•  Date: Thu 27th Nov
•  Time: 9:30am-11:30am
•  Venue: Zoom with Muckle LLP
•  Address: Online
•  Cost: £270.00

Book your place 

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In reality, the last 10 years have been challenging for the SME market.

Laura Keegan, senior associate in our banking and restructuring team, reflects on this last decade and offers some tips on how your business can deal with the ever-present uncertainty in the marketplace.

Challenging times for SMEs

Whether you were for or against Brexit politically, there is no doubt that navigating the changes that have resulted from our exit from Europe has provided significant challenges, and additional costs, to some businesses.

Those challenges were then exacerbated by the significant challenges brought by COVID-19 and Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine, which drove up the costs of energy and food, being a direct driver of inflation across the world.

Now, changes to employers’ national insurance contributions and the minimum wage, that are shortly to come into force, are going to further erode the fine margins that at already at play in many competitive markets.

For example, take a company with 27 employees: 5 are aged between 18 – 20 and are paid at minimum wage (NMW), 10 are aged over 21 and are employed at NMW, there are 8 “mid-level” employees who are paid £12/hour and 4 management employees paid at £18/hour.

This company would see an increase of £30,713.80 in respect of its additional wage bill for the NMW employees and £4,237.30 in respect of additional employer NI contributions.

Added to this is whatever President Trump is deciding to do today in relation to tariffs. At the time of writing this article, the US has imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports, with no UK exemptions. As of 2022⁽¹⁾, manufacturing contributed over £7.5bn to the North East economy’s gross value added, making it the largest sector in the region’s economy.

So-called “advanced manufacturing” (e.g. the automotive sector and metal fabrication industries), accounted for just under 4,000 North East businesses, employing 67,000 people in 2021⁽²⁾, 99% of which were classified as SMEs.

The difficulty for business comes from the uncertainty; whilst the Government is continuing trade talks to try and lessen the impact, that will not resolve the immediate problem.

The Government could look to employ more short-term mitigation strategies, but again, there is no certainty around that at present. Many businesses have already downgraded their forecasts for this financial year.

How can businesses deal with this uncertainty?

There are strategies that you can employ, and cashflow monitoring and early action are key. Companies must remember that being unable to pay an invoice within its terms means that the company is insolvent under the legal definition in the Insolvency Act 1986.

This could trigger a shift in directors’ legal duties; rather than acting in the interests of the company and its shareholders, they must now consider whether any course of action is in the interests of the general body of creditors.

In the worst-case scenario, it may no longer be appropriate to make any payments to creditors and the directors may be under a duty to call in and preserve the assets for the benefit of all creditors.

Most importantly from a directors’ perspective, failure to do so could lead to personal liability to contribute to the company’s assets for breach of directors’ duty.

All of this shows how important managing your cashflow and seeking early advice is if there is any question over the company’s ability to meet its debts – not only to ensure maximum realisations to creditors and the likelihood of a viable recovery plan being found if necessary, but also to ensure that directors do not, inadvertently, breach their duties to the company’s creditors.

If in doubt, seek advice.

For more information, contact Laura using laura.keegan@muckle-llp.com or 0191 211 7970.

The post How can SMEs avoid insolvency during economic uncertainty? appeared first on The Engineering & Manufacturing Network.

1. What does Muckle do?

We’re a leading commercial law firm based in Newcastle upon Tyne and with a hub in Cumbria. We provide commercial legal advice, including in relation to trading contracts, data and intellectual property, corporate, property, dispute, construction and employment matters and act for clients across various sectors, including the technology, construction, property, leisure, education and charitable sectors (amongst others), as well as the manufacturing and engineering sector.

We’ve built a national reputation for offering great service, giving expert advice, and doing it all with personality and enthusiasm. Our purpose has always been to be a values-led, responsible business for our people, community and clients.

Our service is always professional, responsive and tailored to meet our clients’ needs. It is guided by four core values:

• Trust – clients can trust us to do the right thing for their business
• Teamwork – we’ll work as part of a client’s team, committed to their goals
• Responsibility – we are self-starters and challenge ourselves to deliver success
• Care – we value kindness and genuinely care about our clients, people and our local community

2. What makes Muckle great?

Our people! They are the foundation of our business. We currently employ 194 people across our head office in Newcastle and our hub in Cumbria. This includes our legal experts, supported by our non-legal specialists in BD/marketing, human resources, operations, finance and digital/data.

Our strategy is to recruit, develop, engage and retain the right people for the right roles. Engaged people lead to higher retention and ultimately allow us to provide the best possible client service and push growth and innovation.

We are committed to the development of our people through a transparent strategy and to rewarding them financially through our profit share and individual bonus schemes, pension contributions, increased holiday entitlement, enhanced well-being support, and competitive parental leave policies and support. We regularly win awards for our culture and have platinum Investors in People status.

3. What is your 5 year plan?

In 2022, we launched our current five-year business plan, which covers every aspect of our business model and is spread across six overarching strategies.

As part of this, we will continue to be a values-led, responsible business for our people, community and clients; care is one of our values. For the last 23 years, we’ve given 1% of our profits to our Muckle Fund for local community charities and projects. We will continue doing this.

4. What are you looking for from your EMN membership?

We already act for plenty of manufacturing and engineering clients, so we understand the issues facing the sector and are well placed to provide legal support to businesses in the sector. We are always interested in making new connections and building relationships with businesses and other organisations working in the sector, and supporting wherever we can. Our EMN membership is one way we can do that.

5. What information do you want to get out to members?

We’re responsive, we’re practical and – hopefully – we’ll be an extension of a client’s own team. Whatever a client wants to achieve, we’re here to help make it happen.

We have a wealth of experience and act for a wide range of clients in the engineering and manufacturing sector. We can help with:

• Supply, distribution, software, digital technology and other commercial agreements
• Data protection and intellectual property matters
• Raising finance
• Acquisitions and disposals, shareholder rights and corporate governance
• Employee disputes and trade union negotiations
• Bidding for public contracts and challenging awards
• Resolving commercial or company disputes
• Construction and property matters.

6. What are you going to offer back to the community?

We’re passionate about giving back to the community; we’re fortunate enough to be able to make a real difference in people’s lives. Our ESG programme centres on the following key areas:

1. Giving – for the last 23 years, we’ve donated 1% of our profits to local causes. In the last 22 years, we’ve donated almost £800,000.
2. Volunteering – Everyone at Muckle has two paid leave days annually to volunteer at local charities.
3. Pro bono – Our goal last year was to increase our pro bono work by 50% year on year: in 2023, we saw a 168% increase in the pro bono hours we recorded.

Our ESG credentials are underpinned by our B Corp status; we were the first law firm in the North East and Cumbria to achieve B Corp accreditation.

The post Spotlight On: Muckle LLP appeared first on The Engineering & Manufacturing Network.

Contracts are a fundamental part of any business. If you’re buying or selling goods and services, the likelihood is that you’ll be signing or asking someone to sign a contract.

This course is designed to provide you with the fundamental principles of contract law and give practical tips around drafting and negotiation so you are equipped to protect your business and minimise risk.

What you’ll learn

• A strong grasp of the core principles of contract law and why they matter.
• Practical techniques for effective drafting and negotiation of agreements.
• Guidance on how to handle breaches and termination.
• Strategies for resolving contractual disputes in a professional and effective way.

Price

£100 + VAT (plus Eventbrite fee + VAT) = £129.05

Book Now

The post Muckle: Getting your contracts right – a practical approach appeared first on The Engineering & Manufacturing Network.

The latest missive on the CDP from the Cabinet Office gives the first inklings of the type of functionality we can expect and how Suppliers will share their information with Authorities using the platform.

Whether you are a Supplier or an Authority, here are our top 10 things you need to know about the system which goes live in February 2025:

1. The platform will still be called “Find a Tender” and will be an update to the existing Find a Tender Service at https://www.gov.uk/find-tender. It is currently in a stage of beta testing with a number of private beta users.
2. It will be linked to many existing e-sender portals currently in use, so if you currently use a portal which links directly with Find a Tender, this is likely to continue to be the case. Your portal provider may already have been in touch to update you on this.
3. Each Authority, each procurement and each Supplier will have a “Unique Identifier” code which will be issued by the platform so that information can be easily linked and followed through the contracting journey online.
4. The system will not simply be for the publication of procurement notices, but will allow the uploading of documents by Authorities (such as copies of contracts).
5. Suppliers must be registered on the system in order to be awarded a contract.
6. Suppliers will need to register and then input detailed information which they would usually be required to share as part of a PQQ or SQ process with an Authority. Information such as convictions, conduct and contract breaches need to be input as part of the generic “exclusion grounds” information under the Act, and accounts, financial information, qualifications and accreditations will also be stored on the system.

   This will include information about connected persons of Suppliers (i.e. their directors, shareholders and others with significant control). Suppliers are themselves responsible for keeping that information up to date, and there is no process of verification of the information undertaken by the Cabinet Office.

7. When it comes to a procurement a Supplier will download a “share code” or a full file of the information stored on the platform, and share the access code with the Authority so that the Authority can access and view the information online.

   Alternatively, depending on the Authority’s instructions, Suppliers might need to send the complete information file electronically to the Authority for them to review and evaluate. So, Supplier information will not be accessible to all Authorities, only to those whom the Supplier issues and authorised share code or the full file.

8. Suppliers will not be able to complete bids or communicate with Authorities using the platform – Suppliers will need to check the tender documents for each procurement in order to find instructions on how to complete and submit their tenders and raise queries with the Authority.
9. As an Authority, if you are already registered on Find a Tender, you will need to re-register onto the Platform. Authorities should start to register from January 2025 and the Cabinet Office will issue further instructions on this in due course.
10. Suppliers only need to register at the point that they want to bid for a contract after the Act comes into force on 24 February 2025. The Cabinet Office will update us further when Suppliers are able to start registering.

For more information, or if you have any general queries about the Act, please contact Alison Walton using alison.walton@muckle-llp.com or 0191 211 7850.

The post Muckle LLP: The Procurement Act 2023: Central Digital Platform – news for authorities and suppliers appeared first on The Engineering & Manufacturing Network.

A new Government portal will replace both Contracts Finder and Find a Tender Service, and we understand this is intended to go live later this year. The number of notices authorities will be required to publish is increasing and is set to become something of a burden if authorities are not adequately prepared. All notices also come with a change of terminology to get to grips with, and we await the format of those notices, though we now have details of the likely information requirements in the draft “Procurement (Transparency) Regulations 202X”.

15 new notices to publish

In total, we have counted no less than 15 notices that an authority will have to publish under the Act, so bear with us for our rundown of all 15 below!

Planning Stage

• Pipeline Notice: Authorities with a procurement spend of more than £100 million annually will have to publish information on potential future procurements they expect to conduct that year, at least 56 days prior to the commencement of that financial year. Information is only required in respect of individual contracts where the estimated contract value exceeds £2 million.
• Planned Procurement Notice: Similar to the current Prior Information Notice (PIN), this notice is optional and may be published to inform the market that a contracting authority intends to publish a Tender Notice at a future date. In some circumstances using this notice will enable authorities to reduce minimum tender period timescales.
• Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) Notice: This notice should be published when an authority chooses to carry out market engagement before starting a procurement (or can be published after the event, stating it has undertaken such engagement). Use of the notice is not mandatory, but if on commencement of a procurement, market testing has taken place and a PME notice was not issued, the Tender Notice must include reasons for not publishing the PME notice.

Procurement Stage

• Tender Notice: This is simply a re-naming of the current “contract notice” which must be published to commence a competitive procurement. This is the “window on the procurement” and provides the market with basic information about the nature of the contract opportunity, its value and the contracting authority. It will also provide a link for interested parties to access the tender documents.
• Below-Threshold Tender Notice: This must be published before advertising a ‘notifiable’ below-threshold contract. A contract is ‘notifiable’ if it has a value above £30,000 (inc. VAT) for goods and services and £214,904 (inc. VAT) for works contracts (these figures are reduced to £12,000 and £139,688 for central government bodies, respectively). Note that this requirement will not apply to schools and academies, and the requirement and will not apply at all if the notifiable contract is not openly advertised.
• Transparency Notice: Before making a direct award without a Tender Notice, a Transparency Notice must be published. This notice must be published to inform the market of the authority’s intention to make a direct award, why there is a justification to award the contract directly, and the identity of the supplier to be awarded the contract. Whilst comparisons have been made between the new Transparency Notice and the current VEAT notice, there are some key differences, including:

• • the obligation to publish prior to award (though there is no minimum timescale to observe before award following publication);
  • the fact that the notice will be compulsory rather than the option to publish a VEAT, which currently exists; and
  • publication of a Transparency Notice will not provide the immunity from the remedy of set-aside (ineffectiveness) that a current VEAT can.

• Dynamic Market Notices: Where an authority wishes to establish a Dynamic Market (essentially a pre-qualified list of suppliers who can reply to tenders from time to time) it must issue a Dynamic Market notice setting out when the dynamic market will run from, what goods, services or works it relates to, how to apply and the conditions for participation.
• Procurement Termination Notice: This must be published when a contracting authority decides to abandon a procurement process after publishing a Tender Notice or a Transparency Notice. There is no requirement to provide reasons in the notice.

Contract Award Stage

• Contract Award Notice (CAN): This is a brand-new notice with a name we are already familiar with. don’t be fooled; it isn’t the same as the current CAN. The new CAN provides information to the market before a contract is awarded and only once the tenderers have been provided with an assessment summary – i.e., feedback on their tender and the successful tender following evaluation. Publication of the CAN starts the eight working-day standstill period.
• Contract Details Notice: Once a contract is signed, a Contract Details Notice must be published within 30 days of contract execution or 120 days if the contract is ‘Light Touch’. This applies to any contract awarded, whether awarded directly without a Tender Notice, via a framework or through a full tender process. The notice will contain details of the supplier, the contract value, duration, and extension options within the contract. In addition, where the contract has a value exceeding £5 million, a copy of the contract must also be published with the notice (commercially sensitive information can be withheld).
• Below-Threshold Contract Details Notice: This must be published following the award of ‘notifiable’ below-threshold contracts in the same way as the Contract Details Notice for above-threshold procurements. The notice must be published as soon as reasonably practicable after the contract has been entered into.

Contract Management Stage

• Contract Change Notice: Before changing an existing contract, an authority must now publish a Contract Change Notice. The only exception to this is where the change is a “below threshold modification” which is a change which either increases or decreases the value of the contract by 10% or less (in the case of goods or services), or 15% or less (in the case of works) or increases of decreases the term of the contract by 10% of the maximum duration of the originally awarded contract. The notice must describe the nature of the change, its impact on the contract, and reasons for it being permitted under Section 74 of the Act.
• Payments Compliance Notice: Every six months, an authority must publish a notice setting out details of the authority’s compliance with the requirement under the Act to pay suppliers within 30 days of receipt of invoice. This needs to include the average number of days it takes to make payments, the percentage of payments made within 30 days, within 31 to 60 days and 61 days or over.
• Contract Performance Notice: Where a contract value exceeds £5 million, an authority must include at least three KPIs within the contract and monitor the supplier’s performance against these. At least once annually, details of the supplier’s performance under these KPIs must be published in accordance with ascribed ratings of Good, Approaching Target, Requires Improvement, Inadequate and Other, and where the supplier has breached the contract, details of that breach and details of whether the contract was partially terminated, a settlement reached, or damages awarded as a result. Note that where the breach has resulted in a full termination of the contract, this would require a Contract Termination Notice (see below) instead.
• Contract Termination Notice: Within 30 days of a contract expiring or terminating for any reason, an authority must publish a Contract Termination Notice. This must include details of the contract and the reasons for its termination (including details of any breach of contract), the date of the termination and its estimated value.

What does this mean for contracting authorities?

The above clearly represents an increase in notice requirements for any contracting authority, most notably the requirements applying during the term and at the end of a contract, which will be new to many authorities.

This increase in transparency is likely to be welcomed by suppliers wanting more information on when contract opportunities are likely to be coming to market. However, we already know that contracting authorities are understandably concerned by the administrative burden this will place on their procurement teams.

Given that public sector procurement resources are already stretched, processes and procedures will need to be put in place to mitigate the impact of these new requirements sooner rather than later.

Are you ready for the Procurement Act 2023? We are here to help. Our procurement team has a range of seminars and training workshops available on the practical implications of the new Act. To discuss how you can prepare, please contact Alison Walton on 0191 211 7850 or email alison.walton@muckle-llp.com

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As we continue our series on the new Procurement Act 2023, which will come into force in October this year, we have highlighted some key differences in terminology and requirements for contracting authorities. One of the bigger changes is the way in which the Act deals with the “standstill period”.

Standstill Period

The standstill period is a concept introduced by case law and hence was (and sometimes still is) referred to as the “Alcatel period” after the name of the case that established it. It is currently a ten-day calendar period following notification to bidders of the evaluation results. During that period, there is a moratorium on signing the contract to allow aggrieved bidders to, if they wish, issue proceedings in the High Court for a pre-contract remedy under the Regulations. The authority can only sign the contract once this 10-day period has expired, provided no proceedings have been issued.

The new regime under the Procurement Act will differ slightly. This is how to award a contract following a competitive process under the new Act:

• Send Assessment Summaries to all bidders – each bidder must be given details of the successful bidder, the award criteria used, details of the scoring for themselves and the successful bidder and reasons for the award of those scores.
• Publish a Contract Award Notice on Find a Tender – this is what starts the standstill period and must be sent after sending assessment summaries to bidders. Note that this is not a contract award notice as we know and love them at the moment – a CAN under the new Act is published before contracts are signed and indicates an intent to award.
• Wait eight working days – at first glance, this appears to reduce the standstill period from the current ten-day period. However, in practice, this could result in an increase. For instance, a standstill period beginning on 24 December 2024 would end 14 calendar days later on 7 January 2025, rather than 3 January 2025 (10 calendar days) under the current rules.
• Sign contracts – assuming no proceedings have been issued during the standstill to challenge the award, which would put in place an automatic suspension of the process
• Publish Contract Details Notice on Find a Tender – this is what we currently call a contract award notice and is issued after the contract signature; it provides the market with details of who won the contract, what the contract was for and its value.
• Publish a copy of the contract if over £5m in value – this is part of the wider transparency regime. Note that contracts above this value must also include at least 3 KPIs, and performance against those KPIs must be reported on and published annually.

Standstill applies in more cases

A standstill period is required before entry into any public contract, even where there has been no competitive process, unless the contract falls into one of the exemptions in section 51(3) of the Act.  The exemptions include certain types of awards, such as direct awards (but only where this was due to extreme urgency or protection of life) and notably, no standstill period is required for light touch contracts or call-offs from a framework.

Voluntary Standstill

The Act allows authorities to run a “voluntary standstill” following a modification to a contract or where a standstill period is otherwise not mandatory (for example, a light touch contract). What is clear is that if an authority has stated in its contract award notice (or contract change notice, in the case of a modified contract) that it intends to run a voluntary standstill period, then it must do so, and that must be a period of at least eight working days.

Automatic suspension is limited to standstill only

Currently, the issue of a claim form at court at any time before the contract has been signed will put in place an automatic suspension of the process, preventing the authority from signing and proceeding with the contract. This can happen whether or not the official standstill period has expired as long as the contract has not been entered into.

The Procurement Act 2023 appears to change this rule, only allowing the award of automatic suspension if a claim is issued at court within the eight working day standstill period. How this will play out in practice remains to be seen. What if authorities agree with disgruntled bidders to extend a standstill when issues are raised? It is unclear whether agreeing to extend the standstill period will extend the period during which the automatic suspension will apply. For instance, could an agreement not to sign the contract for a period of X days, but expressly not a formal extension of the standstill period, get around this? Indeed, will this encourage more proceedings to be issued protectively to engage the automatic suspension within the tight eight-day working period following the publication of the contract award notice?

The future

Standstill is one of the areas in the Procurement Act 2023 where there are some subtle but key differences from the current regime. It remains to be seen how these differences will play out in practice, but our view is that overall, these changes are to be welcomed as they provide further clarity and opportunity for issues to be resolved before court proceedings are issued.

If you want to discuss any of the changes made by the Procurement Act 2023 or to discuss your training requirements before they come into force, please contact Alison Walton at alison.walton@muckle-llp.com or call 0191 211 7829.

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Innovations in technology will result in new skills becoming more in demand, whilst other skills may drop off the map entirely. In fact, LinkedIn Learning’s ‘2023 Workplace Learning Report’ predicts that job skill sets are set to change by 50% by 2027.

One of the main ways to ensure your staff are ahead of the game is by upskilling them, but there are some preconceptions that can make this seem challenging. Here are some of the top myths around upskilling to consider…

Myth #1 – Upskilling is a one-off

Upskilling isn’t as simple as going on a course and then calling it a day; it is a continuous cycle of bespoke learning and development.

Amy Sergison, partner in our employment team, is no stranger to helping businesses upskill their workforce – she regularly plans and delivers employment law training to a range of businesses.

She says: “As an employer, it’s important that your staff have regular access to training options to ensure their knowledge is up to date. At Muckle, we have an ongoing programme of training available annually, so that our clients can pick and choose topics that are most relevant to them”.

Myth #2 – Upskilling only applies to formal qualifications

Although upskilling can include formal qualifications, it covers a much wider remit of training and can be delivered in a range of styles.

Upskilling covers both hard and soft skills. Technical, or ‘hard’, skills, are specific skills needed to do a particular job, which can include using certain programs or software as well as task-based skills. ‘Soft’ skills are linked to people’s personalities and can apply to a range of roles and responsibilities.

Amy agrees, saying: “The training we deliver for clients tends to be technical, but some of our events focus on soft skills, like our HR book club. Regardless, we’ve found that clients enjoy a mixture of training formats, ranging from 1-hour training sessions that anyone can book, to bespoke in-person workshops for a particular client”.

Myth #3 – Upskilling is only needed to change jobs

Research has shown the opposite – that skills training is a key factor in people staying in their jobs. For example, a 2022 People Management survey showed that 78% of people surveyed would like to learn new skills in their role, but that 60% of people left a job due to limited training opportunities.

In fact, upskilling can even go one step further and, by improving your internal skillsets, ease your reliance on external advisers, saving you time and money and helping your employees thrive. Amy says, “All of our training is designed to give employees the knowledge and tools that they need to handle issues in-house, rather than fall back on external advisers. This increases employees’ confidence in their roles and helps businesses run more smoothly”.

Myth #4 – Upskilling is costly

Whilst upskilling can be costly – in both money and time – the costs can very much outweigh the benefits. For employers, it is more cost-effective to upskill existing employees rather than hire and train new ones. For employees, taking a little bit of time out of their day-to-day roles can help them become more efficient, saving time in the long run.

Additionally, low cost doesn’t equal low quality. Amy says: “Free training is still a great option, regardless of the size of your training budget. We make sure that we offer training from a range of price points to ensure we try to cover as many skill levels as possible.”

Enhance your skills with Muckle

Investing in a continuous programme of upskilling benefits both employers and employees. Employers stay competitive by having highly skilled workers, whilst employees are empowered and more comfortable in their jobs.

Our current upskilling opportunities include charity trustee training and several data protection training sessions, with more events planned. Head over to our events page to find out more.

The post Muckle: Bridging the (skills) gap: dispelling some of the myths appeared first on The Engineering & Manufacturing Network.

Matthew Brady gives his top five reasons why your business should outsource your debt recovery to Muckle Collect.

Watch the video here

Recover the money you’re owed. Let Muckle Collect manage your debts by uploading your debts to the portal now.

Upload your debts here

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A business can only pay its creditors if it has sufficient cash coming in. A 2022 study by Barclays found that 58% of SMEs in the UK were waiting for late payments. Intuit Quickbooks estimate that SMEs spend 56.4m hours chasing debts which is worth more than £6.3bn to the economy each year. It is more important than ever for directors to know the early warning signs, both within their own businesses and that of their customers. Many directors don’t appreciate that failing to pay debts as and when they fall due is a legal definition of insolvency. This can have serious impacts on their statutory duties to the company and its creditors.

A director cannot be personally liable for company debts (a supplier couldn’t pursue a director personally for an outstanding invoice). However, if a director fails to act in the company’s or its creditors’ best interests, there can be personal liability to compensate the company for any losses. Sometimes things are outside of your control. In a world where economies are so interconnected, regular monitoring and due diligence are vital.

Get to know your customers

Most of us are very good at getting to know our clients and customers at the initial engagement phase but rarely continue that due diligence after contracting. That’s not to say that everything is hopeless! As with any business risk, small steps to establish effective internal procedures and policies do – help. This can include:

• Having a robust set of terms and conditions, which clearly set out your invoicing and collection policy
• Understanding the early warning signs of financial difficulty within your sector
• Having a clear internal invoice collection procedure so that overdue debts are sent out to a reputable invoice collection team, specialists in recovering overdue debts without damaging those important commercial relationships
• Implementing ongoing monitoring and due diligence in respect of the financial position of key parties in your business, whether customers or suppliers and understanding your rights as a creditor

If you are ever concerned about the financial position of your business, seeking early specialist legal and accounting advice is key – but you can only seek that advice early if you are alert to the risk.

For more information, contact Laura using laura.keegan@muckle-llp.com or 0191 211 7970.

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