The second Kaulkin Ginsberg Accounts Receivable Management Benchmarking Survey offers some of the most comprehensive operating information available in the industry. Information is provided on 183 1st party and contingency collection agencies, collection law firms, and debt buyers, and data is provided both by company size and region.
The following information is provided for all responding firms as an industry group, as well as for each other the groups mentioned above, for a broad variety of subjects such as clients, fees, staffing, and operating expenses.
Clients, Fees and Staff:
Total face value ($s) of debt purchased
Total number of accounts purchased
Dollar amount ($) of total gross collections
Total $ amount of placements
Total # of accounts placed for collection
Total gross collections
Total net fees from collection activities
Net fees as a % of placed
Net fees as a % of gross
How many total clients did you service?
How many new clients did you obtain?
New/total clients ratio
How many total staff did you have as of 12/31/02?
How many salespeople as of 12/31/02?
How many collectors as of 12/31/02?
Collectors/staff ratio
Net fees per collector
How many collection attorneys as of 12/31?
How many collectors left during their initial training period?
Training collector turnover %
How many experienced collectors left the firm?
Experienced collector turnover %
How many owners are there in your firm?
# of consumer credit reports used each month
# of commercial credit reports used each month
# of international credit reports used each month
Expenses:
Advertising
Auto expense
Building repair & maintenance
Computer hardware
Computer software & programming
Credit reports
Dues & subscriptions
Equipment purchase
Equipment rental
Equipment repair
Employee benefits
Forwarding expenses
Interest expense on bank debt
Licenses
Office supplies
Payroll - sales
Payroll - operations
Payroll - administration
Professional fees
Postage & shipping
Printing & reproduction
Recruiting
Rent
Skiptracing
Telephone
Training & development
Travel, meals & entertainment
Utilities
Industry executives also report the following:
- Percentage of their business represented by each debt type
- Percentage of their accounts that are prime, second and third placements
- Average contingency rate charged to clients
- Percent of net fees represented by the largest, and top 10 clients
- Primary cause for loss of clients
- Their use of various collection related tools and technolody, such as ACH, credit card, and check-by-phone payment processing, third party skip tracing services, dialer technology, scoring tools, interactive voice response, collection software, and level of staff access to the Internet.
- Their thoughts about the future, including expected growth sectors and their level of optimism about revenue for 2003..
What people are saying about the report
"We feel the report is great and each year it would appear that you get a greater 'sample size' which will provide better and better statistical reference."
-- Joseph Pollard
General Manager, The ARC Group"Excellent survey!"
-- Craig Johnson
President, Professional Placement Services, LLC"This survey is an extremely valuable tool, and will also help our companies be more competitive or at least let us know we are already being competitive. Thanks so much!"
-- Bill de Armon
President, Triton and Associates"I found this year's benchmark both interesting and easy to follow."
-- Mark A. Meyer, Jr., MCE
Vice President of Operations, H&R Accounts, Inc. /MedPay Management Systems
