ARA meets with Primeritus over past due invoices

“I want to get agents paid quicker and make the process smoother. This is my #1 focus coming in“, Steve Norwood, newly appointed CEO of Primeritus

A Letter from ARA President, Vaughn Clemmons

To The ARA Membership,

Late last week, the leadership from the American Recovery Association (ARA) took the initiative to meet with the leadership team at Primeritus. The proposed meeting was immediately accepted by the Primeritus team.

I was joined by ARA Executive Director, Joel Kennedy, and Board Member, Jeremy Cross. Primeritus was represented by Justin Conners (COO), Amanda Little (Director of Vendor Management), and their newly appointed CEO, Steve Norwood, who also brought his own CFO, Jennifer Turnage to Primeritus (not in attendance).

The group got right down to it; addressing outstanding invoices due to agents. Here is a synopsis of what was discussed:

So, what happened? How did we get into this situation?

Primeritus has grown over time through acquisition, and over the course of that accumulation of unique systems (in this case, the accounting systems) integration and communication broke down which negatively impacted their payables. When attempting to convert one accounting system to a new one, the conversion failed on some levels which caused reporting issues for AR’s and AP’s. This software failure significantly impacted our ability to maintain our records.

What are you doing today to fix it?

Primeritus / Kinderhook made a change at the CEO and CFO positions to help the company fix and remediate these issues to make sure it does not happen again. “I want to get agents paid quicker and make the process smoother. This is my #1 focus coming in”, stated Steve Norwood, newly appointed CEO of Primeritus. As the incoming CEO, I have been charged first to solve our delaying agent payments problem. This is our top priority.

Primeritus indicated that they are focused on resolving all payables as quickly as possible. They understand the pain this has caused and is causing to our industry.

Next Steps?

ARA and Primeritus leadership have committed to open lines of communication and we have a second meeting scheduled for 30 days out that will be a progress report; we have been assured, at that point, we will see significant progress. Further meetings will be scheduled on a monthly basis that will stay in place until these issues are closed. The ARA leadership is committed to continued updates to our members.

Further, Amanda Little described some simplifications to the invoice submission process that are going live on the 29th which will allow agents to invoice at time of service for recovery related expenses, as well as additional payment research capabilities being added within IBEAM that will allow agencies to see detailed credit memo history, ability to search for payment history by EFT number, VIN or case number. She shared these enhancements are just the start of more updates to come. The user experience is a big focus for them to continue to simplify the process for their vendors.

Closing Thoughts

We appreciate Primeritus sitting with us and for accepting us as a voice for our membership. This was a healthy and honest conversation; one the ARA leadership happily takes at face value. We expressed the harmful effect this is having on the agent community and the importance of resolving this as quickly as possible.

The ARA understands it does not make good business sense to continue to extend credit to a client that is not paying in a timely manner. Primeritus understands this, too. The ball is in their court, and the onus on following through rests on their shoulders.

The ARA will remain engaged until all member agents are paid.