March is for brackets. So this year, we decided credit strategy deserved one too.
Throughout March, we ran the NCS Credit Matchup on social media: a four-round, bracket-style showdown where we pitted common credit tools and decisions against each other and asked our audience to vote. Each round covered a real choice that credit teams face, and the winners were decided by the people who deal with these decisions every day.
Here's how every round played out and why the results matter.
The first matchup came down to a foundational question in commercial credit: do you take steps to secure your position, or do you extend credit without collateral?
Filing a UCC Financing Statement gives your team a perfected security interest in a debtor's assets. That means first-mover advantage over other creditors and significantly stronger leverage if a customer stops paying. Remaining unsecured might feel like the simpler path upfront, but when a customer hits financial trouble, unsecured creditors are typically last in the payment line.
In credit strategy, a secured position is your slam dunk.
Learn more about UCC filing services from NCS Credit.
Round 2: Serve Preliminary Notice vs. Skip Notice
In construction credit, the decision to serve a preliminary notice early in a project is one of the most important moves a supplier or subcontractor can make. A preliminary notice preserves your mechanic's lien and bond claim rights, keeps your options open if a payment dispute develops, and signals to the project chain that you are paying attention.
Skipping the notice might save a little time upfront. But if a payment problem comes up later, you may find that your mechanic’s lien or bond claim rights have already expired, leaving you with fewer options for full recovery.
Early notice is your fast break to protection.
Explore NCS Credit's preliminary notice services.
Lien waivers are a routine part of the construction payment process, but the type of waiver you sign matters. A conditional lien waiver releases your lien rights only after payment has actually received and cleared. It is a controlled, lower-risk approach that keeps your team protected until the money is confirmed.
An unconditional waiver, by contrast, releases your rights immediately upon signing, regardless of whether funds have been received. It is faster, but if the payment falls through, you have already given up your leverage.
Conditional waivers keep your team in control and protect your credit position.
Learn how NCS Credit supports lien waiver management.
The final matchup addressed something a lot of credit teams wrestle with: at what point does it make more sense to bring in outside help for collecting past-due receivables?
Managing collections in-house gives you direct control, but it is resource-intensive work that can pull your team away from higher-value priorities. Partnering with a third-party commercial collections agency like NCS Credit means working with specialists who focus on recovery, bring established processes to the work, and can scale their efforts in ways an internal team often can’t.
Expert support can be the buzzer-beater your credit team needs.
See how NCS Credit's commercial collections services work.
After four rounds, the winners were: File a UCC, Serve Preliminary Notice, Conditional Lien Waiver, and Third-Party Agency (NCS Credit).
These four tools are not just bracket champions. Together, they represent a complete credit risk strategy that covers protection on the front end and recovery on the back end. UCC filings and preliminary notices help you establish and preserve your rights before problems develop. Conditional waivers protect you during the payment process. And when an account goes past due, a trusted collections partner helps you recover what you are owed without burning out your team.
If your credit program isn’t already using all four, NCS Credit can help. We offer UCC filing services, preliminary notice and mechanic's lien services, lien waiver management, and commercial collections, all under one roof.
Ready to build a stronger credit playbook? Contact us today to get started!