Section 1: How to use ratios. Measure a firm’s financial health. Where to find the numbers to use for ratios.

Section 2: Can the firm pay its short-term obligations? Find out with the current and quick (“acid test”) ratios.

Section 3: Measure liquidity (ability to turn assets into cash). Measure the quality of your company’s A/R and collection efforts and foresee problems in future sales, pricing or inventory with the inventory-turnover and A/R-turnover ratios.

Section 4: Rate a firm’s efficiency. See if sales are providing sufficient return on your company’s investment in fixed assets with the sales-to-fixed-assets ratio. Evaluate your company from one period to another period using the profit-margin ratio.

Section 5: Debt management. Predict when losses will start to hurt your company’s credit rating with the total-liabilities-to-total-assets ratio. Forecast long-term solvency and when the company must stop borrowing with the times-interest-earned ratio.

Section 6: Evaluating return on investment. Uncover the true return on investment with the return-on-investment ratio. Assess return to stockholders with the return-on-stockholders’ equity ratio.

Section 7: More tools for evaluating company performance. Learn how to compare financial statement items year to year and how to evaluate key sections of the income statement and balance sheet.

Section 8: Company v. industry performance. Where to find standards of comparison and industry norms to see how your company is doing.

Section 9: Stock market ratios. Easily measure any stock’s performance the way the pros do. Master the earnings-per-share ratio . . . price-earnings ratio . . . dividend-payout ratio.

Publisher: AIPB

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Section 1: Collections basics. Setting up a document retention system. How to set—and get—late charges. Proven phrases to get early payment on invoices. A tickler system that keeps you on top of slow payers.

Section 2: The successful collector. 5 key personal traits. How to time each phone contact and letter. Tested phone and letter phrases that speed up slow payers.

Section 3: Creating collection plans. Detailed 5-step plan with proven collection letters for each step.

Section 4:  How to use professional collectors. When and how to choose letter writing v. collection agencies v. collection attorneys. Pros and cons, and fees, of each. Monitoring the service.

Section 5: Avoiding losses with new customers. How to get credit data. When to use postdated checks. How to know when not to sell to a prospect. Special: a complete, legal Credit Application that reveals bad risk before your company sells to them.

Section 6: Avoiding losses with current customers. Nontechnical explanations of liens, mediation, workout arrangements and other techniques. When and how to use each each based on the debt and the debtor.

Section 7: Customer personal guarantees. Individual v. corporate guarantees. Special feature: a lawyer-approved personal guarantee you can use.

Section 8: How to use collateral. How to find out quickly what assets a customer or prospect owns. How to “perfect” an agreement—and collect the collateral, if needed.

Section 9: Bankrupt, or near-bankrupt, customers. Getting your money when a customer declares bankruptcy. What to do if you receive a bankruptcy notice. Getting back your merchandise.

Glossary 1. Key terms used in collections. 

Glossary 2. Key abbreviations used in collections. Very helpful for decoding notices your company may receive.

Plus: Where to find a prospect’s or nonpayer’s assets: Web site of the agency in each state where you can find a prospect’s or customer’s assets and other financial data.

Publisher: AIPB

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