Construction industry
Fraud in the construction sector: how do you best protect your business?
Figures from Graydon show that in 2021, 1,437 construction companies went bankrupt in Belgium alone. Not only the corona crisis, but also the increase of raw and building materials and a fraud problem put pressure on the construction sector. But how do you protect your business and provide a solid buffer?
Protect your company against fraud: inform yourself.
Inform yourself before entering into cooperation with a company. An increasing trend is for managers to buy up healthy companies in order to start up collaborations in a seemingly reliable manner. When potential partners visit the (healthy) company, they seem to see nothing wrong. After some time, the company turns out to be an empty box, and the partners and customers are left with the pieces. Our Collect+ Advisors are happy to share some tips to protect yourself against fraud.
Focus on getting rid of unpaid invoices.
Another way to protect your business is to have enough financial oxygen. The focus of accounting is often (rightly) on the largest outstanding invoices. Yet many small ones make one big one. So small invoices do have an added value, if they are paid.
Price increase
In addition, there is also the issue of rising prices of raw materials: a little financial buffer is always worthwhile. Certainly now that price increases are expected to follow in the building materials sector.
"92% of building contractors consider the abnormal price increases of products and raw materials a serious issue!"
Source: Bouwbarometer (Bouwunie)
Choose an experienced partner.
Our experienced collection partners, gathered under the name Collect+, ensure a faultless follow-up of your unpaid invoices. In doing so, they pay special attention to maintaining the customer relationship. Thus, they manage to handle no less than 98% of the files amicably. If the amicable process does not produce a result, we will arrange for a solvency investigation, after which we will choose the best plan of action in consultation with you.
