Tag: Best Practices

Working in credit management requires a finely tuned eye for customer behavior. At times, you can’t help paying extra attention to a customer whose payments have slowed or companies you’ve had an increasingly hard time getting on the phone. But even the most eagle-eyed credit professional will have customers abruptly shut down without warning.

Credit managers encounter financial fraud every day, whether it is as simple as a spoofed phone call mimicking an established customer or the manipulation of a compromised email. Equipped with ever-evolving technology, fraudsters are more empowered than ever before, requiring credit professionals to be diligent in every facet of their work.

The fiscal year-end is one of the most demanding periods for any business, and the credit department is often tasked with managing audits, collecting outstanding payments and meeting tight deadlines. Completing the annual closing can be especially challenging if it coincides with the holidays, which brings its own unique demands to businesses and employees.

For Joseph Rogers, CCE, credit manager at JBS Foods USA (Greeley, CO), the lessons gained while earning his Certified Credit Executive (CCE) designation have prepared him for the new year.

In November, Kukulak was one of the many who earned the Certified Credit Executive (CCE) designation, one of the prestigious certifications from NACM and FCIB’s six-level Professional Certification Program.

No aspect of credit management exemplifies the give-and-take nature of your relationship with your customer quite like disputes and deductions. Deductions and disputes can consume a significant amount of your time as a credit manager—from complaints about billing errors to missing items from orders—and without a solid protocol in place, they can leave your credit department overwhelmed.

Working in credit can sometimes mean juggling many responsibilities at once. From the overflowing email inbox to the back-to-back meetings, your days in credit are often packed with so many urgent tasks that it can be hard to stay on top of it all.

When doing business, it’s easy to assume that our own cultural norms are universal, yet the truth is that what’s considered polite or professional in one culture can be completely misinterpreted in another. The world is vast, encompassing seven continents, 195 countries and 72 regions and territories, each contributing to thousands of unique cultures and subcultures. These cultures influence the way people think and behave, as well as how they conduct business.

For many credit professionals, burnout does not happen all of a sudden—it creeps in slowly, like a phantom in the shadows. The pressure of the job, from managing high-risk accounts to chasing down mounting receivables, can begin to haunt even the most experienced professionals.