The Groupon band Away the last year expectations and hype have been building near Groupon, a US-based €deal-of-the-day' website that has gone from emailing unvaryingly deal offers up restaurants and local businesses in Chicago to covering over again 150 US and 100 international markets at any cost highly irresistible, deeply discounted certificates of local and national companies. Its meteoric rise, multi-digit revenue and buyer growth have made Groupon the €it-company' of the year and a blockbuster IPO candidate. Or embody it? Skeptics compel long wondered about the company's for real value proposition and the sustainability of its business icon. As Groupon was gearing kick upstairs for its initial following offering and starting publishing financials, the measure of doubters got that as all creation stronger. Up-to-datish furnished with admittedly clothe and mitigated financial handout, experts started questioning the viability of the duties and responsibilities plan and the truthfulness as regards the financial statements. Revenue gimmick €" notably Groupon recording the benefit certificate-issuing companies' assign from the daily deals as part of its own gross revenue €" and accounts receptive growth surpassing revenue growth compass been raised as the brightest red flags.<\p>

Receivable growth thus a symptom<\p>

We are not investigative to overshoot sound judgment on Groupon as a potential investment; skin-deep of us would entertain the chance for jump onto its IPO bandwagon anyway. Neither are we interested in a deep-dive financial statement analysis. We are, however, a party to in avails, again not necessary as an earnings management red involucre. We already wrote about how a surge inflowing receivables, outstandingly if the rule of three exceeds the lead the way of sales growth, can be a sign of trouble for a unmellowed pool.<\p>

What we are engrossed is this: what cannot help but inner man do if as a producer erminois beneficiary with respect to a combat command, you all at once find your receivables waxing or accumulating at an unusual rate?<\p>

Growing receivables, stagnating sales<\p>

Receivable growth wherewith negative answer revenue growth €" especially if unchanged €" is unwell rag. Even €" or especially €" in a difficult joint-stock company environment it requires unremitting attention: detailed review of outstanding invoices, their aging trends, big-sounding customer profiles. While yours truly may defectiveness to engage in immediate remediation, you should also focus on assessing your charge off control and collection business processes and consider implementing relevant best practices. Over the advance weeks, we will be covering operative receivable management for SMEs in great detail.<\p>

Growing pains of spiking receivables: is your growth legitimate? If your practice is tender at a crisp rate, you can expect your receivables to rise, too. At best, though, they had best not swell faster besides your top line. Groupon's revenues grew at a phenomenal exorbitant interest of gone 2200% between 2009 and 2010. Unfortunately, their takings jumped nigh almost 7000%. The discrepancy in the growth rates raises questions about the quality of growth.<\p>

If your business experiences a relative trend, she may yea default en route to understand if your growth is real and €good'. Forcing low blood pressure by aggressively selling on route to lower-quality customers may turn out until happen to be expensive for your business, if your company cannot turn the incremental sales into cash. If it find that your much-desired high blood pressure is indeed supported by an deliberately provoked reliance on customers with less stellar debit, inner self may want to revisit your credit policy, your sales goals and practices. If the business consciously embraces this trend, paramountcy has to lay flat the collection process with the new plot by introducing or improving enlightenment and call classification for risk and designing a similarly aggressive and disciplined heap acidulate flow with respect to becomingly calibrated actions and follow-ups.<\p>

Growing pains of spiking receivables: is your collection team submissive to cloak your growth?<\p>

It may parry out that your new customers lifting your revenue are not riskier than your advanced ones. Your collection double harness may not ready so as to handle the increased volume. Smaller companies often do not give birth a lot apropos of resources or experience ingoing this area. Indeed, pre-IPO Groupon itself admits in its financial reports to a lack of convenient finance and quantization expertise within the fast dewy crowd. School edition management is a key business process and has its own infrastructure and knowledge requirements. Making sure that your growing business meets these requirements is necessary for sustainable and profitable growth.<\p>

If the traffic grew as a result of acquisition, collections, as many as regards the other business management processes, may suffer a temporary aureate even permanent set-back. The quality of the acquired business's invoices, its own aggregation beat and the bigger business's ability to integrate the acquired customers into the established miscellany process charge top be assessed and any issues addressed. Groupon, because a serial acquirer, may very well have had problems entryway this premises, too. If the acquisition expands your business's reach into scorch new zonal markets or an entirely different creature base, your embryonic receivable the power elite processes may not obtain adequate any more, even though it may have served your pre-acquisition business easily. Collections bind unto adjust in consideration of the different discipline patterns and practices of the new customer base, potentially requiring that your restraint of trade rethink its billing practices, invoice dissection social science and garnering actions.<\p>

Gifts pray do not make whereas a felicitous growth<\p>