Safe Financials News

Seminars on pre-employment screening and compliance challenges You are invited to attend a seminar covering the importance of pre-employment screening and compliance checking. As part of this we will have guest speakers from 192business, who are experts in the field of personal identification, as well as demonstrating some of the latest technology to help you manage the screening and compliance process.

One of the market leading suppliers of payroll and HR software and financial and credit control software, Safe Computing, are exhibiting at Softworld again. This year Safe are unveiling and demonstrating the latest versions of Safe EMS, Safe Financials and Safe Credit Control software. To mix up the proceedings, famed for being a star attraction at X-Factor wrap up parties, magician to the stars Robert Fox will be performing on Safe’s stand at the show.

Safe Computing, comprising Safe EMS, Safe Financials, Safe Credit Control, and Safe Outsourcing will be exhibiting at Softworld on the 19 - 20 October 2010.

Employers are facing calls to improve staff training to prevent the country's skills base from declining. It comes after a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and KPMG suggested one in ten employers was planning to outsource jobs overseas in the next year. The move has been blamed on the Government's immigration cap, which is due to be introduced next April, combined with what firms described as a decline in the skills of British graduates and school-leavers.  

An ability to manage cash flow is crucial to business success, and the control and management of debtors is often a painful task, as a result of manual and repetitive processes. Recent external economic factors resulting from the impacts of a long term global recession, only adds to headaches of a credit control team. An introduction of effective tools to improve the collections process, is arguably more important today, than at any time in recent history.

Philip Leonard Rule It is with great regret and sadness that we must report the death of Philip Rule aged 74. Philip founded Safe in 1975 and was active in the business up until 2001. He remained a valued member of the Board of Directors up until his death. Our sympathies go out to his wife Patricia, sons Simon, Duncan, Marcus and Jonathan and all those who knew and loved him. His funeral takes place on the morning of Friday 13 August 2010 and although the office will be open as normal a number of staff members will be in attendance. We have taken steps to ensure that all major services will be covered but please be understanding if things do take us a little longer to deal with at this difficult time.

As there is an increasing trend to work from home, so there is a need for more portable and accessible ways of working. Working from home or indeed the local coffee shop, saves company space and resources, and provides employees with a more comfortable working environment.

The recent global recession has produced a turbulent economic environment, affecting individuals and corporations in equal measure. The nonstop growth of the credit culture has had significant impact on individuals, leading to mortgage defaults, reduced spending on the high street and a general tightening of the belt.  Business is no different. Banks are unwilling to provide loans to invest in new opportunities, and also not extending overdrafts.

Customer relationship management systems are an increasingly hot topic in the IT related press. Organisations are increasingly seeking to automate their ‘front office’ activities where possible, and see credit control as very much a ‘back office’ function. Traditionally, credit control is a reactive exercise, controllers chasing late payment as Rottweilers, not the cuddly teddy bears associated with CRM. Adopting a softer, CRM based approach to credit control is, as the name suggests, about cultivating a relationship with the customer.  By employing CRM techniques, we give the customer the impression they are special, and that the credit controller has a holistic view of their account and the person they are communicating with. Any software system should therefore be able to provide all relevant customer facing personnel with a comprehensive view of all dealings with the company. An all round, sometimes called ‘three sixty degree’, view.

It seems acknowledged that typical payment terms are usually 30 days, but according to research average debtor days, in some cases extend to  61 days*. Remarkably many companies appear not to place sufficient focus on such excessive debtor days. However in times of recession, where cash flow is one of the most important things to manage, who can really afford to wait that long?