Missing information. Overwhelming amounts of paperwork. Hours of manual labour. Costly file management.

Traditional credit checks and their shortcomings are giving way to a new era of efficient, rapid and user-friendly approaches to checking business’ credit histories and customer onboarding.

The coronavirus pandemic has been – most obviously – a healthcare and humanitarian crisis. But beyond this, it has also been a watershed moment for business and commerce globally.

It has upended entire industries and business models in Australia and put companies in potentially precarious positions when it comes to knowing the viability of their business partners and supply chains. Many businesses are now in very different shape to what they were pre-COVID.

Tellingly, it has also brought into sharp focus the challenges associated with traditional credit checks. Asymmetries of information, generous government support that disguise the real health of businesses have meant decision making for businesses is perhaps riskier than ever.

The good news is that the Australian credit industry has innovated and been up to the challenge. Credit checks no longer have to be outdated and complex, especially in an era where they have never been more important. Going beyond traditional credit applications, the time for digitally powered credit checks has well and truly come.

Omicron increases need for accurate and timely credit information

With the ‘new normal’ of social and economic life with COVID seemingly here to stay, small businesses are facing a new and unfamiliar trading environment. They must evaluate and monitor credit risk with often limited visibility and access to reliable data.

Omicron infections continue to cause uncertainty and disruption to supply chains as Delta and other variants did before it. The Delta variant and now Omicron variant have created significant supply chain disruptions, most obvious from the bare shelves in our supermarkets. The longer the supply chain, the more susceptible businesses are to disruptions, impacting sales, cash flow and ultimately credit ratings.

In NSW and Victoria, manufacturers and suppliers lost 25-60 per cent of their employees during lockdowns, forcing production to cease or slow down. Omicron infections are exacerbating this problem. Mandatory isolation periods have worsened disruptions to the sourcing of raw materials.

Consumers in Australia have also been severely affected by the pandemic, with record-high levels of unemployment accompanied by a slow-down in government-provided income support. This necessarily means lower consumer demand in the economy with people either not having enough money to spend on discretionary items or choosing to save until there is greater economic certainty.

In sum, these factors combine to make good, reliable credit services more important than ever. Businesses need to know the credit status of their counterparties when transacting in times of economic uncertainty.

How reliable credit checks provide certainty in an uncertain world

Economic uncertainty makes running a credit check on business customers an invaluable source of confidence.

Knowing that your customers can pay invoices on time or more generally adhere to contractual obligations gives your business the financial certainty that is of utmost importance in the pandemic-impacted economy.

Creditor Watch’s ApplyEasy is a game-changer in a shifting environment

ApplyEasy is an automated customer onboarding process that allows you to check customers faster and more accurately. It minimises the need for paperwork and manual labour, saving on costs and allowing you to conduct customer due diligence faster than ever.

Combining the knowledge capital of ASIC, the Australian Business Register and more than 11 million trade lines from corporate ATB uploads and Xero and MYOB integration. ApplyEasy validates customers in real-time and auto-populates their details to seamlessly integrate them into your workflow, invoicing and ultimately revenue streams.

It combines ease of use with efficiency and connectivity, enabling you to register security interests on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) through an easy-to-use template. The platform effectively serves as a one-stop-shop, positioning your business to thrive in a post-pandemic world by streamlining your credit application and client onboarding process.

ApplyEasy’s key features

How often have illegible handwriting blank fields stopped what should have been a seamless transaction? Or the lack of information provided which renders forms impossible to process and to generate credit information? Or the inaccurate information often provided that requires onerous amounts of clarification to verify and correct?

Implementing ApplyEasy saves organisations time and money by alleviating these and other common mistakes, reducing processing times by some 50 per cent.

ApplyEasy allows you to make an immediate credit decision while managing the approval and rejection process.

At its core, ApplyEasy is a secure platform managed and hosted by CreditorWatch, verifying entity information with automated accuracy. The credit report, trade reference check and information capability of ApplyEasy combines the rigour of traditional checks with the speed and efficiency of the digital age.

ApplyEasy is compatible with wet signatures and electronics signatures, catering to your preferences and allowing for seamless integration into your business model. Allowing you to maintain your brand (through unique URLs generated for each business), ApplyEasy provides organisations with personalised credit applications and connection to their CRM/ERP systems via APIs.

ApplyEasy’s key features allow modern businesses to radically overhaul the credit check and onboarding process. The product taps into the informational power of proven databases through user-friendly processes to enable rapid and accurate decision-making and, ultimately, provides a higher level of credit risk protection for your business.

Get in touch for a free trial

To hear more about how ApplyEasy can streamline your customer onboarding process and get a free trial, contact our Customer Success Team at support@creditorwatch.com.au