The COVID Impact Score

We’ve always made it a priority to make sure our methods and tools keep pace with the changes in industry and in the world at large. That’s never been more critical than in this year of unprecedented challenges.

With that in mind, Brennan & Clark has developed a method to give our clients a COVID Impact Score to help gauge current collectibility and give additional insight into what might be happening with your debtors.  We utilize this information to prioritize companies that haven’t been as severely impacted by COVID, while also separating businesses that are experiencing temporary disruptions from those that are out of business.

The COVID scoring model is compiled using a variety of different sources and resources.  These include the debtor’s industry, location (e.g. if they are in a current “hot spot”), social media posting, and any significant drop in credit scoring.  The score is then assigned to one of the following categories:

Not Available

In some cases, the COVID scoring model outlined above isn’t feasible.  This occurs primarily with small businesses that either don’t have a substantial social media presence or have no public financial information available, and are not in any known hot spot or significantly impacted industry.  Our collection tactics don’t change with this group of accounts.

Low & Very Low Impact

These are accounts that are in industries and geographic locations that haven’t had a significant COVID impact.  In addition, they appear to be companies that are operational.  These are placed as a higher priority, as they are companies that will likely be in best position to pay.

Moderate Impact

Just like it sounds, these are companies that have had an impact from COVID, but all signs are pointing towards them rebounding and able to have their doors open with business operations continuing.  These accounts are placed as a higher priority, as they are companies that are operational and therefore have a higher likelihood to pay.

Severe and Significant Impact

These are the companies that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic.  They will be your customers in industries like hospitality, restaurants, or tourism. They are also companies across the industry spectrum that are in hot spots and/or are showing sharp declines in their credit ratings.   We have found that many of these debtors require additional time before they are able to discuss payment options, as they are not fully operational and aren’t sure what the future holds for them.  Ultimately, these are companies that are going to pull through but need time, or will not recover or ever fully open their doors again.  This category will like require more time than our historic 90-day turn around, and we are finding that pending these accounts while we continue to monitor their situation is the best course of action.

It’s important to note this score doesn’t mean they are uncollectible. Rather, it’s giving us a gauge for the likelihood of collectibility at this time.  We monitor these accounts closely and run them through COVID scoring on a biweekly basis so that if a company should improve their standing, we immediately ramp up our efforts in an attempt to recover the balance due.

Everywhere you go, you hear that these are uncertain times. We’re proud to offer our clients important information about their accounts to help battle that uncertainty. To learn more, contact us today at (800) 858-7600 or info@brennanclark.com.