In Australia, the federal government has asked for an investigation into ‘reverse factoring’, and long overdue payments amid complaints that large companies are paying their invoices up to 90 days late. And we know most SMEs may not be inclined to chase hard for payments for fear of offending their customers.

But is it good to just implement a ruling across all the different industries and make everyone commit to paying within 30 days?

Air India, groaning under the strain of debt, is facing payment issues for its jet fuel.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss ways to ensure you retrieve your receivables from customers who are in debt but are solvent.

China’s government is getting serious about stopping late payments. It has come up with rules to get government departments and large state-owned companies to pay their bills to smaller companies on time.

The companies that refuse to comply will be put on a court-administered blacklist and face fines of RMB 100,000 to RMB 500,000.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about how China can no longer look the other way for the tardy payment history of SOEs as SMEs will struggle and go bust.

A report by the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman says SME owners struggle to find funding and sometimes have to dig into their own pockets to finance their own businesses.

Brexit means a lot of uncertainty for businesses, and this might mean some of them might get their payments late, or not even get paid.

RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss whether small companies should even think about insuring their invoices, and if they have another recourse to manage their risks in uncertain times.

Nufarm recently sold off part of a subsidiary in Brazil for A$1.2 billion. The Australian agricultural chemicals company had been under pressure to reduce its debt - it was leveraged at three times its earnings. The disposal would cut its leverage to 0.7x.

Investors rewarded Nufarm's move to improve its balance sheet by buying into its shares, sending its stock price up, reversing its status from being a heavily-shorted stock on the ASX.

RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss what Nufarm's move means ahead of recession worries and why companies would do well to look at risk management in these times.

Travel company Thomas Cook shocked everyone when they recently announced they were filing for bankruptcy, leaving 150,000 of its customers waking up in foreign countries without a ride home.

It was not a victim of late payments as it had a lot of customers who paid upfront for their holiday packages. But it still went bust.

Surprisingly, the company actually ran out of cash.

RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss the real reasons why Thomas Cook went under.

We had several visitors to our exhibition space at the SMEICC 2019, who lamented that their CEO was actively undermining their efforts to get invoices paid on time.

In one case, the CEO was telling customers they could have more flexibility in credit terms, even as the finance department was insisting on prompt payment.

RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss how to bring your own CEO on board.

We always advocate you bring payment terms into your conversations with customers early, to avoid collections becoming an issue later.

RIABU's Mark Laudi and Simon Littlewood tell you what and how.

A customer calls and urgently needs you to provide your service. There's not enough time to highlight price and payment terms.