Credit control and accounts receivable, managed for UK businesses.
Steinfin runs the work between sending an invoice and getting paid: reminders, follow-up, promises, queries and clear reporting. It is done in your business's name, on your payment terms, with the commercial decisions left with you.
Needs your inputPayment plan request from Ashdown Building Services
The UK picture
Trade credit is routine in UK B2B. So is the work of getting paid on it.
Most UK businesses that sell to other businesses invoice on agreed terms and wait to be paid. Much of that is paid close to term. The rest needs someone to follow it up, and that work has to come from somewhere.
57%
of UK SME employers that gave their customers trade credit considered late payment a problem.
47%
of UK SME employers give their customers trade credit.
An invoice issued on 30-day terms does not always turn into a payment on day 30. It turns into a reply, a promise, a question or silence, and each of those needs someone to act on it.
1Invoice issuedOn your agreed terms
2Payment termsFor example, 30 days
3Due dateReminder before and after
Follow-upEmail and phone, in your name
PaidRecorded and closed
Promise to payDate logged, checked on the day
QueryLogged and followed to resolution
Needs your inputSent to you with the context
Payment receivedMatched to the invoice
Follow-up competes with everything else. Month end, payroll and supplier queries come first, so chasing waits.
Owners end up chasing. In smaller businesses, getting paid lands on the people with the least spare time.
Sales teams hesitate. Nobody wants to be the person asking a good customer for money.
Promises slip. A date is agreed on the phone, then passes without anyone checking.
Queries stall invoices. A missing PO number can hold up a large payment for weeks.
Older accounts get harder. The longer an invoice sits, the less anyone remembers why.
Your terms
We follow the payment terms you agreed with your customers.
UK businesses set their own trade terms, and they vary by sector and by customer. Steinfin works to what your contracts and invoices actually say, and times reminders and follow-up around those dates.
30 days30 days end of month60 daysStage paymentsYour own terms
Examples only. Your customers' terms are whatever you have agreed with them.
What Steinfin takes on
The AR work UK finance teams hand to Steinfin.
Monitoring the ledger, prioritising accounts, reminders, overdue follow-up, promise and query tracking, and reporting back to you. Most businesses start with the core follow-up and add the rest as they need it.
Not sure which you need? The free AR health check shows where your ledger is getting stuck.
Why UK businesses outsource it
When AR work grows faster than the team.
As a business grows, invoices grow, and so does the follow-up. The team handling it rarely grows at the same pace, so the gap shows up as work that slips. Steinfin fills that gap with managed capacity, without another hire.
The finance team is stretched
Invoice volume has grown
The owner is still chasing
Salespeople are following up payments
Follow-up stops at busy times
Another hire is not the right move yet
You want steadier, consistent follow-up
Management wants a clearer picture
AR workloadInternal capacityWork that slipsManaged capacity from Steinfin
Illustrative. No figures implied.
Another hire, or managed capacity?
Both are reasonable answers. It depends on your volume, your team and how steady the work is.
An internal hire involves
Salary and employer costs
Recruitment and training
Day-to-day management
Systems and tools
Cover for holidays and absence
Steinfin involves
An agreed scope of work
One monthly fee, agreed up front
People and systems already in place
Clear reporting to you
Decisions still made by you
How it fits
How Steinfin fits alongside a UK finance team.
You keep the parts that need your authority. Steinfin takes the repetitive, time-consuming follow-up in the middle, and hands back only what needs you.
You
Set things up
Raise invoices as you do now
Set commercial terms
Own customer relationships
Make commercial decisions
Steinfin
Does the follow-up
Agreed reminders and follow-up
Tracks responses and promises
Surfaces queries early
Keeps a next action on every account
Reports clearly
You, when needed
Decide the exceptions
Credit notes and write-offs
Payment plans outside the rules
Disputes about price or scope
Any escalation
How Steinfin sees your invoices
Steinfin is designed to work alongside the accounting systems UK businesses already use. Nothing about how you raise invoices changes.
Usually
Authorised access
You grant Steinfin access to your accounting system from your own account, at the level you choose. You can remove it at any time. We never ask for your password.
Or
Regular exports
If you prefer, you send regular exports of your outstanding invoices and we work from those.
Reporting
Clear reporting, so you know where every account stands.
You do not need to manage the follow-up to know how it is going. Regular updates show what was paid, what was promised, which queries are open, what needs your input and what happens next.
Every plan includes regular reporting. On Starter, that is a weekly report.
Weekly AR update, exampleHarlow Joinery Ltd
Paid this week£18,500$23,150€21,600C$31,4503 invoices
Needs your inputAshdown Building Services, payment plan request
Next week9 accounts due for follow-up
From Accounts, Harlow Joinery LtdTo Ashdown Building Services LtdSubject Invoice 4471
Hello Sarah, I hope you are well. Invoice 4471 for £8,650$10,800€10,100C$14,700 is now 12 days past our 30-day terms. Could you let me know when payment is scheduled, or whether anything is holding it up on your side?
Kind regards, Accounts team, Harlow Joinery Ltd
Your customers
Your customers keep dealing with your business.
Steinfin handles the agreed payment follow-up professionally, in your name, while you keep commercial authority. For many UK SMEs and service businesses, the relationship is the business, so the way follow-up sounds matters as much as whether it happens.
Agreed tone. Wording and firmness are set with you before we start.
Customer context. Long-standing, key or sensitive accounts are handled the way you ask.
Escalation rules. You decide when something comes back to you.
Your decisions. Concessions, credit notes and payment plans stay with you.
UK industries
Where AR gets complicated, and why.
Some UK sectors carry more AR work than others because of how they bill. These are the ones where outsourced follow-up tends to help most.
Construction
Applications for payment, approvals and supporting documents across several project contacts.
Where it gets stuck
Application waiting on sign-off
PO or job reference missing
Variation not yet agreed
Several contacts on one project
What Steinfin does
We follow up applications and invoices with the right project and accounts contacts and chase the paperwork that holds approval up. Anything contractual, such as a disputed variation or retention, comes to you.
Steinfin works with businesses across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, by email, by phone and through the access you give us to your accounting system. Your agreement with us is set out in your order form and our Service Terms.
AR work involves customer and financial information, so Steinfin limits access to what the service needs and to the people working on your account. How we handle security.
Steinfin runs the day-to-day credit control and accounts receivable work for UK B2B businesses: reminders, follow-up by email and phone, promise and query tracking, and clear reporting. It is a managed service, so our people do the work, supported by our own systems.
Can Steinfin contact our customers in our company name?
Yes. Follow-up goes out as your business, using wording and a tone you approve before we start. Your customers keep dealing with your business.
Do we keep control of our customer relationships?
Yes. You set the rules for tone, timing and escalation. Credit notes, payment plans outside the agreed rules, disputes about price or scope, and anything sensitive come back to you. Steinfin never issues credit notes, writes off invoices, moves money or starts legal action.
Do we need to change our accounting software?
No. Steinfin works alongside the accounting system you already use, and nothing about how you raise invoices has to change.
Can Steinfin work with Xero, QuickBooks or Sage?
Yes. Steinfin works alongside Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. You give us authorised access from your own account, at the level you choose, or send us regular exports if you prefer. We never ask for your password.
How does Steinfin get our invoice information?
In one of two ways. Usually you grant Steinfin authorised access to your accounting system from your own account, and you can remove it at any time. If that does not suit you, you send regular exports of your outstanding invoices and we work from those.
Does Steinfin handle invoice queries and disputes?
Yes, from the Growth plan. We log the query, find out what is holding payment up, send anything that needs your decision to you and keep following up until it is resolved. We do not give legal advice or handle legal disputes.
Can Steinfin help with cash application?
Yes, as part of the Scale plan. We match payments and remittances to the right invoices and flag short payments, overpayments and unidentified receipts for you. We never move money.
Does Steinfin add statutory late payment interest to our invoices?
No. Under current UK law a business can usually claim statutory interest and fixed recovery costs when another business pays a commercial invoice late, but whether to claim them is your decision. Steinfin does not add interest or charges to your invoices, and this is not legal advice. GOV.UK explains how the rules work.
How much does credit control cost for a UK business?
Plans are a monthly retainer in GBP. Starter starts from £299 a month and Growth from £599 a month, scaling with the size and state of your ledger. Scale is quoted once we understand your ledger. The pricing page sets out what each plan includes.
Is Steinfin a debt collection agency?
No. Steinfin provides credit control on your own business-to-business invoices, in your name and to rules you agree. We do not buy debts and we do not take legal action. If an account ever needs legal steps, it comes back to you with its full history.
How does Steinfin work with UK businesses?
Remotely, by email, by phone and through the access you give us to your accounting system. Your customers hear from your business, so follow-up looks and sounds like your own finance team.
How do we get started?
Start with the free AR health check. Tell us a little about your invoicing and we reply within one business day with an honest read on where cash is being held up. If it makes sense to work together, we agree the scope and your customer rules, set up access, and begin.
Keep your invoices moving, and your customers yours.
See where your cash is held up and what would get it moving. It starts with a free AR health check.
