【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 e billing is employed. The use of seasonal dating’s should be considered. In establishing a policy concerning collection the following procedures should be used: ?Accounts receivable should be aged in order to identify delinquent and highrisk customers. The aging should be pared to industry norms. ?Collection efforts should be undertaken at the very first sign of customer 6financial unsoundness . .Managing the credit policyThe success or failure of a business depends primarily on the demand for its products. 5Shim, J. K., Siegel, J. G.: Financial Management, Third edition, Mc Graw Hill, New York, 2007,p.107108.6Ibidem, p. 108 .25
 EKON. MISAO PRAKSA DBK. GOD XXII. (2013.) BR. 1. (2138) Kontu?, E.: MANAGEMENT OF ACCOUNTS... The major determinants of demand are sales prices, product quality, advertising, and the pany’s credit policy. The financial manager is responsible for administering the pany’s credit policy. Receivables management begins with the credit policy. Credit policy consists of four major ponents: credit standards, credit terms, the credit limit and collection procedures. Credit standards refer to the required financial strength of acceptable credit customers. Based on financial analysis and non financial data, the credit analyst determines whether each credit applicant exceeds the credit standard and thus qualifies for credit. Lower credit standards boost sales, but also increase bad debts. The minimum standards a customer must meet to be extended credit are: character, capital, capacity, conditions and collateral. The credit period, stipulating how long from the invoice the customer has to pay, and the cash discount together prise the seller’s credit terms. A pany’s credit terms are usually very similar to that of other panies in its industry7. Discounts given for early payment include the discount percentage and how rapidly payment must be made to qualify for the discount. If credit is extended, the dollar amount that cumulative credit purchases can reach for a given customer constitutes that customer’s credit limit. The customer periodically pays for credit purchases, freeing up that amount of the credit limit for further orders. The two primary determinants of the amount of a customer’s credit limit are requirements for the supplier’s products and the ability of the customer to pay its debts. The latter factor is based primarily on the customer’s recent payment record with the seller and others and a review and analysis of the customer’s most recent financial statements8. Detailed statements regarding when and how the pany will carry out collection of pastdue accounts make up the pany’s collection procedures. These policies specify how long the pany will wait past the due date to initiate collection efforts, the methods of contact with delinquent customers, and whether and at what point accounts will be referred to an outside collection agency . 9Collection policy is measured by its toughness or laxity in attempting to collect on slowpaying accounts. A tough policy may speed up collections, by it might also anger customers, causing them to take their business elsewhere . 107Maness, T. S., Zietlow, J. T.: ShortTerm Financial Management, Third Edition, Thomson SouthWestern, Ohio, 2005, p. 139.8Ibidem, p. 139 .9Ibidem, p. 141 .10Brigham, E. F., Daves, P. R.: Intermediate Financial Management, 8th edition, Thomson SouthWestern, Ohio, 2004., p. 715 .26
 EKON. MISAO PRAKSA DBK. GOD XXII. (2013.) BR. 1. (2138) Kontu?, E.: MANAGEMENT OF ACCOUNTS... A firm may liberalize its credit policy by extanding full credit to presently limited credit customers or to noncredit customers. Full credit should be given only if net profitability occurs. A financial manager has to pare the earnings on sales obtained to the added cost of the receivables. The additional earnings represent the contribution margin on the incremental sales because fixed costs are constant. The additional costs on the additional receivables result from the greater number of bad debts and the opportunity cost of tying up funds in receivables for a longer time period. If a firm considers offering credit to customers with a higherthannormal risk rating, the profitability on additional sales generated must be pared with the amount of additional bad debts expected, higher investing and collection costs, and the opportunity cost of tying up funds in receivables for a longer period of time. When idle capacity exists, the additional profitability represents the incremental contribution margin (sales less variable costs) since fixed costs remain the same. 3.RESEARCH. Methodology This paper presents results from the empirical research undertaken on a representative sample of Croatian panies with the aim of exploring their receivables, accounts receivables and, finally, explore changes in credit policy especially costs and benefits as well as net profitability from changes in credit policy. The empirical research was based on a sample of randomly selected panies in the Republic of Croatia. The analyzed sample prises 60 large panies and 60 mediumsized panies. We analyzed the structure of receivables used by sample panies in the Republic of Croatia in 2010, accounts receivable ratios along with a dependence between accounts receivable levels and profitability. Using methods from statistics, we investigated whether there was a relation between accounts receivable ratios and profitability expressed in terms of return on a