Economic conditions can change in a heartbeat. For credit professionals, the challenge is recognizing what’s changing before it shows up in overdue accounts.
In this episode of Overdue Advice, host Bryn Griffiths sits down with Donna Burton, Credit Manager with ZyTech Building Supplies and the Alfab Group, to talk about preparing for uncertainty when business is booming today and tomorrow is much harder to predict.
Donna has seen what happens when conditions turn. During the 2008 downturn, construction customers with spotless payment histories suddenly disappeared. More recently, she helped navigate pandemic-era price volatility, disputes and rapidly changing credit requirements. Today, with construction busy but economic questions mounting, those experiences are shaping how she approaches risk.
Donna explains why her team focuses closely on payment behaviour, how regular communication with sales and branch teams helps surface problems early, and why conventional credit limits sometimes need to give way to more responsive measures of customer risk.
The conversation also explores tariffs and economic uncertainty, AI and automation, the value of industry intelligence, and the often-overlooked importance of relationships between credit professionals. For Donna, staying prepared means watching economic indicators, listening to people closest to customers and continually learning from peers facing the same challenges.
It’s a timely conversation with a timeless lesson: you may not know what’s coming next, but your credit team can prepare for it.
Episode Highlights:
00:48 — Why Credit Managers Need Other Credit Managers
Donna discusses the value of industry conferences, peer relationships and learning from others who understand the unique challenges of the credit role.
02:20 — Navigating the Pandemic and Its Aftermath
How Donna returned to the workplace and joined ZyTech during a period of extraordinary activity and volatility in construction.
04:00 — When Pricing Changes Create Credit Problems
Rapidly changing material prices, shortened quotation periods and the customer disputes that followed.
05:35 — Getting Proactive About Disputes
Donna explains the weekly reporting process that keeps branches and sales teams aware of outstanding issues and recognizes problems that get resolved.
06:22 — Business Is Booming. Will It Hold?
Alberta construction is busy, but Donna draws on her experience during the 2008 downturn to explain why today’s momentum can’t be taken for granted.
08:33 — Tariffs, Trade and Economic Uncertainty
Donna and Bryn discuss concerns around steel, employment and an economy that can send conflicting signals.
09:22 — Preparing for Whatever Comes Next
How ZyTech is positioning itself to respond proactively as economic and market conditions evolve.
10:00 — AI, Automation and Better Ways to Work
Donna discusses adopting new technology for efficiency and how automation in manufacturing produced an important additional benefit: improved worker safety.
11:25 — How a Credit Manager Watches the Economy
Economic reports, sales-team intelligence and conversations with other credit professionals all help Donna assess what could be coming.
12:39 — When Traditional Credit Limits Stop Working
During extreme price volatility, Donna’s team shifted its attention toward a highly practical indicator: how quickly customers were actually paying.
13:02 — Passing Along Decades of Credit Experience
With retirement on the horizon, Donna talks about mentorship and helping the next generation of credit professionals develop their skills.
Relevant links:
ZyTech Building Systems website: https://www.zytechtruss.com/
Episode Transcript
Bryn Griffiths:
This is Overdue Advice, the podcast about how and why debt collection works for your business, brought to you by MetCredit.
My name is Bryn Griffiths. The world of credit and credit collection is always changing, mostly because the world is also on the move too. Today I sit down with Donna Burton, who’s the credit manager with Zytech Building Supplies and the Alfab Group. When we chatted with Donna at the National Credit conference in Jasper, Alberta, we focused in on how their company has handled and negotiated the past 6 years, plus more importantly, where they see things going with credit collection for them over the next few years. Proactivity is a huge key for how they’re moving forward, but it is challenging.
So how’s the, how’s the national convention gone for you here? For a lot of people, it’s always a bit of an eye-opener. You learn new stuff from people, and you see a lot of friends, right?
Donna Burton:
You see a lot of friends. I’ve been coming since my children were about 5 years old. My first one that I went to was in Vancouver. And I always learn something and I always come back recharged. And I think the value to my company is even more me coming back with the recharged attitude and energy and all of those things. And I gain that from talking to my peers because so many of us, are the only one in our company. So, we have—
Bryn Griffiths:
The company of one.
Donna Burton:
The company of one. And, you know, there’s sales managers who have each other. There’s, you know, those kinds of things, but we’re the only credit manager in the company typically. And so, we don’t have somebody to talk about our challenges and our successes in the same way that understand the same way that another credit manager does.
Bryn Griffiths:
It’s true.
Donna Burton:
And so it, you know, being able to talk to our peers here and meet them from all over the country that are facing the same challenges and perhaps overcoming them in a more creative way than you had or a different creative way. And you go, oh, well, I can add that to my arsenal and I can, I can add these things to my skill level, as well as, of course, amazing speakers and presentations.
Bryn Griffiths:
When I first started this podcast was in 2021 and one of the things we avoided was talking about the pandemic because everybody had talked enough about it.
Donna Burton:
Mm-hmm.
Bryn Griffiths:
We had gone through an unbelievable time that our kids’ kids may not understand when, you know, stories are being told. However, the resilience level of people, companies, the innovations and the, I guess maybe the renewal of companies through the last 6 years since that pandemic is amazing to me. And I find that really exciting. How have you survived over the last 6 years? How have you done it?
Donna Burton:
Well, I’ve only been working for the last four. So the first two years I was at home and, you know, that was very isolating and all of that kind of thing. When I worked contract and I collected money in Nova Scotia from Calgary, you know, I started at 5:30 in the morning and I finished at 1:30 in the afternoon, which was an amazingly lovely shift. Actually, I really loved it. My daughter and I had just moved in together and my grandsons were younger and I was used to living alone. So, it was a real relief to have about four hours in the afternoon alone.
Bryn Griffiths:
Quiet time.
Donna Burton:
Quiet time. When I started with ZyTech, it was in person. Not all of our teams were back in the office, but the credit team had never left. And that was because we didn’t have the technology to deal with a credit card payment. So we needed to be in the office.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yeah.
Donna Burton:
So I started in the office. I hadn’t seen anybody’s face yet for the first, I don’t know, probably six months that I worked there. And when people took off their masks, it was like, oh, you’ve got a smile behind that. It was very different. You look very different than I thought you would look. So I think as a company, we were, you know, we’re in construction, so The surprising part was how crazily busy we were during the lockdowns and the pricing that went absolutely nuts. So when I started, we still had a lot of pricing disputes. And if we could, like we had shortened our quotation period to 30 days from 90 days.
Bryn Griffiths:
Okay.
Donna Burton:
Because the pricing was too volatile. And if we hadn’t notified our customers properly about pricing changes, we ate it. So, we had a lot of disputes still outstanding and that was kind of navigating through that landmine was the first 6 months to almost a year of what I was doing.
Bryn Griffiths:
There was a lot of confusion, I felt, those for maybe, up to three years after the pandemic.
Donna Burton:
There really was.
Bryn Griffiths:
Right, where companies didn’t know what they could do, you know, were they capable of doing it? There was a lot going on.
Donna Burton:
There was a lot going on.
Bryn Griffiths:
But you managed it somehow.
Donna Burton:
We managed it somehow. We got through it, I think, stronger than ever. We had, you know, implemented things that kind of headed disputes off at the pass.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yes. Proactivity.
Donna Burton:
Proactivity. And we have, my team puts together a report, or we update it weekly and we send it out to the branches and the sales teams. And we let them know of any outstanding dispute items that we’re aware of. And if it comes off that dispute report the next report, ’cause everybody is gonna have some show up. But if people have looked after it and it’s gone, we make sure we recognize that.
Bryn Griffiths:
Has it slowed down at all? Because the province of Alberta is, is crazy right now. A lot of people moving here. I just don’t know where everybody’s going. So I would have to think construction is big, but what kind of challenges are, as we move forward, What kind of challenges are out there for you?
Donna Burton:
I think our biggest thing right now is, is making, wondering if the economy’s gonna hold.
Bryn Griffiths:
Right.
Donna Burton:
You know, I lived, I was credit—
Bryn Griffiths:
Hold or hang on.
Donna Burton:
Hold or hang on.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yeah.
Donna Burton:
You know, I was, I was a credit manager through the 2008 nightmare that it was for the construction industry. And we had customers that were going under left, right, and center that had never missed a payment. You know, that had never been late. That fast?
Bryn Griffiths:
That quick?
Donna Burton:
Gone. And so, you know, the concern is, is that gonna happen again?
Bryn Griffiths:
Right.
Donna Burton:
Because right now, yes, we are booming. We’re four weeks out in our production schedule instead of a few days.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yeah.
Donna Burton:
And, you know, so the question is, is it gonna hold? Are all the multifamilies that are being built right now, Are they going to be sold?
Bryn Griffiths:
Yep. Right.
Donna Burton:
Because a lot of them are being built on spec.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yep.
Donna Burton:
So will those sales come through? And if they don’t, which market segment is going to be impacted the most for us? Right. Like, is it going to be a bigger builder? Is it going to be the small builder? Is it going to be a combination? It’ll probably be a combination if that goes, but you know, the The indicators at the moment are that it’s supposed to hang on.
Bryn Griffiths:
When I meet family and friends from British Columbia, I have to zip it because I just know I’m not sure we in the province of Alberta are seeing the real world out there. Because as much as we think it’s tough here, it’s better than a lot of other places in the country. That’s what I’ve been led to believe from other relatives down east as well, that we’re still moving along. pretty well, but we also have a healthy skepticism as to where we’re going. So how do you stay positive when you’re not really sure you should be? Right.
Donna Burton:
And I know, like, you know, when the tariffs came in and that kind of thing, both my kids are in the trades and one’s oil dependent and one is probably oil dependent, but she inspects metal.
Bryn Griffiths:
So, There could be a bit of a relationship there.
Donna Burton:
There’s very much a relationship there. And so they were both really concerned about their jobs because, you know, steel.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yep.
Donna Burton:
Kind of important. Kind of important. And they’ve been both working steady and working a lot. And most of their coworkers have too. So I’m not sure if I know what’s going on in the economy. That way, because I’m in construction that’s busy and they’re in that side of it and it’s busy.
Bryn Griffiths:
From an organization standpoint, proactivity, very important for your company because a lot of companies that just stand still and wait for things to happen, stuff happens.
Donna Burton:
Stuff happens.
Bryn Griffiths:
Right? So you gotta stay ahead of the game here. How much of, how much, how much is that a driving force with your company?
Donna Burton:
It’s a big driving force. We’re trying to figure out how we can position ourselves so that we, are ready for whatever is coming our way. We’re hoping it’s being busier.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yes, everybody would like that. Are the biggest challenges now the same that they were 5, 10 years ago from what you’ve been hearing?
Donna Burton:
Yes.
Bryn Griffiths:
Okay. Because the world has changed so much over the last 10 years. And the other thing is now we have AI coming on board. We’ve got all these new tools, these new platforms. How much of that are you able to adopt? Are you just, you like the way things have gone and we’ll slowly work our way to that, or are you taking it on full force because you gotta stay up with your competitors?
Donna Burton:
That’s a really good question because we do use AI in a lot of what we do, right? But it isn’t our driving force.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yeah.
Donna Burton:
And we try to find more efficient ways to do what we do. Like, you know, when we went to computers for Or cutting the wood and that kind of thing. The biggest, for, you know, running the saws, the biggest thing that came outta that was better safety.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yeah. Right? Who would’ve seen that coming?
Donna Burton:
That was the biggest thing that came out. We didn’t, we didn’t reduce the number of people in our plant, but they were safer doing their jobs.
Bryn Griffiths:
And before you did this, were people worried about their jobs?
Donna Burton:
I wasn’t with the company at that time, so I can’t answer that question.
Bryn Griffiths:
I know, but you didn’t hear any stories? People said, oh, we’re so concerned about work. And then we realized that maybe this is a better way of working.
Donna Burton:
Yes, yes, yeah. I think the plant staff was concerned about their jobs.
Bryn Griffiths:
So from a credit standpoint, as we move ahead here, we don’t know where the economy’s going. However, as I said, there’s a level of optimism. I think maybe that’s an Alberta thing, but from your standpoint, The challenges that might be ahead, how do you keep ahead? Do you have to read up? Do you have to talk to people at events like this where maybe they can give you some assistance in saying, we’ve been having this problem in the last 6 months. I don’t know if it’s gonna hit you or anybody else in your particular field, but how do you try to stay ahead of the game?
Donna Burton:
One of the things that I do is Equifax has a quarterly review of the economy and they drill down by province. I always make sure I attend that. I try and talk to our sales team on a regular basis. regular basis. What do you guys see coming our way? You know, that kind of thing. I try and talk to other credit managers, you know, at these kinds of events. What do you see happening? Do you think that we need to be more cautious? Do you think that we need to throw open the gates? I know, you know, I was asked how our company managed through such pricing changes.
Bryn Griffiths:
Right.
Donna Burton:
You know, how did you manage credit limits? And I said, well, actually we kind of abandoned them. We concentrated more on how quickly somebody paid than what, how much they owed us because we couldn’t keep up to the credit change requirements.
Bryn Griffiths:
That’s proactive though. You just have to go that way, right?
Donna Burton:
We just had to go that way.
Bryn Griffiths:
Thanks for coming in today. I appreciate it. Excited about the next 5 years?
Donna Burton:
I am.
Bryn Griffiths:
Personally and professionally?
Donna Burton:
I am.
Bryn Griffiths:
Okay.
Donna Burton:
So, you know, personally, I’m retiring next year. That’s the theory.
Bryn Griffiths:
Okay. That’s exactly how most people have, like, I think I may retire next year, but let’s see. But a lot of people still have fun doing what they’re doing. But if they can scale it back a little—
Donna Burton:
That’s, that’s what I—
Bryn Griffiths:
Can I slide in 9 holes of golf later this afternoon? I’m into that. So—
Donna Burton:
Well, and I have a very expensive habit. Travel.
Bryn Griffiths:
Okay. I gotcha.
Bryn Griffiths:
Yeah.
Bryn Griffiths:
It’s a great habit. So that’s fantastic. And then over the next year or two, I hope that from a mentorship standpoint, uh, good mentors in the company that can kind of help you lead the way.
Donna Burton:
Yeah. And I love mentoring people in our company and, and competitors or whoever, if they’re, if they’re new in credit management. And they, they want an ear or an opinion.
Bryn Griffiths:
You’re available.
Donna Burton:
I’m available.
Bryn Griffiths:
Excellent. Hey, thanks for your time today. It’s always great to catch up.
Donna Burton:
Thank you.
Bryn Griffiths:
Hey, that’s it for today’s episode of Overdue Advice. We’re easy to find online. MetCredit is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X @MetCredit. And you can also check out Brian Summerfelt’s blog. It’s easy to find too. It’s blog.metcredit.com. The website also includes numerous helpful tools and calculators to assess your business debt risk. And we’d also love to hear from you, so subscribe, like, or leave us a review on this or any of our podcasts, and make sure you share that podcast with your friends and business associates.
You can drop us a line at overdueadvice@metcredit.com. Overdue Advice, the podcast about cash flow strategies to grow your business. I’m Bryn Griffiths.