The Value of Accounts Receivable Data

As a lumber supplier, have you ever placed a “hold” on a customer or granted a greater credit limit when you weren’t sure it was the best decision?  If that decision was based upon a gut feeling or exclusively internal data, you are often left asking if that was the right decision.

Your accounts receivable (A/R) may be your company’s single most important asset and as a credit manager or financial officer, you’re there to protect it. We credit professionals may not make the sale, but our informed credit decisions and actions support company growth and bottom line results. The operative word here is “informed.”

As information technology has advanced and become more interconnected, accessing and sharing information has never been easier. Companies need not make decisions in a vacuum. Data suggests those who do business without proper risk management tools tend to be less profitable and cash poor. Without corrective measures, over time, under-informed credit decisions will prove costly.

When you have an uneasy feeling about an account, what should you do? A decisive credit professional will access and analyze the company’s A/R aging data and perhaps even crosscheck it with other known and trusted industry professionals.

But for an informed decision, industry professionals turn to Blue Book Services for a comprehensive overview of the account in question. Sometimes gut feelings turn out to be nothing, but as credit or finance managers, we must do the homework and follow the old adage, “better safe than sorry.”

For the past decade, Blue Book Services has received accounts receivable data from lumber mills and wholesalers throughout the United States and Canada. In fact, we collect over $1 billion of industry-specific A/R data every month.

This data, which is kept strictly confidential, is analyzed and amalgamated to produce numerous tools that lumber sellers can use to analyze a buyer’s credit risk.  These tools include credit ratings, predictive credit scores, in-depth credit reports and industry credit alerts.

Blue Book’s powerful risk management tools allow industry professionals to properly analyze your customers’ credit and pay performance.  This helps you make the most informed decisions and maximize your bottom line.

Learn more about how Lumber Blue Book can help you grow sales and reduce credit risk by calling us at 630-668-3500 or visiting www.lumberbluebook.com.