Late payments are a structural problem for UK businesses, not an occasional one. Most medium-sized firms get paid late at least once a month, and finance teams routinely lose 20 to 30 hours a week to manual chasing, payment matching and credit checks. Often the tool meant to help was never built for how the team actually works, so people end up running it alongside a spreadsheet anyway.
We build custom credit control software around your finance processes. You own the system outright, so there are no per-user licence fees climbing as your team grows. We are a small London consultancy. Our job is to make your receivables process faster and your cash flow more predictable, not to sign you up to a subscription.
Why off-the-shelf credit control software falls short
For a business with standard payment terms and a couple of finance users, an off-the-shelf tool is often the right call. The friction shows up when your credit process is more involved than the software assumes:
- Rigid approval flows. Most SaaS platforms enforce a single approval hierarchy. If a credit decision needs sign-off across credit, sales and risk, or your escalation rules depend on customer tier or region, the tool fights you.
- Generic dunning. Standard chasing sequences treat every customer the same. Seasonal accounts, structured settlements and tiered-discount customers all need different handling, and a template engine cannot do that well.
- Weak or missing integrations. Native connectors usually cover Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. If your ledger lives in a legacy or niche ERP, you are left with slow batch syncs and manual reconciliation.
- Per-user pricing creep. As the AR team grows, or sales and operations need visibility too, per-seat costs climb well past the headline price.
- Reporting that does not fit. Fixed 0–30, 30–60, 90+ ageing buckets rarely match your negotiation windows or seasonal cycles, and drill-down from a DSO figure to the actual invoice and chasing history is often missing or slow.
What follows is predictable: staff build workarounds, credit data ends up split between the ledger, the bank feed and email, and eventually someone exports it all back into a spreadsheet.
What we build instead
We start by mapping how your credit control actually runs today, including the exceptions, then design software around it.
Your credit policy, modelled properly. Multi-tier credit limits, multi-team approvals, override tracking and customer-segment dunning rules, built the way your business decides things rather than the way a template allows.
You own it. One upfront build cost, then hosting and the changes you choose to make. No per-seat fees, no renewal surprises, no add-on charges for automated calling or extra storage.
It connects to what you already run. API-first design so it talks to your accounting package, ERP, bank feeds and credit bureaus. Niche or legacy systems usually need a custom integration layer, which is frequently the reason a business comes to us.
UK compliance handled. UK GDPR-aware data retention, full audit trails on credit decisions, and statutory interest calculation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act, which several off-the-shelf tools leave out.
Built in phases. A usable core first, then credit scoring, portals and analytics added as you need them, so you are not paying for a feature set you may never use.
London-based support. Real people for implementation, training and whatever comes up afterwards, with the quick turnaround a small team can give that a large SaaS vendor cannot.
Features and modules
Every build is scoped to the business, but a credit control system we deliver usually covers:
- Automated, multi-stage dunning, for example email at day 7 overdue, escalation at day 30, tuned per customer segment
- Aged debt and DSO dashboards with drill-down from a KPI to the customer, invoice and full communication history
- Credit risk scoring against your own criteria, with optional Experian or CreditSafe checks
- Rule-based credit limits and approval workflows, including order gating and credit holds where credit control touches operations
- Payment-to-invoice matching and reconciliation, including handling for partial payments and unallocated cash
- Promise-to-pay tracking, dispute logging and exception handling with full audit trails
- Customer self-service portal for viewing invoices, making payments and raising queries
- Statutory interest and late-fee calculation where you choose to apply it
- Collections forecasting and bad debt analytics for cash flow planning
- Role-based permissions and audit logging across every credit decision, override and write-off
How we deliver
Discovery and planning (2 to 3 weeks). We sit with your finance team, document how credit, chasing and approvals work today, identify the friction, and scope the integrations. We also look honestly at your data, since customer master quality drives much of the project risk.
Core build (roughly 10 to 14 weeks). We build a usable first version: invoice and DSO tracking, automated reminders, payment matching and one accounting integration. Regular check-ins mean you see progress and can flag concerns early.
Migration and testing. We import and reconcile customer records, open invoices, historical payments and credit limits against your ledger, then run QA and user acceptance testing. Open balances have to reconcile before go-live, with no exceptions.
Later phases. Credit scoring, advanced dunning, the customer portal and custom reporting are added in phases once the core is live and trusted.
Training and support. We train each role appropriately and stay available afterwards for fixes, changes and regulatory updates.
Cost and ownership
A custom build costs more upfront than a SaaS subscription. Whether it works out cheaper depends on how you use it.
- SaaS is lower to start, then a recurring fee that grows with users, invoice volume and add-ons, plus setup, data migration and support-tier costs that are easy to miss when comparing headline prices.
- A bespoke system is a larger initial cost, then mostly predictable hosting. No per-seat creep as the AR team grows, no renewal increases, and no vendor roadmap deciding when you get a feature.
- You own the approval logic and the payment data outright, which matters if vendor lock-in or data residency is a concern.
We will not promise a fixed payback date or a headline saving. During a free consultation we will model the realistic total cost both ways, for your team size and how long you expect to keep the system, and tell you plainly if an off-the-shelf tool is the better buy.
Sector use cases
We have built credit control systems across a range of UK sectors. A few examples of where bespoke earns its place:
- Manufacturing and distribution: high invoice volumes, long Net 30 to 60 terms, multi-entity receivables across warehouses and regional teams, and credit policies tied to customer tier
- Professional services: retainer and time-based billing, frequent scope and billing disputes, and a portal customers can use to query invoices
- Wholesale: high-volume account management with credit checks that gate sales orders
- Healthcare: long payment cycles tied to insurance verification, high dispute rates, and bespoke audit logging
- Construction: retention payments, subcontractor credit and staged billing
- Software and subscription businesses: multi-currency receivables and custom dunning across trial-to-paid and usage-based billing
- Hospitality and events: deposit-then-final-invoice workflows and booking-system integration
- Property management: tenant credit checks and rent collection on recurring cycles
If your situation is genuinely standard, we will say so and point you at the right off-the-shelf tool. If it is not, that is where a custom build pays off. Either way, the consultation is free.
Common Questions About Custom Credit Control Software
When does it make sense to build credit control software instead of using a SaaS tool?
For a lot of UK businesses with standard payment terms and a small finance team, an off-the-shelf tool like Chaser or Credit Hound that plugs into Xero or Sage is the sensible choice, and we will tell you so. A custom build earns its place when you have something the standard tools cannot model well: multi-tiered credit approvals, intercompany or multi-currency rules, credit checks that gate sales orders or hold shipments, unusual payment arrangements, or an ERP that nothing integrates with natively. If you are not sure which camp you are in, that is exactly what the consultation is for.
How does the cost compare to a SaaS subscription?
A custom build is a larger cost upfront, then mostly hosting and the changes you choose to make. SaaS is the opposite: lower to start, then a recurring fee that tends to climb with users, invoice volume and add-ons such as automated calling. Mid-market AR platforms commonly run from the low tens of thousands to six figures a year once implementation and support tiers are included. Whether bespoke works out cheaper depends on your team size and how long you keep the system. We will model both honestly during the consultation rather than promise a fixed payback date.
What's the typical development timeline?
Most builds reach a usable first version in three to four months: invoice and DSO tracking, automated email reminders, payment matching and one accounting integration. From there we add credit scoring, advanced dunning, a customer portal and reporting in phases. The biggest variable is rarely the software itself. It is the state of your customer and invoice data, and how complex your ERP integration is.
Can you integrate with our accounting system and ERP?
Yes. We commonly connect to Xero, QuickBooks Online and Sage, and to ERPs such as NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and SAP via their APIs. We also build to credit bureaus like Experian and CreditSafe for risk checks, and to payment options like GoCardless, Stripe or direct bank feeds. Legacy or niche systems are usually still workable through a custom integration layer, which is often the reason a business comes to us rather than buying off the shelf.
How do you handle data migration from spreadsheets or a legacy system?
Carefully, because dirty data is the most common reason AR rollouts go wrong. We import customer master records, open invoices, historical payments and credit limits, deduplicate customers, and reconcile open balances against your ledger before go-live. Migration usually surfaces a few uncomfortable truths such as duplicate accounts or missing credit contacts. Better to find those during the project than after.
What about data security and compliance?
Builds include UK GDPR-aware data handling: role-based access, encryption in transit and at rest, configurable retention so customer data is not kept longer than needed, and audit trails logging every credit decision, override and write-off with user, timestamp and reason. We can host in UK or EU data centres. We can also build statutory interest calculation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act, which many off-the-shelf tools do not handle. If you extend regulated consumer credit, FCA affordability rules apply and we will scope around them.
Do you provide training and ongoing support?
Yes. Training is included, sized to each role: a couple of hours for finance directors who mainly read reports, longer for credit managers handling assessments, approvals and exception cases. After launch we offer support arrangements for fixes, changes and regulatory updates. Because we are a small team rather than a vendor juggling thousands of accounts, change requests get a quick, direct answer.