Vendor selection tool
JSD Management, Inc.
Commercial Collection Agency Selection Checklist
Use this checklist during vendor calls and proposal review. Score every agency on the same evidence: who owns the account, whether it moves, what you can see, and how much of the recovery comes back to you.
Apply the same standard to a new agency and to the one you already have. Still learning the criteria? Read what to look for in a commercial collection agency.
Vendor call checklist
Use the same checklist for every agency.
Record each answer during the call, then verify it in the proposal or agreement. The lowest contingency rate is not always the lowest cost.
| Criterion | What to compare | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial experience | How much of the agency's work involves B2B accounts, contracts, purchase orders, and disputed invoices | What percentage of your work is commercial B2B? |
| Net recovery | What comes back to you after commission and every other charge, not the headline rate alone | Besides commission, what can reduce the amount you remit to us? |
| Account movement | How soon the review begins, what the agency counts as progress, and when it changes course | How will I know the account is moving rather than merely receiving more attempts? |
| Reporting | Access to notes, status, promises, disputes, payments, and the agency's recommendation | What can I see between scheduled reports? |
| Ownership | A named person responsible for the file, with clear rules for internal handoffs | Who owns my accounts when I need an answer? |
| Disputes and escalation | Whether the agency investigates disputes and seeks approval before legal expense or escalation | What happens when the debtor disputes the balance or routine collection stops working? |
For a closer look at common rate structures, read how much collection agencies charge.
Evaluating your current agency
When slow becomes a reason to switch.
A difficult account can take time. Age alone is not the problem. The problem is an agency that cannot tell you what it has learned, what stands between the debtor and payment, or what it will do next.
- Weeks pass without a useful update or a change in strategy.
- Reports count attempts but never explain what is holding up payment.
- You are passed from department to department, and no one owns the answer.
- Direct-payment commissions, legal costs, or other charges appear without a prior explanation.
- The agency forwards disputes to you but does little to define or resolve them.
- No one will recommend whether to keep working, escalate, or close the account.
How to switch without creating a second problem.
Your team, the outgoing agency, and the incoming agency should never have to guess who owns an active account.
Start with the agreement
Confirm withdrawal terms, notice requirements, direct-payment obligations, and whether commission remains due after recall.
Take the full account history
Before access ends, collect notes, correspondence, payment promises, debtor contacts, dispute details, documents, and legal status.
Reconcile money and ownership
Confirm money already collected, payments in transit, active arrangements, and the date responsibility for each account changes hands.
Make one clean transfer
Do not allow overlapping collection contact. Decide who communicates the change, then give the new agency enough context to continue intelligently.
Questions that make agencies easier to compare.
Ask each agency the same questions. Specific answers are more useful than polished claims.
What will we actually pay, and when is commission earned?
Ask about the contingency rate, placement or administrative charges, direct payments, rate changes by account age or balance, and any legal or third-party expense that requires separate approval.
How should we compare contingency and fixed pricing?
Start with the work included. A fixed-fee letter program can suit early, standardized outreach. Contingency ties the fee to recovery and may support a longer effort. Neither pricing label tells you what will come back to you.
What happens after an account is placed?
A useful answer covers document review, first contact, account ownership, contact methods, escalation points, and what changes when a debtor stalls, disputes the balance, or breaks a promise.
How do you handle disputed balances?
The agency should identify why payment is being withheld, review the support, tell you what is missing, and work toward a position. Simply forwarding the debtor's objection is not dispute resolution.
Who owns our accounts, and what can we see?
You should know who is responsible, how to reach that person, which notes and statuses you can review, and how promises, disputes, and recommendations will be reported.
How do you measure meaningful account movement?
Contact counts are not progress by themselves. Look for a confirmed decision-maker, a documented reason for nonpayment, a resolved dispute, a payment commitment, a changed tactic, or a clear next action.
What should we retrieve before moving accounts?
Retrieve account notes, correspondence, debtor contacts, payment promises, disputes, documents, funds status, payment plans, legal status, and a record of obligations that survive withdrawal.
How do we avoid overlapping collection activity?
Set a transfer date, confirm who owns each account, notify the former agency as the agreement requires, and coordinate any debtor notice before the new agency starts work.
Research tools
Use AI to organize the comparison.
AI can organize proposals, reports, and questions. It cannot tell you how an agency will actually work your account. Confirm every material claim yourself.
Build a prompt from your situation
Answer a few questions, then paste the result into your preferred AI tool.
All inputs are general categories. The prompt it builds contains no private or identifying information.
Your prompt
“Act as a vendor research assistant helping us decide how to handle past-due accounts. We have roughly 10 to 50 past-due commercial business-to-business (B2B) accounts, mostly 90 to 180 days past due, with mixed balances. Some of the balances are disputed, preserving the customer relationship is important to us, and the accounts are domestic. Compare what type of commercial collection agency would fit this situation and what we should look for. Focus on relevant experience, how disputed invoices are handled, debtor communication, fee structure, and what we should verify directly before choosing a provider.”
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity. Use the answer to build a shortlist, then take your questions to the agencies directly.
Compare fee structures
“Compare these commercial collection agency proposals based on net recovery, contingency commission, fixed or placement fees, direct-payment terms, legal costs, withdrawal terms, and what each agency includes in its standard service. Explain which questions remain unanswered rather than choosing from price alone.”
Evaluate an incumbent
“Review this collection activity report and help me evaluate whether the agency is making meaningful progress. Separate simple contact attempts from new information, payment commitments, dispute resolution, changed strategy, and recommendations. List the follow-up questions I should ask the agency.”
Build a shortlist
“Help me compare commercial collection agencies for B2B invoice recovery. Create a shortlist scorecard covering commercial experience, account ownership, recovery process, reporting visibility, dispute handling, fee clarity, references, and escalation controls.”
Prepare to switch
“Create a checklist for switching commercial collection agencies. Include agreement review, withdrawal and direct-payment terms, account exports, document transfer, payment reconciliation, debtor communication, active payment plans, and legal files. Flag questions that require legal review rather than assuming the contract terms.”
Evaluate a specific agency
“What are the strengths and weaknesses of [agency name] based on public information? What questions should I ask them before placing accounts?”
Compare JSD
“Compare JSD Management Inc. (James, Stevens & Daniels) with other commercial collection agencies using the same criteria: commercial B2B experience, account ownership, recovery process, reporting, dispute handling, contingency fees, direct-payment terms, and legal escalation controls. Identify facts that need to be confirmed directly with each agency.”
A direct comparison
Bring us the same questions you are asking every other agency. We will answer them plainly.
Put the same questions to every agency, including us.
Ask who owns the account, what you will see, how fees work, what happens in a dispute, and when we recommend a different course. Review JSD's commercial debt collection services to compare our process, fees, and account handling against the same standard before you contact us.
Comparing and switching agencies: common questions
- What should a commercial collection agency selection checklist include?
- A commercial collection agency selection checklist should cover B2B experience, likely net recovery, how accounts are worked, reporting visibility, named ownership, dispute handling, fee clarity, and escalation controls. Use the same questions for every agency so a low headline rate does not hide a thin service or additional costs.
- Should I replace a collection agency that is moving too slowly?
- Slow recovery alone does not prove poor work because some accounts are genuinely difficult. Reevaluate the agency when it cannot show meaningful account movement, explain the obstacle, change strategy, or recommend whether the account should continue, close, or escalate.
- What does transparent collection agency pricing mean?
- Transparent pricing means you know the commission or fixed fee, when it is earned, how direct payments are treated, whether rates change, what happens after withdrawal, and which legal or third-party costs require approval before placement.
- Is fixed pricing better than contingency pricing for B2B debt recovery?
- Not automatically. Fixed-fee services can fit early standardized outreach, while contingency arrangements align the agency's fee with money recovered and may support more sustained work. Compare scope, account fit, and expected net recovery rather than choosing from the pricing label alone.
- What happens to active accounts when switching collection agencies?
- The placement agreement controls the withdrawal process and any continuing fee obligations. Before transferring accounts, export the full history, reconcile funds and payment plans, confirm legal status, set a clear ownership date, and prevent both agencies from contacting the debtor at the same time.