Commercial collection agency for unpaid B2B invoices

What a commercial collection agency does

A commercial collection agency collects unpaid debts that one business owes another: invoices for goods delivered, services performed, software subscriptions or freight. It contacts the debtor company, negotiates payment or a payment plan and, if that fails, recommends legal action. Most agencies work on contingency: they take a percentage of what they collect and charge nothing if they collect nothing.

Commercial collection is not consumer collection: the debtor is a company, the amounts are usually larger and different laws apply.

Debitura is not a collection agency itself. We match your claim to a licensed collection agency or law firm in your debtor's country and provide the contract, the platform and the quality controls around the work. The local partner does the collecting. For the background, read our guide to B2B debt collection.

How a commercial claim works with Debitura

1. Submit the claim. Add the debtor, the amount and the invoice by hand or by CSV, send it from QuickBooks Online, Stripe, Zoho Books or KashFlow, or connect Zapier or our REST API. You can submit your first claim in two minutes.
2. See your fee and sign once. You see the success fee before you submit. The first time you assign a claim, you sign the Standard Debt Collection Agreement (SDCA), which covers pre-legal collection in every country we serve.
3. Get a matched local partner. We match your case to a vetted local partner in the debtor's country, based on the type of debtor, the claim and how partners perform on our platform. You see the fee and the partner before anything starts, and you sign a short power of attorney the first time you work with them.
4. Your partner collects under local law. Letters, email, phone calls and negotiation. You follow every step on the case timeline and talk to your partner directly in the case chat.
5. You get paid. The debtor pays the partner, who deducts the success fee and pays you the rest within 30 business days of the payment, with a statement of every amount.

Legal action is optional: it is quoted separately and only starts if you accept. See every step in how it works.

What licensing applies to commercial collection in the US

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a consumer law. It defines a debt as an obligation “of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance, or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes” (15 U.S.C. §1692a(5)). An invoice from one company to another for business purposes falls outside that definition.

That does not leave commercial collection unregulated. State law decides whether a commercial collector must register or hold a license, and the answer differs by state. Florida, for example, requires each commercial collection agency doing business in the state to register with the Office of Financial Regulation, renew every year and file a surety bond (Fla. Stat. §559.544); the statute lists exemptions, and the Florida OFR runs the registration. Rules in other states differ, so check the state where your debtor is. The claim itself is governed by your contract and the state's general law.

There is also a voluntary industry standard. The Commercial Law League of America (CLLA) runs a commercial collection agency certification with an initial and annual audit by an outside auditor, and certified agencies must earn 10 hours of continuing education a year to recertify (CLLA, 2023).

Before a partner joins Debitura, we check their license and registration and verify who they are. That applies to every partner, in the US and abroad. Whoever you hire, ask which registration the collector holds for your debtor's state. On Debitura you see the partner before anything starts, so you can check.

How to tell if a commercial collection agency is any good

Every agency measures its results differently, so a percentage on a website tells you little. These questions tell you more.

The full terms are in the Standard Debt Collection Agreement.

One agreement for business debtors in 180 countries

When your customer is in Canada, Mexico, the UK or Germany, the claim runs under that country's law, in its language and through its courts, so a domestic agency has to hand it to a correspondent abroad.

With Debitura, the same agreement covers pre-legal collection in every country we serve, with the same No Cure, No Pay terms whether you send one claim or hundreds. One contract shared by every business on Debitura means terms you would struggle to negotiate alone. A claim against a buyer in Canada is worked under Canadian law by a local partner; one against a company in Germany under German law.

See the country guides for the United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom, or our guide on how to collect a debt from a business customer abroad.

What a commercial collection agency costs

Commercial agencies usually charge a contingency fee, a percentage of what they collect. Compare the percentage, what triggers extra costs and who keeps interest and late fees.

On Debitura there is no upfront cost, and you pay a success fee only when money is recovered: from 6% in Europe and 7.5% elsewhere, depending on claim size and the debtor's country. Debtors in the United States are on the International schedule. Claims over 12 months cost more; the exact uplift is shown before you submit. Disputed claims and legal action get a quote first, and interest and fees the law lets you claim from the debtor go to the partner.

See your exact fee on the pricing page, or read what debt collection costs in general.

What to have ready before you hand over a claim

• The debtor company's legal name, address and a contact in its finance team
• The invoice, and the contract, order or terms behind it
• Proof of delivery or of the work done
• The reminders you have already sent

For business debtors, claims under $2,000 need no documents; from $2,000 to $10,000, add the invoice or a short description; over $10,000, add the invoice or contract. The standard agreement covers undisputed unpaid invoices and loan repayments that are not placed with another agency and not in court. If you have not yet sent a final demand, start with our demand letter templates, and see what to do with unpaid invoices before collection.

Who uses commercial collection through Debitura

More than 5,000 businesses have registered. Our focus is companies with recurring claims on business customers abroad, such as SaaS and software companies with subscription invoices in many countries and manufacturers, wholesalers and B2B e-commerce sellers whose goods cannot be taken back once delivered. A business with one overdue invoice is just as welcome: see debt collection for small businesses.