Neil G Van Luven has over 40 years' experience in developing and perfecting these Secrets. He is a foremost leading authority in Working Capital Consulting including "Strategy and Transformation". Very commercially savvy and "analytical". History includes MD, CEO and now NED at Moneypower International - a Working Capital Consultancy. Since 1975, generated more than USD55 Billion for over1000 Clients spanning 48 Countries. Whether you are a Business School Graduate' an intern in an Accounting Pro This publication gives you a "running" start to implementing these Secrets, thereby enhancing value to any employer. If the reader only applies one of the 40 Secrets, the benefit will be immediate. Often one hears about "benchmarking" in business, but what does this mean? Neil covers this expertly in clear and concise language that everyone can understand. The book includes concepts of what constitutes and how to "maximise working capital performance, explained in understandable terminology. These topics are described, including Best Practice customer satisfaction issue handling; interpreting billings/receivable trends; training the trainer, prepayments, and their importance; impact of eCommerce; how to improve customer and supplier relationships, making sales commission policies work best, credit insurance; payment vehicles; centralization and more. The terms and conditions which organizations attach to the goods and services that they sell and likewise which they are provided with on their purchases are critical to the cash flow process. From the sales perspective, terms and conditions that are more stringent than those offered by the competition in a highly competitive segment can suffocate growth. Conversely, from the accounts receivable perspective, if terms and conditions are too liberal potential cash flow optimization can be forsaken. From the accounts payable view, it is essential that maximum time is taken before payment without alienating the supplier relationship. In the modern technologically advanced and hypercompetitive business environment, an enormous number of factors need to be built into the organisation's credit terms and conditions policies. Among the factors that need to be considered are: - Are our terms and conditions concise enough? Many organisations have too many term variations due to historical accumulation, and the result is often confusion. Simple, straightforward menus of terms are required; if one credit term is sufficient, do not provide two.- Do the terms and conditions address the realities of the customers for whom they are intended? If you are selling goods or services to public sector bodies in a country that mandates by law, that public sector bodies must take 90 days or more to pay, terms of less than 90 days will not work.- Do the terms and conditions take into account any special requirements? In some countries, for example, Italy and Spain, public bodies' payment clocks do not start until after a Ready-For-Use certificate has been issued. Terms must consider that factor to ensure that invoices are not treated as past due when they are not.- Do the terms and conditions provide early payment incentives that are both attractive to the customer and beneficial to the organisation? Early payment may be possible with specific stimuli, but is it financially prudent to offer them?- Do the terms and conditions provide for prepayment options? Prepayment is becoming more and more acceptable, even in notoriously difficult blackspot countries, but prepayment will never be realised unless it is asked for.- Do the terms and conditions conform to technological constraints imposed on the organisation? If an invoice takes ten days to get to a customer and terms are less than 15 days, there is a virtual certainty that payment will not be made on time.