How We Chase Your Money: A Look Behind the Scenes at Credit Control

If you’re waiting for a payment from one of our clients, it’s completely understandable to wonder:

“Is anyone actually chasing this?”

The short answer is: yes – absolutely.

In fact, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes from the moment an invoice becomes due until the payment reaches us.

Meet Chaser

We use a system called Chaser to manage our credit control process.

Our approach has been built using decades of experience dealing with clients, invoices and overdue payments. Over the years, we’ve learned what works, when to follow up, how frequently to chase and when an account needs additional attention.

We’ve taken that experience and incorporated it into Chaser, including our standard communications, chasing techniques and carefully planned credit-control cycles.

This means that overdue invoices don’t simply sit in someone’s inbox waiting for a member of the Accounts team to remember to follow them up.

They are actively chased through a structured process until payment is received.

Automated chasing, backed by real people

Much of the routine chasing process is automated. This allows us to follow up consistently and rigorously across a large number of invoices without relying on someone manually sending every reminder.

But automation doesn’t mean there isn’t a human involved.

Clients can reply directly to the communications they receive, and those replies can be dealt with by a real member of the team.

This is particularly important when there is a genuine reason why an invoice cannot yet be paid.

For example, a client might tell us:

“We’re missing the contract.”

“We need a copy of the invoice.”

“The purchase order number is incorrect.”

“This needs to be approved by another department.”

At that point, our team can investigate and help resolve whatever is holding up the payment.

So, while the routine chasing happens automatically, problems and exceptions are handled by people.

What happens when an invoice is overdue?

We don’t send one reminder and then forget about it.

Our credit-control process follows a structured chasing cycle, with clients continuing to receive appropriate follow-ups while an invoice remains outstanding.

That means an overdue invoice remains on our radar throughout the process.

Our aim is simple: to get the money collected as efficiently as possible so that we can get the money owed to our suppliers to them.

“Should I ask Accounts whether my invoice is being chased?”

You are always welcome to contact our Accounts team if you have a concern about an outstanding payment.

However, if you’re wondering whether we have simply forgotten to chase the client, the answer is almost certainly no.

If an invoice is outstanding and has entered our credit-control process, Chaser is already doing its job.

The client is being followed up, the outstanding balance is being tracked, and the chasing process continues while we wait for payment.

So, contacting Accounts doesn’t trigger the chasing process – the chasing is already happening.

Why do some payments still take longer than expected?

Unfortunately, even the best credit-control process can’t physically make a client press the “Pay” button.

Some organisations have lengthy internal approval processes. Others only run payment batches on particular dates. Sometimes paperwork is queried, purchase orders are missing, or invoices become stuck between different departments.

And, occasionally, clients simply pay late.

What we can control is how consistently we follow up.

That’s why we’ve invested in a process that keeps chasing, keeps tracking and gives clients an easy way to speak to a real person when there is a genuine problem preventing payment.

The important bit

We understand that these payments matter to our suppliers.

When you’re waiting for money, silence can easily feel as though nothing is happening. In reality, there can be a considerable amount of credit-control activity taking place behind the scenes.

Our combination of automated chasing and human support means we can be persistent with overdue accounts while still stepping in personally when a problem needs resolving.

So, if you’re waiting for a client payment and wondering:

“Are they chasing it?”

You can be reassured that yes, we are – and we’ll keep chasing it until it’s resolved.