Introduction
Effective credit control and debt management are essential for maintaining healthy cash flows, protecting institutional resources, reducing overdue accounts and supporting long-term financial sustainability. Weak credit control can result in excessive outstanding receivables, delayed collections, deteriorating portfolio quality, increased administrative costs and avoidable financial losses. Institutions therefore require systematic processes for managing credit from the point of customer onboarding through invoicing, monitoring, collection and recovery.
Credit control involves establishing appropriate credit standards, assessing customer creditworthiness, setting credit limits, monitoring exposures, managing payment terms and identifying emerging payment problems. Debt management extends these processes by providing structured approaches for managing overdue obligations, engaging customers, negotiating repayment arrangements, restructuring debts and escalating accounts for recovery.
This course provides a comprehensive and practical framework for strengthening credit control and debt management systems. It examines credit policies, customer assessment, credit limits, receivables monitoring, ageing analysis, collections strategies, delinquency management, negotiation, recovery and debt restructuring. Particular attention is given to early identification of problem accounts and the use of data and performance indicators to improve collection effectiveness.
The programme is designed to help participants establish disciplined and proactive credit control processes while maintaining appropriate customer relationships. Through practical exercises, case studies, debtor analysis and simulated collection scenarios, participants will develop practical skills for improving cash flow, reducing overdue debts and strengthening the overall effectiveness of credit and debt management operations.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Understand the principles and importance of effective credit control and debt management.
- Develop and implement effective credit control policies and procedures.
- Assess customer creditworthiness and establish appropriate credit terms.
- Set and manage customer credit limits and exposure levels.
- Apply effective customer onboarding and credit assessment procedures.
- Monitor receivables and identify emerging payment risks.
- Prepare and interpret accounts receivable ageing reports.
- Develop effective strategies for managing overdue accounts.
- Identify the causes and patterns of customer delinquency.
- Apply appropriate communication and collection techniques.
- Negotiate repayment arrangements with customers effectively.
- Manage difficult and high-risk debtors professionally.
- Apply appropriate debt restructuring and rehabilitation approaches.
- Strengthen escalation and recovery procedures for seriously overdue accounts.
- Use credit control and debt collection performance indicators.
- Apply data and analytics to improve receivables management.
- Strengthen internal controls around credit sales and collections.
- Reduce bad debts and improve cash-flow performance.
- Develop practical credit control and debt management improvement plans.
Duration
5 Days
Target Audience
This course is suitable for:
- Credit Controllers
- Credit Managers
- Debt Management Officers
- Accounts Receivable Officers
- Collections Officers
- Finance Managers and Officers
- Credit Analysts
- Accounts and Billing Officers
- Revenue Officers
- Customer Service and Relationship Officers
- Loan and Credit Officers
- Debt Recovery Officers
- Treasury and Cash Management Professionals
- Internal Control Officers
- Risk and Compliance Professionals
- Finance and Administration Managers
- Branch and Operations Managers
- SACCO and Cooperative Credit Professionals
- Microfinance and Banking Professionals
- Managers responsible for receivables, credit and collections
Module 1: Foundations of Credit Control and Debt Management
Understanding Credit Control
- Meaning and objectives of credit control
- Importance of effective receivables management
- Relationship between credit control, cash flow and profitability
- Credit control across the customer lifecycle
- Common weaknesses in credit management
Credit Policies and Procedures
- Components of an effective credit policy
- Credit approval procedures
- Customer eligibility and credit standards
- Payment terms and conditions
- Credit limits and approval authorities
- Credit exceptions and overrides
Credit Risk in Customer Accounts
- Sources of customer credit risk
- Identifying high-risk customers
- Customer risk classification
- Early warning indicators
- Managing concentration of credit exposure
Roles and Responsibilities
- Credit department responsibilities
- Finance and accounts functions
- Sales and relationship management responsibilities
- Management oversight
- Segregation of duties and internal controls
Credit Control Framework
- Credit application to payment cycle
- Credit monitoring processes
- Collection escalation framework
- Documentation and record management
- Credit control reporting
Practical Exercise
Participants assess a sample credit control process and identify gaps in policies, responsibilities and controls.
Module 2: Customer Credit Assessment and Credit Management
Customer Credit Assessment
- Principles of customer creditworthiness assessment
- Customer identification and verification
- Business and financial background assessment
- Payment history and credit behaviour
- Qualitative and quantitative assessment
Financial Assessment
- Analysis of customer financial information
- Cash-flow assessment
- Liquidity and solvency considerations
- Debt service capacity
- Identifying financial distress
Establishing Credit Terms and Limits
- Setting appropriate credit limits
- Payment terms and conditions
- Exposure monitoring
- Risk-based credit terms
- Review and adjustment of credit limits
Credit Approval and Documentation
- Credit approval workflows
- Approval authorities
- Supporting documentation
- Credit agreements and terms
- Guarantees and security considerations
- Maintaining accurate customer credit records
Customer Credit Monitoring
- Monitoring customer exposure
- Changes in customer risk profiles
- Payment behaviour monitoring
- Credit limit utilization
- Review of high-risk accounts
Practical Exercise
Participants assess sample customer profiles and determine appropriate credit terms, limits and monitoring requirements.
Module 3: Receivables Monitoring, Delinquency and Collections
Accounts Receivable Management
- Receivables management processes
- Invoice and billing controls
- Payment tracking
- Reconciliation of customer accounts
- Managing disputed invoices
Ageing Analysis
- Understanding receivables ageing
- Current and overdue accounts
- Ageing categories and risk levels
- Identifying deteriorating accounts
- Ageing-based collection strategies
Delinquency Management
- Causes of delayed payments
- Early identification of delinquency
- Customer segmentation
- Prioritizing overdue accounts
- Escalation procedures
Collections Strategies
- Proactive payment reminders
- Telephone and written collection techniques
- Structured follow-up processes
- Promise-to-pay management
- Collection scheduling
- Managing recurring late payers
Collection Performance
- Collection effectiveness
- Days Sales Outstanding
- Collection rates
- Overdue debt ratios
- Recovery performance
- Collection productivity indicators
Practical Exercise
Participants analyse an accounts receivable ageing report and develop a prioritized collection action plan.
Module 4: Debt Negotiation, Restructuring and Recovery
Effective Debt Collection Communication
- Principles of professional debt collection
- Customer engagement strategies
- Communication planning
- Managing difficult conversations
- Maintaining customer relationships during recovery
Debt Negotiation
- Preparing for debt negotiations
- Understanding debtor circumstances
- Negotiation techniques
- Repayment commitments
- Payment plans
- Documenting negotiated arrangements
Debt Restructuring and Rehabilitation
- When to consider restructuring
- Assessing repayment capacity
- Rescheduling and revised payment arrangements
- Partial payment strategies
- Monitoring restructured debts
- Preventing repeated delinquency
Managing Difficult and High-Risk Debtors
- Persistent non-payment
- Financially distressed customers
- Disputes and contested debts
- Unresponsive customers
- Strategic escalation
- Managing high-value exposures
Debt Recovery
- Internal recovery procedures
- Escalation to specialized recovery teams
- Guarantees and security
- External recovery support
- Legal and regulatory considerations
- Write-offs and recovery after write-off
Practical Exercise
Participants conduct a simulated debt negotiation and develop an appropriate repayment and recovery strategy.
Module 5: Advanced Credit Control, Analytics and Debt Management Strategy
Credit Control Analytics
- Using data to manage receivables
- Customer payment behaviour analysis
- Delinquency trends
- Customer segmentation
- Predicting payment problems
- Credit control dashboards
Early Warning and Preventive Controls
- Identifying emerging credit risks
- Payment behaviour indicators
- Exposure monitoring
- Credit limit alerts
- Customer risk reviews
- Preventive collection interventions
Internal Controls and Fraud Prevention
- Segregation of duties
- Credit approval controls
- Billing and invoice controls
- Unauthorized credit extensions
- Manipulation of customer accounts
- Fraud risks in collections
- Audit trails and accountability
Strategic Debt Management
- Developing a debt management strategy
- Portfolio-level collection planning
- Balancing recovery and customer retention
- Resource allocation
- High-risk account management
- Continuous improvement
Credit Control Performance Management
- Key performance indicators
- Collection targets
- Staff performance monitoring
- Management reporting
- Root-cause analysis of overdue debt
- Corrective action planning
Practical Exercise
Participants develop a comprehensive credit control and debt management improvement plan incorporating policies, monitoring, collections, analytics and recovery measures.
Training Approach
The training will adopt a highly practical, interactive and application-oriented approach. It will combine expert presentations with facilitated discussions, real-world case studies, customer credit assessments, receivables ageing analysis, collection simulations, debt negotiation exercises and group problem-solving activities.
Participants will work with practical examples of customer credit assessment, credit limit setting, overdue account monitoring, delinquency management and debt recovery. Exercises will focus on translating credit control principles into practical procedures that can be applied within participants’ organizations.
Where appropriate, participants may bring anonymized customer account information, receivables ageing reports, credit policies, collection procedures, credit assessment forms or other relevant materials for practical analysis and application.
General Notes
Training Requirements: Participants should have basic knowledge of credit management, finance, accounts receivable, lending, collections or related financial operations.
Training Materials: Participants will receive comprehensive training materials, practical case studies, exercises, templates and relevant credit control and debt management tools.
Certification: Participants who successfully complete the programme will receive a Kincaid Development Center certificate of completion.
Training Venue: Training can be delivered at Kincaid Development Center, the client’s premises, another agreed venue, or online.
Course Customization: The programme can be adapted to the country operating environment and sector context, including the organization’s credit policies, customer segments, products, billing systems, payment terms, collection procedures, regulatory requirements, reporting frameworks, debt portfolio characteristics and specific credit control challenges.