“Why More Data Is Not the Answer to Risk Mitigation”

Posted by on Mar 12, 2015 in The markITbyte Blog | 1 comment

Why More Data Is Not the Answer to Risk Management

It’s been said that, “No news is good news.” But is this always true?

If you have no news — that is, no immediate, real time data on hand about customer payment trends, that can be really bad news. But with the latest customer data available at a glance, potential problems are visible before they escalate. You can move quickly to lessen adverse effects for your company and for your customer

Which of your customers pose the most risk?

Suppose some of your customers have had multiple overdue payments. That is especially risky for your company when you don’t find out about it until the next staff meeting.

Waiting for the next canned report or having to run ad hoc database queries on your ERP system wastes valuable time. Worse yet, you can’t mitigate your risk.

Bad news, however, always presents an opportunity. That’s how we see it at markITbyte. We enable businesses like yours to use the WordPress Enterprise Framework to keep important Accounts Receivable (AR) data immediately visible in the office and in the field.

Prevent problems before they escalate.

Warren Buffett said, “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” I would expand that to add, “Risk comes from not knowing what your customers are doing.”

Customers run into roadblocks just like you do. When this happens, they may begin to make late payments. A few months in a row of late payments becomes a trend that impacts your business. In the same way, customers may continue to order beyond their credit limit.

“I never saw it coming!”

How can you step in and intervene if you are not aware? You must know what’s happening with your customers before it takes a toll on your own business. You need the facts at your fingertips, at a glance. This is where markITbyte’s WordPress Enterprise Framework (WEF) provides powerful tools to help you manage risk.

Build these components into your Accounts Receivable (AR) dashboard.

  1. AR Customer Summary — This provides a summary snapshot of key credit related customer information, such as the customer’s Credit Limit, AR Balance, Highest AR, Highest AR Date, Sales for the Last 12 months, and Default Payment Terms.
    It displays actionable data and trends based on the latest summary statistics.
  2. AR Invoice Pay Trend — This shows a 20-invoice trend of pay dates. You can filter by Invoice or by Date Paid.
  3. AR/Credit Report by Customer — This function ranks your customers based on the ratio between their accounts receivable and their total available credit. It allows access to all customer in a filterable and sortable report.
  4. Over Credit Report by Customer — This display ranks and lists your customers who are over their credit limit. It provides a summary of how much they are over their limit in real time. You can see trends and take appropriate action promptly.

These reports enable you to be alerted to downward trends that show you which customers are experiencing difficulties. Equipped with this information, you can take action before things get out of hand.

Managing risk is about maintaining loyal customers. With markITbyte’s tools, you can come alongside customers when they struggle, in order to help them, because you actually, “saw it coming.”

If you want to manage risk better than you are now, you don’t need more data. You need an essential dashboard that will put your existing ERP data to it’s best use.

WordPress Enterprise Framework will make this happen for you.

Question: Having read this blog post, which “late customer” comes to mind?

“Learn more about markITbyte reports that can help your company mitigate risk.
The WordPress Enterprise Framework (WEF) is used daily to support both large and small companies, including current Epicor LumberTrackTM customers. Our customized Accounts Receivable dashboards give you the information you need at a glance, in near real time.
Would you like to find out more? Contact us.!

1 Comment

  1. I like the perspective of this article, because it’s about being proactive and turning a negative into a positive action plan. Sounds like some good software.