The number of bad payers has skyrocketed and the number of companies going bankrupt has not been higher in 13 years. Here at Qatchr, we believe that these are things you should be aware of - and that you can actively try to protect yourself against.

Read this article to find out what you can do to avoid bad payers at a time when Danish businesses and consumers are under pressure

In 2023, 3,037 companies went bankrupt, the highest number in 13 years. There are of course many reasons for this, but the extra high number is likely due to a combination of factors.

"The reason for the many bankruptcies is both a result of some tough years under Corona, including forced shutdowns, but also the following years, which have been characterized by high interest costs, rising commodity prices and high inflation. All these conditions have created a slowdown in Danish consumption and economy, which companies can feel, especially those who have struggled with a backlog from Corona," says Morten Holst Henriksen, who helps companies with business development, digitalization and marketing.

Konkurser har ofte store konsekvenser, ikke bare for virksomheden selv i form af tabte arbejdspladser, men også blandt virksomhedens kunder, leverandører og samarbejdspartnere, der ofte taber penge.

I 2023 blev 173.093 danskere registreret hos Experian – tidligere kendt som RKI (Ribers Kredit Information), det højeste antal registreringer i tre år.

There are several reasons for the rising number of registered bad payers, but one of the reasons is undoubtedly the general slowdown that Danish families have experienced during the last two years of high inflation.

Danish families' wallets have been under pressure, which has been felt when shopping in supermarkets and taking out loans.

De pressede pengepunge fører desværre ofte til, at visse regninger ikke bliver betalt – enten fordi der ikke har været penge til det, eller fordi man har været nødsaget til at prioritere blandt sine kreditorer.

2023 has been a truly challenging year for consumers and businesses alike - and it doesn't look like the trend will slow down in 2024.

That's why now might be the time when you as a business owner, bookkeeper or finance manager need to focus sharply on your accounts receivable, including:

✅ Kredittider
✅ Kreditforhold
✅ Kreditpolitikker
✅ Nedbringelse af udestående
✅ Rykker- og inkassoprocesser
✅ Kredittjek

All of these relationships come under pressure as society experiences rising bankruptcies and an increase in bad debtors.

Of course, we recommend that you keep an eye on these points on an ongoing basis - but especially in the times we find ourselves in now.

Det kan også være, at det er på tide at introducere noget nyt; kreditopslag, kredittjek og få en større indsigt i dine kunders økonomiske forhold.

Qatchr is a digital online service that allows you to get all relevant information about your customers - whether they are businesses or individuals.

Med Qatchr kan du blandt andet hente regnskaber, økonomiske nøgletal, se kreditoplysninger, få økonomiske anbefalinger og meget mere.

Ved at benytte Qatchr undgår du ikke dårlige betalere, men du kan træffe flere beslutninger på et langt mere oplyst grundlag, og måske endda undgå de virksomheder, der er på vej til konkurs – og undgå kunder, der allerede er registreret som dårlige betalere.

Is your customer a business with an ApS, A/S or similar legal form and is the company more than 1.5 years old? Then it will typically be possible to view the company's public accounts.

Public financial statements can be easily accessed online and can help provide insight into a customer's financial situation.

Remember that public accounts are a look back in time, so they don't always give a true picture of the company's current financial situation.

Many bad payers often choose two paths when it comes to paying your invoice; no response or a sea of explanations.

Der er næsten ingen grænser for, hvilke undskyldninger en dårlig betaler vil tage i brug for at udskyde eller undgå betaling.

In other words, if a customer has excuses or doesn't respond after you've sent the invoice, you should pay attention.

Qatchr is developed and owned by one of the largest debt collection companies in the Nordics, Collectia, with over 150 years of experience in debt collection.

It is precisely this extensive experience that we have built Qatchr on. With Qatchr, you can access a wide range of information about your customers, including their status as known bad payers. By combining this information with the factors mentioned above, Qatchr gives you an even better basis for identifying bad payers - even before they become customers in your business.

Hvordan spotter man egentlig en dårlig betaler? Hvilke karakteristika er der? Og kan man gøre det uden kreditvurdering? Læs svaret i artiklen.

"Can you really spot a bad payer?" That was a question we received the other day from a customer. A question that immediately got us thinking about how to spot a bad payer - without using credit scoring.

Based on our many years of experience with debt collection and bad payers, in this article we focus on what you as a business owner should be aware of when spotting bad payers.

The following is far from a complete checklist. But it will give you a number of factors that you can use in the future to identify customers that you should avoid or refuse to give credit to for sales purposes.

We look at both general bad payers and those who are deliberately trying to cheat you and your business.

What does price really mean to you when you have no intention of paying your invoices? Probably not very much. Many bad payers often don't ask about the price and don't care what your goods cost.

There are many reasons why a customer might not ask about the price. But for some, it can be a sign that they have no intention of paying the subsequent invoice - avoid them at all costs.

There's an old saying that you shouldn't cross the river for water, but we see many bad payers doing just that. The worst bad payers already have such a bad reputation and reputation in the local area that they have to go elsewhere. If you get a customer from far away for no particular reason and the customer can get your goods in their local area, you should pay extra attention when selling your goods on credit.

How well do you really know your customers and their information? Many bad payers provide little, missing or very poor information about themselves. This can be an advantage for them when the invoice is sent. If you have little or no information about your customers, it can be difficult - perhaps even impossible - to collect on them.

It may sound a bit cliché, but we recommend that you use your experience from the industry and your other customers when taking on new customers.

For example, there could be strange or abnormal circumstances surrounding the customer that should pique your interest.

For example, does a new customer want to have their goods delivered to an address that is not their previously provided address? Does the customer want to pay in a special and different way? Does the customer have big gestures?

Is your customer a business with an ApS, A/S or similar legal form and is the company more than 1.5 years old? Then it will typically be possible to view the company's public accounts.

Public financial statements can be easily accessed online and can help provide insight into a customer's financial situation.

Remember that public accounts are a look back in time, so they don't always give a true picture of the company's current financial situation.

Many bad payers often choose two paths when it comes to paying your invoice; no response or a sea of explanations.

There are almost no limits to the excuses a bad payer will use to delay or avoid payment.

In other words, if a customer has excuses or doesn't respond after you've sent the invoice, you should pay attention.

While systems, advice and common sense can help, they are not always enough to protect you from bad payers - whether the customer is deliberately or unintentionally neglecting to pay. Historically, however, credit checks have proven to be one of the most effective tools for detecting such cases. A credit check takes into account a number of parameters and relevant information about the customer, including any previous known cases.

Qatchr is developed and owned by one of the largest debt collection companies in the Nordics, Collectia, which has extensive experience in debt collection and debtor management.

This is the experience that we have built Qatchr on. With Qatchr, you can see a wide range of information about your customers, not least whether they are known bad payers. Combined with the above, Qatchr gives you an even better basis for spotting bad payers - before they actually become a customer in your business.

Kredittjek af eksisterende og nye kunder er som udgangspunkt altid en god ide. Det kan være med til at undgå eller minimere antallet af dårlige betalere, inkassosager og det besvær, der unægteligt er forbundet med manglende betalinger.

In this article, we give you 5 tips on when we think you should credit check your customers - because maybe not all customers should actually be credit checked.

Most companies don't think about it, and therefore often do it very rarely; credit check their existing customers. You may have been doing business with a company for 10 years without any payment issues. But your customers' financial situation changes throughout their existence - and it can affect your business if you or your salespeople don't catch these changes in time.

Our advice is to make sure you run credit checks on your existing customer database - perhaps at regular intervals or every time they do business with you.

Kredittjek sker oftest i forbindelse med nye etablering af nye kundeforhold. Du kender ikke den nye kundes økonomiske situation, deres betalingsevne eller lignende. Dette kan kredittjekket være med til at afsløre / belyse.

We recommend that you always check the financial situation of new customers via a credit check. It is up to you to decide whether all new customers, only private customers, only businesses (corporate customers), or perhaps only customers who want credit above a certain size should be credit assessed.

While most companies know that credit checks on new customers are a good idea, few do credit checks based on the size of the order or credit. Because the larger the credit or order - the higher your risk of loss.

Derfor er det måske en god ide at overveje at indføre kredittjek hver gang, at en kunde køber for mere end et vist beløb, uanset jeres tidligere betalingshistorik med kunden.

That way, you don't have to spend time credit-checking every customer and every order, but only those that pose the greatest monetary risk to your business.

De fleste virksomheder kredittjekker kun nye kunder, eller kunder når de handler for et vist beløb. Men har du nogensinde overvejet at opsætte løbende kreditovervågning af dine kunder? På den måde får du beskeder, når (hvis) der sker noget med dine kunder; ændringer af økonomi, ændringer af kreditstatus eller måske en konkurs.

With Qatchr, this feature is available in your product and you avoid your sellers dealing with a company that is in foreclosure or has other financial challenges.

No two businesses are the same, and neither are their credit rating needs; some businesses deal with many customers, while others deal with very few large customers. Regardless of the constellation of your customer portfolio - and the composition of your business - there is always a need to make good decisions based on relevant data, including credit ratings.

We recommend that your company sets up a process for credit assessments; maybe only certain customers? All customers? Only those who shop for over 5,000 DKK? Or maybe only new customers?

There are many ways to handle your credit policy, but make sure you establish a clear procedure - and then make sure that everyone; accountants, finance people, salespeople and others who have contact with customers, also follow your procedures. There can be major financial consequences if they are not followed consistently.

Vi håber ovenstående har inspireret dig til hvilke typer af kunder og ordre, der måske bør kredittjekkes. Er din virksomhed ikke allerede i gang med at kredittjekke kunder, eller har I en konkurrerende løsning – så vil vi gerne tilbyde en gratis og uforpligtende demo af Qatchr. Med vores demo kan du prøve vores funktioner og kredittjek af, og samtidig se, hvordan vi kan gøre en forskel for din virksomhed.

Revenue is crucial for a business, and it's sometimes hard work. Most business owners and sales managers will recognize that acquiring customers and generating revenue, whether it's through marketing or sales outreach, can be a daunting task at times.

At Qatchr, we fully recognize this issue and know how difficult it is to acquire new customers for business - whether you have a physical store, consultancy or something else entirely.

In this article, we focus on how saying no to some customers - and the revenue they could potentially generate for your business - can actually be beneficial throughout the lifetime of your business.

...and if you don't want to say no to customers, then at least be prepared to make demands on some customers over others.

There can be many good reasons why you should say no to certain customers. 

An obvious natural cause is if your initial feeling about the customer is bad; the customer makes some unreasonable demands, the customer has some requests you don't think your company can fulfill, or you don't think the collaboration will be good for one reason or another. This can often result in a bad experience for the customer and your company - and probably a lot of hassle. In this case, we focus on a completely different reason; the financial reason for saying 'no'.

Because what financial reasons are there to say no to a customer that generates revenue and sales for your business, you might ask?

Unfortunately, it's a (growing) fact that companies are increasingly experiencing financial challenges with customers; and the challenges this creates in non-payment or slow payment. This fact can be costly for the company.

You can never be 100% secure against bad payers, but you can do a lot - and with very little effort.

With the right tools in your everyday life, you can reject them before they become a customer of your business. That way, they're rejected before you've done the work or delivered your product to them - and avoid losses.

In other words, the best way to avoid bad payers is to reject them before they even become customers - that way you don't have to pay them any costs in terms of hourly wages and any material consumption.

There are many great tools available today to find information about your customers; who they are, their financial figures, where they live and much more - information that is now just a few clicks away.

Hos Qatchr har vi udviklet et kreditdata-værktøj i samarbejde med Nordens førende inkassofirma, Collectia A/S – et værktøj der kan hjælpe dig, når du skal træffe beslutninger om dine kunder; og hvilke du eventuelt skal sige nej til.

Not sure if Qatchr is right for your business? Then try us out for free - with no strings attached. We offer a free demo for 14 days!

Credit ratings are a great tool for determining whether or not you should engage with a customer. However, a negative credit rating of a company or individual doesn't always have to mean a categorical no to doing business. Even if a credit rating of an existing or potential customer shows poor creditworthiness, "bad payer" status, indications of bankruptcy relations or something else, the most important thing is that you as a company pay close attention and establish a sensible credit policy in advance.

En måde til, hvordan du kan navigere uden om faresignalerne ved en dårlig betaler, kunne eksempelvis være at opstille specielle krav til dem – krav (fx forudbetaling beførste køb) du måske ikke stiller til kunder du kender i forvejen.

Because if you don't want to say no to a bad payer - a cash payment, payment in advance or payment on delivery could be an option.

All businesses have experienced bad payers - some pay late, others never pay. Whatever the extent of your bad payers - and no matter the number of them; they are always an unnecessary headache for you as a business owner.

Because not only do bad payers cost time and resources in the accounting department, you also pay VAT on the amount you haven't received. At the same time, you've spent time and materials on the customer.

We've put together our top 5 tips for protecting yourself against bad payers - tips you can put to good use.

1: Get all relevant information about the customer and the scope of the job in writing

A big part of a successful credit assessment - and any subsequent debt collection - is that you have all relevant information about your customer; full name, address, phone number and not least the scope of the task and agreed price.

It may sound basic to many, but nevertheless, many companies, especially smaller ones, often find it difficult to record and document the relevant information on the customer - and the scope of the task. In short, you're simply too busy getting the customer in and getting started. But being diligent and setting aside enough time for customer onboarding can pay off in the end. Because a credit rating is often no better than the information you have on the customer. The more information you have, the better credit assessment you can make. Should you then find yourself in a situation where you need debt collection from a debt collection company or debt collection lawyer, then "Jens Jensen, Aalborg" is often worth nothing - and your money is unfortunately lost.

2: Credit assessment should be done continuously: Manually or automatically

Many people mistakenly believe that credit checks should only be carried out on new customers. If you receive large but few orders from certain customers, or customers who shop with you very sporadically - for example, every few months - then it may be a good idea to perform ongoing credit checks on your customers.

We recommend that your accounting department sets up fixed procedures for your assessment of your customers; both at the start of the customer relationship - and the ongoing processes.

Med Qatchr kan du eksempelvis sætte dine kunder til “monitorering” så du løbende får besked hvis en B2B-kunde eksempelvis skifter status fra “Normal” til “Under tvangsopløsning” eller “Konkurs”. Det er en værdifuld funktion i Qatchr, som gør det muligt at etablere en dynamisk kreditpolitik, som tager udgangspunkt i live data.

If a B2B customer suddenly changes status or their credit score deteriorates, you can quickly decide whether to change the credit relationship or end the collaboration.

3: Make use of credit scoring

Det har aldrig været nemmere at købe sig til kreditvurderinger online – og eksempelvis vores egen tjeneste tilbyder kredittjek af privatpersoner og virksomheder for et lavt fast beløb, uden binding eller et dyrt abonnement. Kredittjek, der levere værdifulde kreditoplysninger, som du kan bruge i din kreditvurdering.

Du behøves måske ikke kredittjekke alle dine kunder; men få en proces for det. Skal alle nye kunder kreditvurderes? Eller skal alle kunder over et vist beløb kreditvurderes?

It's up to you - and your risk. With Qatchr, it's not the price that determines whether you should check your customers or not.

4: Public accounting information is a source of good information

Today, there is a wealth of good public accounting data to assess the creditworthiness of your B2B customers - and accounting figures, company status, company owners and management have never been so easy to find online.

Remember to make use of these services. They can contain valuable information - which can form a great basis for credit assessment of your company's customers.

Med Qatchr har du nem og hurtig adgang til disse offentlige data – og du kan endda sætte kreditovervågning på dine kunder. Således får du besked inden for 2 minutter via vores real-time-data-løsning, når vi observerer, at virksomhedens status skifter fra “aktiv” til “konkurs”.

5: Get a deposit/up-front payment if in doubt

Whether your business uses credit scoring or not - and whether you're using our service, a competitor - or simply keeping an eye on your customers' accounts, our clear recommendation is to use a deposit or up-front payment when in doubt.

Because no matter how your business handles credit ratings - and no matter the extent of them - a deposit or up-front payment is a great idea if:

✅ The order is of a certain size
✅ There are many hours behind the order
✅ You don't already know customers - and now place a large order

Et depositum er langt fra en sikkerhed for at kunden ikke efterfølgende bliver dårlig betaler, men kan være med til at sikre at en del af dit krav bliver hentet hjem – og er med til at give en indikation af kundens villighed til at betale.

We would love to show you how our service works!

We believe we have one of Denmark's best credit assessments of both private individuals and companies - so we want to give you and your company 5 free credit checks - with no obligation and no subscription.