Tag: Credit

The nature of credit and collections requires credit managers to always keep an eye out for risk on the horizon, whether it’s concern towards a customer’s persistent cash flow issues or a weariness towards extending credit in a country with growing geopolitical instability.

Assessing a customer’s creditworthiness and deciding on a credit line that protects your company from risk without hindering profits is no easy task. When a salesperson is asking for a credit manager to complete their credit investigation quickly so they can close the sale, it is important that credit managers find a balance between speed and risk.

After a period of strong growth in late 2023 and early 2024, the U.S. economy has shown signs of slowing. Gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 0.5% in Q1 2025, raising concerns about the country’s economic resiliency. Inflation rose to 2.7% year-over-year in June, up from 2.4%, while unemployment has remained stable between 4.0% and 4.2% since May 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ongoing geopolitical tensions and regulatory changes continue to add uncertainty to the broader macroeconomic outlook. 

Sales and credit are two sides of the same coin, both aiming to grow the business, but from different perspectives. While sales focuses on closing deals, the credit team works to manage risk, ensuring customers are financially reliable and contract terms are sound. These different priorities can often lead to tension. 

The initial investigation into a potential customer’s credit worthiness is an essential step in the credit approval process, singlehandedly signifying the profession’s central goal: extending the right amount of credit that creates profit without introducing too much risk. While many credit managers are used to poring over a customer’s financial statements during this stage, many might not be analyzing as deeply as they could, unintentionally taking on more risk than intended. 

Economic uncertainty complicates the work of credit managers. As the changing tides of the economy become unpredictable, risk increases. Credit managers across industries have seen volatility in pricing, as wide-reaching economic uncertainties like tariffs, trade wars and supply chain issues send ripples across the economy. While price fluctuations are somewhat of a constant in the ever-changing world of business credit, it can still be difficult to predict and even harder to navigate.  

NACM’s Credit Managers’ Index (CMI) deteriorated 1.6 points to 53.3. “The CMI lost some momentum in March after last month’s solid improvement,” said NACM Economist Amy Crews Cutts, Ph.D., CBE. “The deterioration was broad-based, with six of ten factors declining from the February survey.”

The last few decades have seen large waves of women entering the credit profession. Women are entering into male-dominated offices and paving the way for other women to not only excel in credit positions but climb the ladder into leadership roles previously only allotted to men.