NACM Oregon Business Credit Journal Aug/Sept 2014

Business Credit JournalAug/Sept 2014

7931 NE Halsey, Suite 103 Portland, Oregon 97213 Tel 503.257.0802 Fax 503.257.0247 www.nacmoregon.org

In This Issue

Ordinary Business Terms as a Stand-Alone Preference Defense is Finally Getting Its Due in Court ............................... 1

International Corner ............... 2

President’s Message ............... 3

National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables .................. 4

Questions from the Forum ...... 5

Key to Success ....................... 7

A Look Back at the CMI’s Accurate Predictions ............. 9

Ready for Growth in Credit Card Use and Related Interchange Fees? ................. 11

Congratulations CBA & CBF .... 12

Tips & Tricks .......................... 12

Ordinary Business Terms as a Stand-Alone Preference

continued on page 8

By David Grogan, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP

Receiving a preference demand letter from a bankruptcy debtor or trustee is never fun. One of the most valuable preference defenses is the ordinary course of business defense, which was made much more creditor friendly by amendments to the Bankruptcy Code enacted in 2005.

Prior to the amendments, preference defendants asserting the ordinary course of business defense had to show that each payment was received in the ordinary (historic) course of business between that debtor and that creditor and that the payment was made according to ordinary business terms in the industry. In 2005, Congress changed the “and” to an “or,” creating two separate defenses as opposed to a single defense with two elements that must be proven by the creditor. Despite the change, most trustees have acted as if this favorable change to the ordinary course of business defense has not been made.

In Pereira v. UPS (In re Waterford Wedgwood), decided on April 17, 2014, the Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York expressly recognized this change in the statute in a persuasive opinion that will likely be followed by other courts. In addition, the Bankruptcy Court allowed the defendant’s credit manager, who had more than 25 years of experience, to present his analyses and testimony on practices in the industry in general, without the need for the defendant to hire an expert witness to present this evidence, which allows the evidence to be presented much more economically.

In Waterford, the trustee asserted a $1 million preference claim against UPS, arguing that the ordinary course of business defense was not available to UPS as the payments during the preference period were substantially different from the prior history of payments between the parties.

The court, however, made clear that there are two separate ordinary course defenses available: ordinary course between the parties, and ordinary course in the industry. In this case, the defendant chose the ordinary in the industry defense. The court noted that the trustee improperly tried to conflate these two separate defenses into a single defense. In a creditor-friendly decision, the court reached these findings and conclusions:

• The ordinary in the industry defense to a preference claim is a stand-alone defense and does not require any finding as to payments complying with historic ordinariness between the parties.

• A properly experienced employee of a preference defendant is competent to offer testimony and evidence as to the ordinary course of business in the industry, without the need for hiring an expert witness.

Defense is Finally Getting Its Due in Court

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International Corner by Alice Knight, RGCP

The global economy seems to be in turmoil. Potential and real risk seems to lurk around every corner. News updates are constant and dire!

I am often asked the best way to do country risk analysis. This is a much more complicated question than it appears on the surface. First and foremost each country is a separate legal entity with its own values, political agendas, and internal challenges. It is dangerous to try to fit different countries in the same geographic area into one risk analysis.

The most effective risk analysis techniques vary depending on the reason for the analysis. Is your company considering a new market? Do they want to increase market share in a country you are already selling? Did sales sell into a new market with no warning? Is this a routine country review or has something new happened in a current market?

If you are considering selling into a new market you’ll need a variety of information including a country risk report, industry group information as to the selling norms for your industry in that country, bank information including bank tiering of the banks within that country, information on both customer and country payment delays, information concerning logistics and country import regulations, and general economic information from someone on the ground in country. This analysis should also highlight a Countries dependence on another country for additional monitoring. For example Chile depends heavily on its copper exports to China. A slowdown in China will soon affect Chile. The same is true for Australia and its export of iron ore to China.

If you want to increase your market share, and exposure, in a specific country you need to use all the information above PLUS your own experience. If all the country information shows that customers pay on time with no country payment delay and you are being paid 45 days past due something is wrong and needs to be addressed before you increase this problem. If your experience is consistent with the other information you might want to compare your actuals sales and gross margin against initial projections to ensure that this is still a good profit strategy.

A routine review, a minimum of annually, would contain all of the above and an update from marketing as to future plans for this market.

Country risk changes often and many times the change is sudden. Many banks provide daily updates on foreign markets and foreign currency moves. Some major newspapers have good international coverage. Most credit insurance Companies

provide frequent country updates. Some changes should be anticipated such as scheduled elections and new trade agreements. New import regulations or tax changes are often known in the local market before it hits the international news. It is important to have consistent feedback from the field concerning these changes. If much of your exposure is directly or indirectly to the government an election can have a major impact. If your customers rely on a VAT drawback for a re-export a change will directly affect your customer. If the country decides to adopt a third party verification of value, such as SGS or Veritas, this will directly affect time frames and cost.

A sudden event such as a typhoon in Malaysia or an earthquake in Japan calls for a quick reanalysis. You’ll need to determine if the challenge can be resolved quickly or if it will be long-term, what all aspects are affected including banking, infrastructure, ports, custom clearance and distribution. Consider what exposure you have in that country unpaid, what exposure do you have in sales in progress, or product on the water. If this is a medium-or-long term problem is it possible to reschedule or divert shipments? Each situation is different. The key is to be able to access the needed information quickly and to have authority levels in place so that decisions can be made, and implemented in a timely fashion.

country risk analysis is a constant ongoing challenge. Many of the horror stories I have heard over the years have happened because someone made a very good initial risk assessment and then never monitored the country or reacted to changes until it was too late.

Alice Knight is Vice President of Finance & Administration for Paper Products Marketing, Inc. Ms. Knight has more than 48 years of experience in International Finance and is an active member of ICTF and NACM. She has served as Co-chair, Panel Member, and Presenter at Annual Global Conferences, and as President of ICTF Forest Products Group.

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Message from the PresidentWe have many education offerings and member events in the Fall. Take a look at the calendar online. I hope we will have the opportunity to welcome you!

NACM national designation classes in 2015. It’s a fact that individuals with these designations hold more top credit jobs and have higher earnings. Planning to earn a national designation? One of your 2015 resolutions? Be sure to put the following 10-week, 30-hour classes on your calendar:

• Business Credit Principles – Starts January 13, 2015, a course covering the fundamentals of business credit, including the role of credit in the economy and in the company, the legal environment, credit policy, the credit application, information resources, credit decisioning, accounts receivable, deductions and disputes, delinquency and collections, insolvency and bankruptcy. Meets one of the requirements to sit for the Credit Business Associate designation.

• Financial Statement Analysis – Starts April 7, 2015, a course covering the trade creditors approach to understanding and using company financial statements to evaluate credit risk, including sources of financial statements; reading the auditor’s letter, the balance sheet, the income statement, the cash flow statement, the notes; indicators of liquidity, profitability, leverage; and using the analysis in decisioning. Meets one of the requirements to sit for the Credit Business Associate designation.

Watch for more information.

Thank you!

Rod Wheeland, CCE, CAE Direct: 971.230.1158 [email protected]

© New York Collection, Robert Mankoff. All Rights Reserved.

www.nacmoregon.org

http://www.nacmoregon.org/education/calendar.html

http://www.nacmoregon.org/education/calendar.html

mailto:rwheeland%40nacmoregon.org?subject=



2014 Extended Terms Trends Survey

One of the increasingly hot (and sore) topics for credit execs over the last couple of years has been the issue of customers demanding longer payment terms ("their" payment terms, rather than your selling terms).

This survey seeks to quantify exactly how pervasive this might be and to what extent it is increasing (or decreasing).

We're also taking a deep dive into:

• Whether companies have formal policies in place to handle such requests

• How far terms are being extended

• Who (credit, sales, top management, etc.) approves any requests for longer terms

• What strategies are used by companies when these requests are received

• Whether credit managers' own companies are also seeking longer terms from THEIR suppliers (and what we can learn from that)

So, please click here to go to the survey! Thanks.

National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables Results 2nd Quarter 2014

DSO slightly decreased from the prior quarter to 38.50 from 38.70. A year ago the measure was 39.74. Best Possible DSO decreased to 29.64, as compared to 30.33 last quarter and 31.10 a year ago. Average Days Delinquency decreased to 4.62 from 4.50, as compared to 4.40 a year ago. The percent reported over 90 days past due decreased to .39 as compared to last quarter at 0.40, as compared to 0.50 a year ago.

Medians for 31 different industries are included in this summary. If any SIC code has less than three responses, it will not appear in the report. So to get more participation in your industry, please mention the survey to your colleagues, and pass along the link for them to participate.

Please contact Customer Service or your Account Executive for a copy.

Now that you’ve done the NSDTR, if you really want to see how you’re doing, you’ll want to participate in CRF’s comprehensive Benchmarking survey. You can do that at:

http://www.crfonline.org/surveys/benchmarking/benchmarking.asp.

To those of you that provided data we thank you again for your participation.

www.nacmoregon.org

http://credittoday.2014-extended-terms-trends-survey.sgizmo.com/s3/

http://www.crfonline.org/surveys/benchmarking/benchmarking.asp



Questions from the Forum

Our company uses a service provider to file Notice of Right to Liens. Our subcontractors/vendors constantly request information about the property, lenders, owners, etc., in order for their company to also file aNotice of Right to Liens and we always tell them the basic information (project site address and GC) and then request they do their own due diligience for the remaining information (lenders, owners, etc.), in order to protect their own company and because our company pays for this information.

If we were to provide information to our subcontractors/vendors about the lenders and owners based on what information we received from our notice provider, and perhaps some of the information was either incorrect or possibly nonexistent (i.e. we missed notifying a lender/owner/etc.) could our company potentially be held liable for not giving all of the correct information to our subcontractor/vendor and could our subcontractor/vendor's lien rights be impacted?

Member:

Member:

Question 2

Expert:

Expert:

I would be very careful. The quick answer is yes. If the information is wrong and the sub/vendor relies on that information and loses its lien rights, the sub/vendor may try and fashion a claim to seek the funds from your company. The claim may not be successful, but you would still need to incur costs and time in defending the matter. If you do provide the information, include a statement that your company makes no representations and your sub/vendor should not rely on the information and your sub/vendor should conduct whatever investigation it deems necessary to make sure the information is accurate.

Jason Alexander

A customer has signed a creditor's application, which states their Terms & Conditions. The debtor submits a purchase order that states, "Paid when Paid." Does the creditor's signed Terms and Conditions supersede the debtors PO verbiage? Should the creditor consider additional verbiage stating their T & C always supersedes any stated terms by the debtor?

This is a classic "battle of the forms". Typically, a signed agreement will supersede a form PO with no signature; however, there is a lot of litigation over this very topic and you have to be careful and the credit application should state that it controls all transactions and that any other language is null and void.

William G. Fig

Welcome to a new section of the BCJ-Questions from the Forum. We will list questions and answers we think others can learn from or frequently asked questions. Have a question for other members or experts. Log on to the NACM Oregon Portal. Click here to go to the website.

Jason W. AlexanderSussman Shank LLP

Since 1996, Jason has represented companies and individuals in a wide array of business matters and disputes. Jason's primary fields of representation include general business

and corporate matters, construction, real estate (including commercial landlord/tenant law), and creditor rights. Jason has represented all sizes of companies from one-member limited liability companies to companies with more than 500 employees. He takes particular pride in providing legal counsel to the small and medium-size businesses of the Northwest and working closely with their owners and managers.

Bill G. FigSussman Shank LLP

Bill represents mortgage servicers and lenders in prosecuting and defending mortgage foreclosure actions and defending lenders and servicers in "wrongful foreclosure" lawsuits

in state and federal courts in both Oregon and Washington. Bill also represents general contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers in all aspects relating to their businesses. This includes contract review and drafting, preparing construction bond and lien claims, and litigating all types of payment claims in state and federal courts.

www.nacmoregon.org

http://www.nacmoregon.org



Portland Community College:BA211 Principals of Accounting IIntroduces financial accounting theory, including the accounting cycle, analysis and recording of transactions, and reporting financial information in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.3.0 Credits

Fees: Resident: $276 ($92 per credit)NonResident: $660 ($220 per credit)

Mandatory fees: Technology fee: $4.50 per credit - supports student and instructional technology.

Student activity fee: $1.70 per credit - supports student activities including student government.

Distance learning fee: $20 per course - for distance learning courses only.

Lab fees: Up to $45 per course - check the class schedule for fees specific to your course.

College service fee: $15 per term - supports services including transcripts and book lockers.

Transportation fee: $4 per term - supports transportation services.

Textbook: $130

Mt. Hood Community College:BA211 Principles of Accounting IThis course emphasizes external financial reporting for business enterprises. Information gathering, recording and financial statement preparation are covered with an emphasis on understanding, interpreting, and applying accounting information.4.0 Credits

Fees: In State Resident: $500 ($125 per credit)Out of State Resident: $869

Following are links to the NACM National online CBA courses:

Accountinghttp://www.nacm.org/online-courses/accounting.html

Financial Statement Analysis I http://clc.nacm.org/course.php?course_id=53

Business Credit Principleshttp://clc.nacm.org/course.php?course_id=33

Other Fees:

Basic AccountingIf you are looking for an accounting class to help you meet your CBA certification requirements, we have found some options that fulfull that requirement. Below are listed a few local options as well as a few online courses available through NACM National. We have listed some of the requirements for each school but please double check with them to make sure you have all the information you need before registering for their classes.

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“I always wanted to be in business,” says Yvonne Prinslow, CCE, Assistant Credit Manager at Hampton Lumber, describing her early decision of studying Finance at University of Oregon. Business isn’t her only interest, as the beautifully crafted quilt hanging from her office wall will attest, but Prinslow knew early on that she wanted to work somewhere in the world of finance.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Finance from University of Oregon, Pope & Talbot a 160-year-old forest products company that manufactured pulp and lumber, hired Prinslow to work in Accounts Receivable.

“I loved working at Pope in invoicing because I felt like a detective,” remembers Prinslow. For example, when a customer “short paid” on an invoice, she would be the one to pull the file and find out what was signed for and shipped compared to what was invoiced and what was paid.

She enjoyed being a problem solver so much that Prinslow soon began helping with credit management. Initially her job was to send the credit applications and record the received information from customers. The credit manager at Pope & Talbot at the time, Roger Brown,CCE, sent Prinslow to join CFDD.

As a CFDD member Prinslow started taking NACM classes and was exposed to the benefits of professional designations. She received her CBA in 1996.

Prinslow found herself as Pope & Talbot’s credit manager when that position opened during a restructuring period. “Being part of NACM and CFDD and having that network helped with my new duties as Wood Products credit manager,” says Prinslow.

As busy as she in her new role, Prinslow found time outside the office to give back to the CFDD and NACM, which she felt were both instrumental in her continuing professional success. Joining the NACM Oregon Board in 1997, she was chairman in 2003-2004.

In early 2007, after 20 years at Pope & Talbot, Prinslow joined Hampton Lumber’s credit department. Like her old job, she helps manage credit for the department responsible for selling dimensional lumber. At Hampton, Prinslow is responsible for a larger accounts receivable portfolio as they also wholesale lumber and plywood.

Her timing couldn’t have been better. Pope & Talbot went bankrupt soon after Yvonne left.

At her new company, Prinslow finds herself more than a cog in a wheel and a vital member of a team. She points out that, as sentimental as it sounds, the company motto of “Find a better way every day” is something she sees practiced daily.

Sales and credit - often two fiefdoms at some companies - are considered linked at Hampton and vital to the overall big picture. The advice of Prinslow and her team is sought by sales at the account level as well. Rather than reactive, credit is proactive at Hampton, and thus it is Prinslow’s job to stay up to date on the changes in credit laws and best practices.

Prinslow finds that a big part of staying current is the continuing education required by her CCE certification. Attaining her CCE in 2003, Yvonne has found the education required to achieve and maintain a CCE designation is one of its best benefits. Whether its the NACM CCE study group, the guest speakers brought in by CFDD or even the CCE textbook itself - which Prinslow referenced when she built a Ratio Analysis Spreadsheet that she still uses at Hampton - the education makes a significant professional difference.

And Yvonne’s extracurricular obligations speak louder than her words. A past NACM Oregon Board chair, Prinslow is currently on the CFDD Portland Chapter Board of Directors and the NACM Oregon Foundation Board.

When asked why she gives so much of her time outside of work, Prinslow’s logic is simple. “These are important organizations for our profession. If you don’t volunteer to help, these organizations disappear.”

Key to Success by Jake Faris

www.nacmoregon.org



Continued from cover

• The range of what comprises ordinary in the industry is broad, as the defendant need only show that the business terms of the transaction in question were within the outer limits of normal industry practice. Further, the court found that payment terms that are ordinary for industry participants under financial distress are ordinary for the industry. This finding gives a favorable range for ordinariness to a creditor who was dealing with a customer under financial distress prior to the bankruptcy filing.

• The court adopted a range of one standard deviation above and below the industry mean as being the ordinary course range against which each payment is to be tested. For a normal distribution, this range would include about 68% of the industry payments being analyzed, which is a broader range than many trustees would recognize in negotiations.

• The test is applied payment by payment within the preference period, not to all of the payments as a whole, with each payment being compared to the industry range to determine if it is within the range. Trustees often look at the average during the preference period to try to argue that none of the payments qualifies for the defense. A creditor may have pushed for acceleration of payments and got them at some point during the preference period, but those payments should not cause the disqualification of other payments from application of the defense.

A vendor who extends credit terms at the request of a troubled customer may compromise the ordinary course between the parties defense as the payments during the 90-day preference period would be made later than the payments prior to that period, and thus were not in the ordinary course between the parties. Alternatively, the customer may have accelerated the payments to the vendor for at least part of the preference period. Regardless, creditors should evaluate the ordinary in the industry defense as a shield of liability, as the UPS did in this case.

Creditors who become preference defendants should be encouraged by this decision to analyze and present all of their defenses to the preference claim: subsequent new value, ordinary course of business in the industry, ordinary course of business between the parties, contemporaneous exchange for new value, and others. A “waterfall” analysis is necessary to properly integrate these defenses and ensure that each payment has been analyzed to determine which defenses apply to it and which is the best defense to apply to the payment to minimize the overall liability.

ORDINARY BUSINESS TERMS AS A STAND-ALONE PREFERENCE DEFENSE IS FINALLY GETTING ITS DUE IN COURT

David M. Grogan has extensive experience in representing secured and unsecured creditors in bankruptcy and nonbankruptcy restructuring. He also regularly represents creditors' committees in a variety of bankruptcy courts inside and outside the Carolinas. He has substantial experience in defending preference claims brought by bankruptcy estates.

© New York Collection, Robert Mankoff. All Rights Reserved.

www.nacmoregon.org



A Look Back at the CMI’s Accurate Predictions NACM National

continued on page 10

On June 23, 1896, America’s credit managers heard O.G. McMechen’s call to create a national association for business credit management, resulting in the formation of the National Association of Credit Men, which would eventually grow to become the National Association of Credit Management (NACM). It was McMechen’s hope, and that of all the 62 business leaders that gathered in Toledo, Ohio, Tuesday nearly 118 years ago, that by sharing information, the commercial credit profession in the United States could address the threat of widespread business credit fraud, most commonly perpetrated at the time through the secret sale of goods in bulk, and enhance the abilities of business credit managers nationwide through the sharing of their expertise.

That expertise has only grown deeper and deeper over the last 118 years, benefiting the American business economy in ways that McMechen could never have predicted. One of the most poignant is through NACM’s Credit Managers’ Index (CMI), which is nothing less than the distilled insight and economic perspective of today’s commercial credit manager packaged into a remarkably accurate forecasting tool used by some of the world’s largest organizations and economic regulators. To celebrate NACM’s 118th birthday, here are just a few examples of when its flagship index proved the value of the business credit manager’s insight by accurately predicting the economic future.

Early Success

Right from the jump, the CMI proved to be an accurate predictor of GDP as reported on a quarterly basis. The first reading, posted for January 2003, indicated a slight 0.2-point improvement in the total combined CMI, with a larger 1.1-point increase in the service sector offsetting a decline in manufacturing, which suffered a loss of 0.6 points. A quarter later that year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ (BEA’s) revised final figures, U.S. gross domestic product growth moved from 1.4% in the first quarter of 2003 to 3.3% in the second, reflecting the CMI increase which grew in February 2003 as well, driven predominantly by sales increases. Similarly, in January 2005, the CMI saw a decline from 55.0 to 52.7, a drop chalked up to seasonal influences that didn’t dim respondents’ outlooks, as they predicted continued growth. Sure enough, first-quarter growth in 2005 of 3.8% gave a little in the second quarter of the same year, to 3.3%, suggesting, as the CMI did, seasonal influences that weren’t strong enough to throw off what was at the time a growing economy.

Bankruptcy Figures and Individual Factors

Digging into the CMI’s four favorable factors and six unfavorable factors, which are combined to create the full CMI, can also reveal powerful indicators that illuminate very specific sections of the business world. Bankruptcy figures are less an indicator of economic strength or weakness than a reflection of bankruptcy viability and other factors, but nonetheless, increases and declines are often reflected in the filing for bankruptcies factor, included in the CMI’s unfavorable factors. Recently an uptick in month-to-month commercial filings in February 2014 was indicated in the factor’s slip from 60.5 in January to 58.5 in February. (The neutral line for the CMI and its individual factors is 50. A number above 50 indicates expansion, while one below 50 indicates contraction.) Other measurements of cash flow and purchasing behavior can also find echoes in some of the CMI’s individual factors like amount of credit extended and new credit applications, among others.

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continued from page 9

The Great Recession

Three months before the official start of the Great Recession in December 2007, the September 2007 CMI edged up only slightly to 54.3 following a sharp 1.3-point drop in July and a 0.2-point decline in August. Nonetheless, uneasiness set in and October’s decline to 54.1 continued a downward trend that essentially predicted the recession. Eighteen months later in June 2009 the deepest recession in recent history ended, but positive news could be seen in the CMI as early as February of that year, with a slow trickle upward that correctly predicted the country’s very tentative return to economic growth that summer.

Ultimately all of these examples of the CMI’s power are examples of the value of credit professionals, whose responsibilities focus on what’s next, in addition to what’s happening right now. “I think it’s the nature of credit management,” said NACM Economist, Chris Kuehl, PhD. “Credit managers are as concerned about the condition of their clients 15, 30, 60 and 90 days from now as they are today. The tendency is to think ahead.”

The CMI had raised the visibility of the importance of the credit and finance profession. Join your colleagues each month in taking the survey to ensure a healthy representation of industries across the United States; the more responses, the more accurate the CMI report. Sign up to receive monthly email reminders that the survey period has opened, generally the third week of each month, at http://web.nacm.org/apps/cmi/cmi_check.aspx.

A Look Back at the CMI’s Accurate Predictions

www.nacmoregon.org

http://web.nacm.org/apps/cmi/cmi_check.aspx



Ready for Growth in Credit Card Use and Related Interchange Fees?By Rudet Fountain

Do you like your credit card rewards program? For the majority of us, the primary reason we use our credit card as a form of payment is the rewards program. It is not because we cannot pay the bill with a check, or from our bank portal, or from the merchants webpage…we simply want the rewards. Of course, in the business-to-business (B2B) process, customer logic is no different.

When we consider the various payment technologies in the marketplace today—cash, checks, ACH, wire transfers, EDI, credit cards—we must come to the realization that credit cards are the only payment technology that your customers can be incentivized for using. Today, in the retail market, credit card use typically exceeds 90% of a merchant’s total revenue. However, in the B2B marketplace, they only represent about 3-5% of all receivables. Due to the extremely high levels of use in the retail market, we must realize that the “green grass” for the card networks is in our backyards. VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and AMEX are all seeking greater market share, and there is very little way for them to successfully hit their sales goals without penetrating the B2B markets. Let’s not forget that they are now public companies that need to show a nice return for stockholders. Therefore, the card networks are aggressively pursuing your customers with new incentives for B2B merchants. B2B rewards are most often kickbacks of some percentage of dollars paid with purchasing, corporate, commercial or business cards. Federal Reserve data shows that card usage is up, growing almost 14% each year and our statistics supports these numbers.

Perhaps you have received many more inquiries from customers, or the bank that issued them their credit card, wanting to pay with a credit card number. Both VISA and MasterCard have released new accounts payable programs that generate a great deal of efficiency for AP departments.

More importantly, because of the rewards, perhaps these programs permit the monthly AP process to become a revenue stream for your customer. Thus, the battle continues to rage between your customer’s AP department and your AR department. As we all know, AP represents the customer and the customer is “always right.” Therefore, merchants are often forced to accept cards when they certainly would prefer not to because of the price.

A little good news: the interchange rates associated with these AP programs can be quite favorable when compared to traditional B2B rates. Additionally, when payments are generated out of AP credit card programs, merchants will receive the remittance information and the transactions are very secure. Lastly, no special data input is necessary.

As the card networks seek more transactional volume in the B2B market, it is more important than ever that we learn more about the dynamics of processing. The card networks do not help you reduce your price by implementing best practices or giving you “do-overs” when you overpay on processing. It is incumbent upon us to learn, implement, and put into practice the best possible solutions.

If the card networks are successful and hit their sales goals, imagine what your costs will be if they double their volume. Amazingly, they hope to hit 10-times the volume in the next decade. Are you ready? They are.

By Rudet Fountain, vice president of channel marketing at United TranzActions.

www.nacmoregon.org



Microsoft Outlook Tips & TricksMail tips

• Set a reminder to reply to a message - Right-click the message you want to set the reminder for, point to Follow Up, and then click Add Reminder. In the Due By list, click the date when you have to complete the reply. In the second list, click a time. In the Flag color list, click the flag color you want, and then click OK.

• Add your own words to a follow-up flag for a new message - Click the Message Flag button and then type the text you want in the Flag to box.

• Send a message to multiple people without revealing other recipients' identities - To send a message to someone without other recipients of the message knowing, use the Bcc line in the message. Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. If you add someone's name to the Bcc line, a copy of the message is sent to that person, but his or her name is not visible to other recipients.

Calendar tips

• Automatically add holidays to your Calendar - On the Tools menu, click Options, click Calendar Options, and then click Add Holidays.

• Quickly display several days side by side in Calendar - In the date picker, drag over the dates that you want to view.

• Contact meeting attendees with a reminder or other message - Open the original meeting request, click the Actions menu, and then click New Message to Attendees.

Congratulations New Designates

Kathi Pieper, CBFPacific Seafood Co., Inc

Clara Nemeth, CBF NACM Oregon, Inc.

Charlene Gothard, CBFPurina Animal Nutrition, LLC

David Newman, CBFOrepac Building Products, Inc.

Rienee McCullough, CBA Climax Portable Machine Tools, Inc.

www.nacmoregon.org

NACM Oregon Business Credit Journal Aug/Sept 2014

Documents

Transcript of NACM Oregon Business Credit Journal Aug/Sept 2014