First Party Collections Information Important To Your Business’ Cash Flow

If you’re a business owner or departmental manager who does any kind of collections activities, you’re already pursuing first party collections, though you may not have known it. First party collections means precisely that: attempting to collect on debt for your own company instead of sending your accounts to a third party agency. Any time you make a call asking to remit payment or send a past due notice you’re engaging in the practice of first party collections.

The name “first party collections” means that the entity collecting (or an affiliate was a party to the original transaction. The debtor is referred to as “second party,” and “third party” means another entity that gets involved in the attempts at collection, like a debt collection agency.

First party collections are most common early in the debt collection cycle. As soon as your regular accounts receivable staff become aware that a bill is past due, they can pass it on to first party collections without a time lag. First party collections people are often more cognizant of the need to attempt to keep on good terms with the debtor in order to get more potential business in the future.

First party collections attempts are often seen as friendlier or more understanding than activity from third party collections agencies. Your client may rely on your service or product for his business to run, and if so he will be just as amenable to staying on good terms as you are.

Another difference is that unlike third party agencies, first party collections do not fall under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. When you are the original party or a legal affiliate of it like a subsidiary, you are considered a lender rather than a collector. Third party agencies therefore do not have as much wiggle room in their practices as first party collections entities due, but the latter are still subject to state and federal law.

Most companies handle their own collections for a period of ninety days to six months. Ideally, when the 2-3 month mark comes up and collections efforts aren’t working, it’s common practice for companies to turn over these accounts to a third party agency or “sell” the debt to them, which means the agency pays for the right to keep whatever return they get on the debt.

The most successful first party collections are done by dedicated collections professionals. Salespeople, accounting staff and business owners just aren’t as capable at collections because their attentions are scattered and collections is one of the least pleasant tasks they have to do.

If you hire an individual or create a department to handle first party collections, however, they can be just as successful as third party collections. If they are knowledgeable in modern collection techniques like private investigation to track down new addresses and phone numbers, offering incentives to get the debtor to call in or working out settlements, first party efforts can be remarkably efficient. When trying to make the decision of which type of collections instruments to use, keep in mind whether you’re spreading your resources too thin or if you have the team in place to do first party collections.