Towards a function at the heart of financial balance
The Credit Manager is no longer limited to preventing bad debt risk: they now act as a conductor of the receivables book, ensuring the company maintains a healthy, predictable, and actively managed cash position. Interview with Thibaut Robet, Managing Director of Fibus, a consultancy specialised in receivables management.
A risk strategist
Is the Credit Manager still perceived as a simple “risk watchdog”?
This perception is now largely outdated. The modern Credit Manager is a true customer risk strategist. They no longer simply apply a credit policy – they design it, continuously drive it, and adapt it over time. Credit insurance enables early warning signals even before payment incidents occur: weak signals become anticipatory levers, credit refusals become tools of economic intelligence, and alerts become opportunities for strategic dialogue. By anticipating liquidity tensions and securing margins, the Credit Manager supports business growth without jeopardising financial stability.
How do they interact with risk management partners such as credit insurers?
The Credit Manager and the credit insurer form a strategic partnership. Together, they secure the existing portfolio while enabling the acquisition of new customers. The Credit Manager brings objectivity to commercial decisions, prioritises prospects based on creditworthiness, and arbitrates risk allocation. Credit insurance becomes a dynamic tool for managing outstanding exposures. Fibus acts as a facilitator in this ecosystem: we anticipate the Credit Manager’s needs, support portfolio reviews, and contribute actively to the deployment of credit scoring tools and management frameworks. In our view, the Credit Manager is just as much a driver of risk mitigation as they are of business opportunity capture.
Does this role imply a new organisational setup?
Yes. The Credit Manager now sits at the crossroads of finance, sales, and legal functions. They rely on structured tools (credit scoring, connected CRM systems, regular credit committees) and on an adapted governance framework. Fibus is part of this ecosystem, enabling faster decision-making while maintaining full cash flow control.
A financing programme operator
What role does the Credit Manager play in receivables financing structures such as factoring?
A decisive one. While initiatives often originate from the finance department, operational success depends on the Credit Manager. They ensure the quality of receivables, the consistency of flows, and the compliance of the programme. With our support, they clearly distinguish between eligible and non-eligible receivables for financing, ensuring treasury has precise visibility over its stable funding base. By securing each of these elements, they maximise advance rates and reduce the risk of de-funding. Fibus works closely with them to design tailored receivables financing programmes – neither over-engineered nor under-structured.
How do they act in practice?
The Credit Manager intervenes across the entire order-to-cash cycle: account opening, invoicing, exposure monitoring, and factor relationship management. They work closely with sales administration, collections, IT, and customer accounting teams. This cross-functional approach optimises cash flows and prevents blocking disputes, ensuring stable, long-term financing aligned with liquidity needs. Fibus provides both sector expertise and dedicated tools such as our ARI Trade software, which enables receivables financing and credit insurance to be optimised within a single interface.
Is credit insurance also a financing lever?
Yes, particularly in off-balance sheet treatment structures. By expanding the covered perimeter, it strengthens the security of receivables and increases financing capacity. However, this requires rigorous management of credit limits, claims reporting, and insurer relationships. The Credit Manager thus becomes the architect of a financing structure anchored in the receivables book, fully serving treasury objectives.
A proactive approach to collections
Does the Credit Manager still manage collections?
More than that—they anticipate them. By orchestrating the entire receivables chain, they identify friction points before they impact cash. They act on root causes of late payments: invoice quality, unresolved disputes, or lack of coverage. They also adapt commercial terms to risk profiles: capped exposures, cash-on-delivery terms, or specific guarantees. Artificial intelligence further strengthens this proactivity by analysing payment behaviours, identifying risk patterns, and recommending targeted actions. Collections become smoother, smarter, and fully integrated into the company’s broader strategy.
What role does digitalisation play in this setup?
A central one. Digital tools enable real-time monitoring of exposures and collections, consolidated dashboards, and centralised dispute management. CRM systems connected to credit insurers or credit databases provide a continuously updated and shared risk view across departments. With embedded AI, these tools become prescriptive: they generate dynamic risk scores, detect behavioural anomalies, and trigger alerts in case of sudden deterioration in payment behaviour. The result: improved DSO management, increased responsiveness, and a cash-driven culture embedded across the organisation.
Does the Credit Manager contribute to this cash culture?
They are its catalyst. They alert, train, and arbitrate. Thanks to consolidated KPIs, they help align business objectives with financial performance targets. AI provides additional levers to objectify decisions, automate without dehumanising, and focus on high-value actions.
Source: Fonction Credit – restricted to members of AFDCC.