MANAGEMENT OF RECEIVABLES IN CZECH FIRMS

Management of receivables belongs to the important parts of the financial management of the companies, especially nowadays when the world economy faces financial crisis. The importance of receivables paid on due term is increasing. Many companies and their further development and even their existence depend on payment of receivables. Although the issue of management of receivables has been elaborated in theory and widely published, there is only little knowledge of the way how small and medium-sized enterprises manage receivables, which system, methods and forms they use for management and collection of receivables, how they secure their receivables and who they co-operate with. Department of Corporate Economy at the University of Finance and Administration, Prague has focused on this issue within the research project no. 7725 Management of Receivables. The issue has been solved within the frame of internal grant agency. The research has been carried out among the Czech companies with the aim to find out whether the companies pay attention to the area of management of receivables and to what extent, which methods for management of receivables they use, what the results are and which methods of debt collection bring good results. Main weaknesses detected in the first phase of the research have been found in selection and in identification of solvency of business partners before conclusion of business contracts, in insufficient or none security of receivables (advance payments, bills, insurance, credit limits etc.), in insufficient co-operation with collecting agencies, or in declining of legal proceeding at debt collection. Partial results of this research are presented in this article.