Debt management and IVA firms
Case management software for firms that run payment plans
Every client on one file, from the first enquiry to the plan completing. The stage it is at, the creditors and what they voted, the income and expenditure it was built on, every payment received or missed, the reviews coming up and the documents signed. Built around how your firm already works, hosted in the UK, and looked after by the people who built it.
What a debt advice firm actually tracks
Six records, one client
- The case, its type and the stage it has reached
- The income and expenditure, and when it was last agreed
- The creditors: balances, references, offers and votes
- Payments due, received, late and missed, month by month
- Reviews, meetings and the dates the plan depends on
- Who did what and when, for the regulator and the complaint
Six records describing the same client, often kept in six different places.
A case system answers "which plans missed a payment this month, and who has been spoken to" without opening a single file. One client is one record: the type of plan, the stage, the creditors, every payment since the first, every review and every message.
Plenty of firms run that on a case package built for one kind of plan and spreadsheets for everything else: the payment reconciliation, the review diary, the creditor chases. It got them this far. The question is whether the record is written as the work happens, or pieced together when a creditor, an auditor or the client asks.
A first system might be intake and the caseworker's board. The same system two years on can carry every plan type, the payments landing against each file automatically, the client logging in to see their own plan, and the month-end figures coming off it.
What you would be looking at, in the order a day happens
Three screens from our own example system. Real screens rather than mock-ups. The firm in them, Hollins Debt Advice of Bury, is invented, and so is every client, creditor, caseworker and figure. Yours would carry your plan types, your stages and your words for things.
The day to day, in more detail
| Intake and fact find | A new enquiry opened in a few short steps, from the phone, a web form or a referrer, saved as it goes. The fact find and the income and expenditure are forms on the file rather than a document somebody retypes, with the standard allowances applied and the surplus worked out as the figures go in. |
|---|---|
| Plan types and stages | Debt management plans, IVAs, Breathing Space, full and final settlements, referrals on: each with its own stages, in your words and your order. Moving a case on is one action, dated and attributed, and the board reflects it at once. |
| Creditors | Every creditor on the file with their balance, reference, share of the debt, the offer sent and what came back. Offers and proposals generated from the record, chased on a schedule, and the responses logged against the creditor rather than in an inbox. |
| Payments and arrears | What is due from each client and when, matched against what arrives, so a missed or short payment is flagged the day after rather than at the month end. Arrears on the file, the reminder sent automatically, and the caseworker told when it is time to ring. |
| Reviews and key dates | Annual reviews, creditor meetings, Breathing Space end dates and completion dates held on the case with who owns them, counting down on the board and raised well before they arrive. |
| Referrers and introducers | Who sent the client, their reference, and what they are owed in return: an update by feed, a file by CSV, or a connection to their system where they have one. Sent on schedule, logged when it goes. |
| Client portal | The client logging in to see their own plan, their payments, the dates coming up and their documents, with a message to their caseworker and a document signed on their phone, all off the same record the office works from. |
| Messages on the record | Text messages and WhatsApp sent from the file, with the reply landing back on it, so the whole conversation is on the case rather than on somebody's phone. |
The rules side of it, plainly
Most of what a regulated firm has to show later is a question of whether the record was kept at the time. The system holds it against the client it belongs to.
| The file itself | Who opened it, who worked on it, every stage change, every figure in the income and expenditure and when it changed, every document sent and every message, with the date and the person. A file review or a regulator's request is the record, not a reconstruction. |
|---|---|
| Advice and the client's choice | The options discussed, the one chosen and why, recorded on the file at the time, with the documents the client was given and when they confirmed them. |
| Vulnerability and support | Where a client needs something handled differently, it is marked on the file quietly and carried into every screen that matters: the board, the call list, the wording of the automatic messages. It is never a label on the client, and only the people who need to know see the detail. |
| Client money | Where the firm handles client money, what came in, what went to each creditor and what is held is on the record and reconcilable, with the figures coming off the payments rather than typed into a separate sheet. |
| Complaints | A complaint logged against the case with its own dates and steps, so the response is on time and the history is in one place. |
| Retention | Each type of case with its own retention period, so files are kept as long as they must be and flagged for review when that passes, rather than kept forever by default. |
We build the records, not the regulatory advice. No system makes a firm compliant on its own. The FCA's rules, the insolvency rules where they apply, and the data protection rules are yours to meet; the system is there to make meeting them a matter of routine.
Who it suits, and who it doesn't
Where this kind of system earns its keep
- Debt management companies and IVA firms
- Insolvency practices with a DMP or IVA team
- Not-for-profit advice services with a caseload to manage
- Firms whose work arrives from referrers and introducers
- Firms with somewhere between 5 and 150 people, and plans running for years
Where we fit best
If a case management system already runs the firm and everybody uses it, keep it. What we build is the part it was never built for: the intake, the referrer feeds, the payment matching, the client portal, the board a supervisor actually looks at, the reporting. We join the two where the package allows.
A small firm with one plan type can run on a package and a spreadsheet for a long time. The system earns its keep once more than one person needs to see the dates, more than one referrer needs updating, or the payments take a day a month to reconcile. A first step can be intake and the board on their own.
Where it saves time, we build in AI features too: a creditor's letter or statement read into the file and its balance compared with what the case says, a review letter drafted from the figures already on the record for a caseworker to check, or the chasing of unsigned documents done on a schedule and stopped the moment they come back. More on AI and automation.
Usually built alongside case management, customer messaging, forms and e-signatures, client portals or management reporting. The rest are on the services page.
Ask about our free Business Systems Assessment
An hour with whoever runs the day to day. Clear recommendations to act on.
We look at how the work actually runs and what it runs on, then send you a list of what we would change, what each change would do for the business, and what it would take. In person or online, whichever suits you. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- One hour
- In person or online
- Recommendations we talk you through
Honest answers
- We already have a case management system.
- Then it probably holds the cases and the ledger, and it should carry on doing that. What usually sits outside it is the intake, the referrer updates, the payment matching, the client portal and the reports the directors want. We build those beside it and join them to it where it has an interface, so nothing is typed twice.
- Our clients' information is sensitive, and some of them are vulnerable.
- It is, and it is treated that way. Hosted in the UK, each login seeing only what its role allows, every access and change recorded, backed up every night and kept for thirty days, and built by a Cyber Essentials certified firm. Support needs are recorded discreetly and carried into the screens and messages that matter, and only the people who need the detail see it. We will walk you through exactly who can reach what before anything goes live.
- Creditors and referrers send spreadsheets and want spreadsheets back.
- That can carry on, only without anybody doing it by hand. A referrer's spreadsheet lands as draft enquiries with their reference on each. The statement a creditor wants is generated and sent on the day you agree, in their layout, and logged when it goes. Where a creditor or referrer has a system of their own, we connect to it.
- Can clients see their own plan?
- Yes, with their own login that shows them only their own file: what they pay and when, how far through they are, the dates coming up, their documents and a message to their caseworker. It reads as your firm, under your name, and it takes the "has my payment gone through" calls off the desk.
- How long does it take?
- A first system is usually live in weeks rather than months, and bigger ones go live in pieces so the useful part arrives early. Scope, price and dates are agreed in writing before anything starts, with what is not included written as plainly as what is. More on that in how we work.
- Where does the data live?
- On UK hosting, backed up every night with the backups kept for thirty days, and monitored every few minutes. The details are on hosting and support.
Talk to us
Tell us what kinds of plan you run, where the work comes from and what you would want to see on one screen that you cannot now. That is usually enough to say whether we can help.
Ring, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, or use the form below. Pick what you'd like to keep track of, add a line if you want to, and leave a name and a way to reach you.