There is a NACM Northwest Foundation Annual Meeting coming up!

June 22, 2016
NACM Northwest offices
5:00 PM

2015 financials will be reviewed, board members will be elected, officers for the coming year will also be elected.
All NACM Northwest members are invited to attend!… Read the rest

An early 2016 study conducted by the Financial Executives Research Foundation and risk and business consulting firm, Protiviti, confirms what many financial and trade credit professionals already know: “financial functions are beyond busy.” Responsibilities are rising for people in these parallel fields, and that is only expected to continue through the second half of the decade.

Key findings in the report, The Rising Tide of Financial Challenges, include the following.

• Cash remains king, as does cash clarity.
• More and improved analysis is paramount.
• There’s hunger for a more holistic approach.
• Getting the right talent in the right place is a formidable challenge.
• Soft skills have hard value.

The analysts break down their outlook by five main categories: Process Capabilities [Financial Transactions], Process Capabilities [Financial Analysis], Emerging Issues, Technical Capabilities, and Organizational Capabilities.… Read the rest

So your customer has recurring payment delinquencies or is experiencing consecutive periods of poor financial results. Perhaps more alarming, the customer is suffering from a broader economic slowdown, has unfulfilled payment obligations, or is experiencing management changes or recurring order holds. The time for a “workout” session has arrived. Now you will assess an account’s financial condition and perhaps make a tough credit decision regarding your customer.

“The ultimate goal of a workout should be to restore a customer to economic health in order to reduce risk of loss or to withdraw open account terms because the endgame is looming near,” writes veteran credit professional Lucas Gomez, CCE, author of Credit: Beyond the Numbers. “A workout plan should reflect the customer’s financial condition, provide the customer an opportunity to overcome his/her shortcomings, and provide the seller the opportunity to protect and cover its investment.”… Read the rest

Picture the scene: You have just received word that your customer has filed Chapter 11. You had followed my advice and put the customer on a cash-before-delivery basis and demanded assurances of performance. You were successful in reducing the accounts receivable owed, and avoiding preference liability in doing so.

The customer, now a Chapter 11 debtor, calls and demands that you continue to ship, and resume credit terms.

The customer tells you its lawyers have advised you are required under provisions of the United States Bankruptcy Code to continue to ship goods and to extend credit terms set forth in the contract. The problem is there is still a prepetition accounts receivable balance and you are not certain the debtor will survive in Chapter 11.… Read the rest

2015 data shows where billing and shipping e-commerce fraud attacks occur in the United States.

Experian e-commerce fraud attacks and rankings now available.

Does knowing where fraud takes place matter? With more than 13 million fraud victims in 2015,[1] assessing where fraud occurs is an important layer of verification when performing real-time risk assessments for e-commerce. Experian^® analyzed millions of e-commerce transactions from 2015 data to identify fraud-attack rates across the United States for both shipping and billing locations.

View the Experian map to see 2015 e-commerce attack rates for all states and download the top 100 ZIP Code^TMrankings.

“Fraud follows the path of least resistance. With more shipping and billing options available to create a better customer experience, criminals attempt to exploit any added convenience,” said Adam Fingersh, Experian general manager and senior vice president of Fraud & Identity Solutions.… Read the rest

By: Cindy Robert, Rainmaker Government Strategies

All the legislation of interest to NACM failed. One we were opposed to and worked against, and on the other two we were neutral.

HB 4065 OPPOSED

In response to the recent Secretary of State audit relating to collection of funds owed to the state and consistently poor reports by the Legislative Revenue Office on the state’s progress toward improvements, House Bill 4065 created new provisions in ORS chapter 279A, which governs public contracting in Oregon.

The measure required state agencies wishing to enter into a public contract to first consult with the Legislative Fiscal Office in order to determine whether potential contractors appear on a list of delinquent or liquidated accounts that a state agency has assigned for collection or are 90 days delinquent.… Read the rest

By Ranjit Nair, Ph.D., Price Associates

Understanding and evaluating others is the innate leadership trait and ability to see the individuality in others and to recognize a person’s perspective and how that perspective was formed. Demonstrating brilliance in managing the performance of employees is evident when leaders demonstrate authenticity and drive the right dialogues therein.

The very fact that a performance management process exists in an organization is recognized and acknowledged by high-performers as the means and vehicle in which their hard work, performance, and potential is recognized and rewarded. However, performance management is typically viewed as a necessary evil, a one-sided affair (usually favoring the evaluator) and one where fear and uncertainty is abound and ever-present.… Read the rest