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Estimating Payback

"Recent findings from the Commercial Law League of America indicate that without a predictive tool in place, a company has only a 72-percent chance of recovering an account through collections after three months, and only a 28-percent chance after a year," notes Allen Mills, vice president of marketing at Experian, a global information solutions company. Therefore, Experian developed Collection Priority Intelliscore, an automated, predictive receivable scoring service tailored for collections. Mills says the product "helps a business determine whether it will recover at least 50 percent of a commercial account through collections within a year, and provides a clearer picture of the associated costs and risks."

Thus, companies can decide which collections to work internally and which to outsource to a collection agency. The score can also be adapted to insure proper staff account assignments. For example, high-risk accounts might be given to an experienced collector, while low-risk collections would go to the less experienced collector. A company also can use the scoring methodology and strategy to define the collections portion of its credit policy.

Experian is at 600 City Parkway. W., Orange, Calif. 92868, (714) 385-7000, or at www.experian.com.

Combat Computer Fraud

Fundamentals of Computer Fraud is a basic-level, self-study course applicable to accountants, internal and external auditors, computer security specialists and others with fraud prevention and detection responsibilities. The video/workbook set covers Internet fraud and e-commerce, investigating computer crimes and security auditing and testing. It also describes future trends in computer crime, including computer-enabled embezzlement and theft. The video and workbook can be purchased individually, and a 20-question examination may be returned to the publisher, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, for 20 CPE credits.

For information about this and other products the association offers, call...