Check Your Customer's Financial Health

Before accepting an order from a new client, it is good to check their financial situation. But how should you go about it?

1. How to gather information about future clients or prospects?

On the internet, there are numerous sites of organizations that provide economic and financial information about companies.
Here is a selection primarily focusing on companies located in Ivory Coast.
Basic data is often free (name, address, names of directors).
The service is chargeable for more detailed information about accounts (balance sheet and income statement).
www.chamco-ci.org: Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ivory Coast
www.ins.ci: National Institute of Statistics of Ivory Coast

2. What elements to analyze?

Here are the main financial elements to focus on when examining your clients' accounts:

• Company growth: examine the evolution of the turnover;
• Performance: analyze the evolution of results (profits, losses);
• Profitability: calculate the net profit ratio / turnover;
• Indebtedness: calculate the long and short-term debt ratio relative to the total balance sheet.