loan. For businesses trying to decide whether to grant credit to their customer and clients, it can be a challenge, too. With so much instability, you need to evaluate new and existing customers even more carefully to avoid taking on unnecessary credit risk.
Credit risk management software solutions can help you evaluate that risk to make better decisions about extending credit to customers and making sure you get paid what you’re owed.
The Importance of Credit Risk Management
Without the right safeguards in place, your financial situation can change quickly. You can run into a wide range of problems, such as:
- Increased delinquencies or defaults
- Liquidity issues with your business
- Difficulty paying your suppliers or employees
- Reduced profitability
- Having to increase lines of credit
Having a credit risk software solution to avoid these problems is smart business.
Benefits of Credit Risk Management Software Solutions
Here are just a handful of benefits you get from choosing credit risk software for your business.
In-Depth Credit Insights
Make more confident decisions by getting deep insight into the validity, financial stability, and performance of new and existing clients. Comprehensive business reports give you an easy way to evaluate financial health, see if customers are paying their bills on time, and highlight any adverse actions that may increase risk.
Account Monitoring
Credit risk software can also help you monitor your accounts to flag potential problems with collections or increasing risk. You can get notifications about accounts when there have been changes in credit scores, repayment histories, or public record filings that might impact your business.
Portfolio Analysis
Not only do you want to keep track of your clients and customers, but you also want to keep an eye on your overall portfolio to make sure it stays in alignment with your credit risk profile. Things can change quickly, and you need to know when it will impact your overall risk.
Business Verification
Fraud is a serious — and growing — problem. In 2023, fraud losses in the U.S. exceeded $10 billion, a 14% increase from 2022, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The emergence of AI has made it easier than ever for scammers to set up fake businesses or steal business identities to try to defraud you.
Credit risk software can help you verify identities to ensure you are working with a legitimate, real customer or client.
Integrating Credit Risk Software Into Your Workflow
Here are a few best practices for Integrating credit risk management software solutions into your workflow.
Assess Your Current Processes
Before integrating new solutions, you should assess your current lending and credit risk management processes. Identify areas for improvement, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies that can be addressed by leveraging better solutions.
Identify Your Needs
Credit risk software solutions offer a range of features and capabilities. Identify the specific needs of your business, such as credit reporting, portfolio management, fraud prevention, or compliance support to ensure you select the best fit for your organization. Depending on your needs, you may want a comprehensive solution or an easier way to evaluate credit risk for individual customers, such as pulling business credit reports on demand.
Evaluate Potential Solutions
Research potential credit risk management software solutions. You will want to pay attention to things like:
- Ease of integration
- Range of options
- Scalability
- Data security
- Support
It’s important to make sure whatever you decide will work within your workflow.
Develop an Implementation Plan
Anytime you are adding a step to your process or integrating a software solution, you need to think the process through. Your vendor can help you establish reasonable timelines and training to make sure your team can use the tools efficiently.
For example, pulling business credit reports on demand is simple. You can do it online in just a few minutes. However, you need to understand the data you get and how to use it effectively to reduce your credit risk.
Monitor and Optimize Credit
Credit risk management is an ongoing process. You will want to consider monitoring services to evaluate the financial health of your clients or customers and analyze your overall credit portfolio. This can help identify trends that may signal problems.
It is always better to know ahead of time when there is trouble brewing so you can make proactive decisions.
There are a wide range of credit risk management software solutions available. Contact Command Credit today to explore the best option for you and your business.