If we had to sum up trade credit in 2025 in three words, they'd be: whiplash, reckoning and triage.  

It was a year of hard truths, strategic wake-ups, policy shifts, constant crisis management and prioritizing what was salvageable. Bankruptcies continued to come at record numbers, along with consolidations in the industry and AI overload hitting credit departments hard. Marry that with a shrinking talent pool of experienced credit professionals, and the trade credit forecast feels like we are at the county fair riding the Tilt-A-Whirl, spinning around with an operator who lost track of time.   

By all indications so far, 2026 is predicted to be more of the same. More bankruptcies, more mechanic lien filings, continued payment slowdown, retaining (or acquiring) talent, and implementing technology into the process. Basically, high risk and high drama! Your focus should be on four areas of your cashflow game: visibility, agility, humanity, and data discipline.  

Let’s break that down into your top four priorities to focus on in 2026.  

Eyes on Your Accounts Receivable 

Lack of focus on your AR will hit your cash flow hard. Items to watch for include aging receivables with no plan of action — once an account reaches the 60-day mark, you need to have a plan of resolution. That plan can be liens, sending it to collections, crafting a settlement offer, or repayment plans — all with follow-up. Receivables are not fine wine. They don’t age well.  

Lack of action is still an action. Make the move to get the items addressed before you lose the ability to decide, and your money along with it. 

Leadership Ignoring Credit Insights 

This is one of the greatest, if not the greatest challenge, to your credit team’s morale and success. Lack of heeding credit’s advice on opening an account, increasing the credit line, foregoing lien rights, allowing another 90 days, or the “hope as a credit tool” method to grab the sale off the street often leads to infighting, the blame game, and bad debt. There is a reason you employ credit professionals and pay for tools such as credit reports and services that help identify risk in relation to the reward.   

Business decisions are exceptions, not a way of life. Listen to what your credit team is bringing to the table and give visibility to your credit team in those business decisions. If at the end of the discussion you decide to take the risk, it is a calculated, informed risk with everyone getting the same message. 

Emotional Intelligence in Credit Conversations 

Credit teams are stretched extremely thin these days. As credit pros have left the industry, there is a shortage of up-and-coming talent. Companies making cuts often include cutting the credit staff, leaving the work to be redirected to the remaining team members, who are often the lesser paid and less knowledgeable members. They are relied on to pick up the slack and cover the company's needs.  

Often lacking or completely overlooked is the humanity of the role. The constant bombardment of never ending excuses for non-payment, the push back from branch managers and sales to take an account off hold, release the order, or increase a credit line, all while keeping up on the daily workload of opening accounts, securing lien rights, approving orders, collecting money, making deals, staying on top of industry trends and credit education have left credit teams (sometimes a team of one) burnt out and mentally struggling.  

Look at “right-sizing” your team. Map your workflows to streamline, eliminate waste, and redundancy, and employ technology where it makes sense. Assess the workload on each team member and adjust accordingly. Consider hiring an entry-level amateur to work with your current team members. The extra training time could pay off in the end.   

AI and Tech 

Credit departments are often the last to get funding for staffing, let alone technology upgrades. Tech upgrades can include payment portals and credit application processing software that pulls bank, trade, and credit reports. Features that enhance your team include predictive analytics for smarter risk assessments; auto cash posting; mechanics lien software or services; email and text notifications for invoices; statement delivery; and past-due reminders. Combined with AI options that are coming on the market, technology creates the opportunity to save time and support your credit team.  

Customer expectations have shifted, and that includes what they expect from their vendors' credit departments. If you have not refreshed your options to customers, you’re behind. Keep in mind that all this “AI goodness” has produced a feeling that once we adopt tech, we’re golden, and the credit team has time to spare. The adage “garbage in, garbage out” comes into play. Practice data discipline. Cleaner inputs produce clearer outcomes.  

Before you roll out new tech, make sure you have assessed your actual needs, not what a talented rep sold you on. What problem are you trying to solve? How will this improve your processes, both internal and external? Once you know what you are trying to solve for, you can adopt the appropriate solutions.  

Why should you care about any of this? Simply put: Cashflow. It all directly impacts your cash flow. The time to focus on cash flow isn’t when you need it, it’s before you need it.  

If the words to sum up 2025 were whiplash, triage, and reckoning, shouldn’t you go into 2026 with the mantra “Fast, focused, and flexible” to create a more profitable outcome? Everyone loves a county fair, but one ride per visit on the Tilt-A-Whirl, please.