Each month, the CREDITFOCUS monitoring functionality sends users tens of thousands of alerts about UK businesses, providing a very useful barometer of the overall health of the UK business community.

During September, about half of the monitoring alerts showed a significant deterioration in the health of a business, whereas just over 40% showed a significant improvement.

Whilst this means that the trend remains negative, it is noteworthy that the overall rate of deterioration was slower than in August. This hopefully signals that a corner is being turned.

A recent survey from Experian offers similar hope, showing that the rate of UK business failures - while still high - has fallen to its lowest level since September 2008. To read more, click here.

Why it's important to be upfront with customers from the start

Conrad Ford, Head of Products explains the importance of showing your customers that you expect prompt payment and are willing and able to take action to recover your money from the start:

"However well you manage debts owed to you by customers, you're more likely to get paid quickly if you've demonstrated from day one that you expect prompt payment, and that you're willing and able to act if this doesn't occur'.

That's why we introduced our new 'Using our logos' feature, which allows you to demonstrate that you have access to best-practice credit management tools through CREDITFOCUS*.

He adds: "you should also always ensure that you agree professional written credit terms with your customers. Click here to read more.

The 'Using our logos' CREDITFOCUS feature, which enables you to put the logos on your business websites, invoices, credit terms letters and company presentations is a great way to make your print and online business assets really work for you.

Displaying the CREDITFOCUS logo on these assets is a sure way to alert new and existing customers to the fact that you expect prompt payment and are willing and able to take action and recover your money

In addition, it can also help you to:

• Attract new customers by stating upfront that you are likely to offer them credit terms.
• Encourage your customers and business partners to also use effective credit management methods as this will help the smooth running of your business dealings

This feature is already proving to be a really popular addition to CREDITFOCUS.

To use our logos, or to find out more, click here to login to your CREDITFOCUS account and click on 'Using our Logos' link in the top right-hand corner of your homepage.

*Subject to Terms and Conditions.

This summer, the volume of bad debt recovered by our users reached £10 million and this figure keeps on rising...

Product updates

Recommend a friend scheme - offer extended to 31 October

Earlier in the year, the results of our customer survey showed us that 83%
of CREDITFOCUS customers would recommend it to others.

Since then, we've made it easy for you to share CREDITFOCUS and help your friends/business associates/customers to avoid the risk and pain of late payment and bad debts via the 'Recommend a Friend' scheme.

And now, due to the popularity of the scheme, we're extending the offer for an additional month.

Until 31 October, you can tell your friends about CREDITFOCUS and receive a thank you gift for your efforts*.

For every friend that signs up to CREDITFOCUS Pro and we receive three payments from, you and your friend will receive £25 worth of Marks & Spencer vouchers each.

What's more, by recommending CREDITFOCUS, you'll gain the appreciation of your business associates and customers for taking an interest in their business issues and for the latter, for helping them to stay financially stable. As for your friends... they may grow to like you just that little bit more.

To recommend now: simply login to your CREDITFOCUS account and click on the Recommend a friend link on the top-right of your homepage to add the friends you want to recommend.

*Subject to Terms and Conditions.