Over the past several years, Canadians have endured something unusual: inflation rates that have slowed down, but costs that never rolled back.
Labour, materials, shipping, insurance, financing… nearly everything still costs a lot more than it did pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, interest rates have ratcheted downward, without reaching previous ultra-low markers.
Add global supply chain shocks, wildly unpredictable tariffs and uncertain trade flows, and you face a tougher reality for Canadian firms.
Margins are squeezed. Cash reserves have dwindled. Payment risk itself risks becoming a strategic issue.
In this environment, slow or unpaid accounts are way more than an annoyance. They’re now a systemic threat to your business model.
That’s why partnering with a professional collection agency becomes not only helpful, but essential.
You may want to look back to my earlier post: “10 Reasons to Use a Collection Agency When Inflation Is High,” which covered many of the same ideas in the early post-pandemic context.
Here are 10 strategic reasons why using a collection agency (one that knows Canadian businesses, consumers and laws) is critical in a higher-cost, higher-risk economy.
- Protect Margin in a World of Higher Prices: Even when inflation slows, costs rarely come down. Every dollar written off now was earned with much heavier expense inputs. Waiting on overdue accounts effectively subsidizes someone else’s cash flow with your margin.
- Early Action Beats Rising Risk: When stress builds (through higher debt loads, tariff shocks or stagnating demand) delinquent customers don’t necessarily recover on their own. Escalating accounts earlier improves your recovery odds.
- Your Team’s Time Is Too Valuable to Chase Debts: Internal AR teams are expensive and often pulled in many directions. A specialist agency handles overdue accounts efficiently, freeing your team to focus on growing the business and servicing reliable customers.
- Professionalism Protects Relationships (and Your Brand): Good customers sometimes fall behind temporarily. A reputable collection agency preserves the relationship by handling the hard work professionally, keeping doors open for the future.
- Compliance and Legal Risk Are Non-Negotiable: Debt-collection, privacy, credit-reporting and provincial regulations are complex and evolving. A professional agency with licensed staff and in-house legal resources reduces your risk of costly missteps.
- Cash Flow Is Your Shock Absorber: Tariffs, supply-chain surprises and higher interest rates all hit cash flow. Predictable receivables convert into the flexibility to pay staff, suppliers and absorb cost spikes. Collections bring structure to what could otherwise be chaos.
- Turn Collections into a Low-Risk Lever: A common misconception: using an agency is expensive. The truth is, it’s not. Bringing in professionals frees up your own people to do what they do best, and increases the likelihood of successful collection. And recovered money beats an unavoidable write-off every time.
- Technology, Data and Scale You Don’t Have In-House: Modern collections isn’t just phone calls. It’s advanced data analytics, AI-driven workflows, omni-channel strategies and credit-bureau integrations. Outsource to specialists who’ve built the infrastructure and do nothing but run it effectively, all day long.
- Stronger Credit Discipline Without Being “Meaner”: Using an agency doesn’t mean being punitive—it means being consistent. Clear terms, consistent follow-through and the knowledge that overdue accounts will be addressed typically improves payment behaviour.
- Focus on Growth, Not Drag: Canadian businesses face elevated costs, slower demand in some sectors and competitive pressure from faster-moving peers. You just can’t afford management time if you’re stuck on chronic AR issues. A really good collection agency lets you focus on strategy, growth and value creation.
What Happens Next?
Where affordability will go from here is impossible to predict. For everyone’s benefit, here’s hoping things stabilize soon. But regardless of what happens, taking smart steps to shield your business from cost impacts makes good sense, always. If you didn’t take my advice from a few years ago, the next best time is now!
And yes, if you’d like someone to review your current AR policy, or talk through when to escalate to a collection partner, we’re here. At MetCredit, we’ve been doing this since 1973, Canada-wide, employing our Solution-Oriented Recovery™ methodology, amazing people and deep tech-enabled tools. Reach out anytime!
