Hound

Credit control for trades · Limited-company debtors · England and Wales

You do the work.
The Hound gets you paid.

We chase every overdue invoice in your name, add the interest the law already says you are owed, and escalate through regulated partners when someone takes the mick. You never make another awkward phone call about money.

The guarantee

In your first 90 days we put more overdue cash in your account than Hound costs, or we work free until we have.

Owed by a business? We chase it start to finish. Owed by a homeowner? We chase that too, gently, with every step approved by you first.

Start Ledger Cover, £199 a month

The same £199 Chaser charges for software you run yourself.

Not ready for the whole book? Rescue one debt instead: 60 days, and if we recover nothing you are charged nothing. Not a refund, we never take it.

One stuck invoice, 61 days late

£12,400

Earning you, every day

£3.99

Already yours to claim

£343.50

Statutory interest at 11.75% a year, plus fixed compensation per invoice. Most trades never claim a penny of it.

Work out yours

Why this exists

Nobody went into the trade to chase money.

Public posts, not our customers

Owed fourteen grand. He has stopped replying. I am not suing him, it would cost me a week of my life.

r/smallbusiness

I have sent four reminders. I hate doing it. I feel like a debt collector chasing my own money.

r/sweatystartup

My reminder emails go straight to spam and I only find out sixty days later.

r/hvacadvice

Why waiting is the expensive option

A debt is 98% collectable on the day it falls due. At twelve months it is 27%.

Those are the Commercial Law League of America's figures, and they are the whole argument for starting on day three rather than when it has gone cold. Nothing on this page is time-limited and we will not invent a deadline. The deadline is already there, it belongs to the debt, and every week you leave it the number falls.

These are tradesmen talking to each other on public forums. They are not our clients and they have never heard of us: we are new, and we would rather tell you that than invent a testimonial. What they describe is the job this was built to take off you.

Works with what you already have

Nothing moves. Nothing changes. Nothing to set up.

Read-only by default

Read-only by default. Two of the four publish a read-only permission and that is all we ask for. The other two do not offer one, so we enforce it in our own code instead, and every action is in your audit log.

What each one can and cannot do
Xero
Read-only by default. Drafted interest invoices, if you switch them on, add one permission: creating drafts. Approving stays yours.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks does not offer read-only access, so we enforce it in our own code and every action is in your audit log.
FreeAgent
FreeAgent does not offer read-only access, so we enforce it in our own code and every action is in your audit log.
Sage
Read-only by default. Drafted interest invoices, if you switch them on, need Sage's full-access permission, because it offers nothing narrower. We still only ever create drafts, and approving stays yours.

One click, and we read the aged receivables and nothing else. We cannot approve, send, edit or delete anything in your ledger, and you can revoke us from inside your own accounting software without asking us. No export, no migration, no adviser invite.

No accounting software at all? Spreadsheet, paper diary, folder of PDFs. Upload a statement or type the debts in. Most of the trade does not run cloud accounting, and it has never been a reason we could not help.

Whatever you actually do

You know exactly which one yours is.

England and Wales

Six trades, six debts, one machine. None of it changes what we do: the ladder, the statutory interest and the regulated firm at the end are the same whoever you are. What changes is which of those six you thought of first.

What you actually do

Three things, then nothing.

Once, at sign-up

  1. 01

    Connect your ledger, or don't

    One click if you use Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or FreeAgent: read-only by default, aged receivables and nothing else. No accounting software? Upload a statement or type the debts in. Most of the trade does not run cloud accounting, and it has never been a reason we could not help.

  2. 02

    Approve your ladder

    You see every step before any of them run, and you set which customers are handled gently. Fifteen minutes, once.

  3. 03

    Read one message on Friday

    What landed, what is still out, and what escalates on Monday unless you say otherwise. For a business debtor on a connected ledger, that really is the whole of it.

Two honest exceptions, because a promise about effort is one you get held to. If you have no accounting software, we cannot see what has been paid, so we ask you to confirm, and anything nobody confirms for 30 days pauses rather than escalating. And a debt owed by a private customer needs every message approved by you, not just the escalations, because the rules for chasing a person are not the rules for chasing a company.

How the chase runs

Nobody gets a letter on day one.

Days overdue

You approve this ladder once, at sign-up. After that it runs itself, and you can hold any customer at any rung with one tap, forever, no reason needed.

  1. Day 3

    A nudge

    One short email from your accounts address. Most invoices are settled here, by people who simply forgot.

    Accounts, for you
  2. Day 10

    Statement and nudge

    Everything outstanding on one statement. Bookkeepers pay what they can see in front of them.

    Accounts, for you
  3. Day 21

    A phone call

    Human, polite, and it ends with a date rather than a maybe. Whatever excuse comes back, we have heard it.

    Accounts, for you

The register changes here. Everything above is signed by your own accounts address, so a slow but decent customer pays and never learns we exist. From here the letter says Hound Credit Management, and that name arriving is the message.

  1. Day 35

    Hound letterhead

    Statutory interest and compensation are added to the debt and the name on the letter changes. You approve this step before it goes.

    You approve
  2. Day 49

    Letter before action

    Sent through a regulated legal partner, at cost, with the evidence pack already assembled.

    You approve
  3. Day 70

    County court claim

    Same partner, same pack, filed properly. Still nothing happens without your say-so.

    You approve

What else you could do

Everyone else sells you a tool, or waits until it is too late.

Prices checked 6 August 2026

Option What it actually is Price Do they do it?
Chaser Compact tier. Their done-for-you is a separate £324 add-on on top, so £523 combined Software you operate yourself £199/mo No
Satago Reminders and credit reports, sent from your own email. The chasing is still your job Software you operate yourself £45 to £200/mo No
Debt collection agency Published domestic rates run from 5% to 25%. International work is quoted as high as 40% Old debt, on commission, once chasing has failed From about 5% Yes
Employing a credit controller UK average across 1,155 live listings, before National Insurance, pension, holiday and a desk A salary, and a job that is not full-time at your size £32,898 a year Yes
Hound Day three to the county court, and the 8% is capped at £1,000 an invoice The whole ladder, done for you £199/mo + 8% Yes

The one that stings

Chaser charge £199 a month for software you operate yourself. We charge £199 a month to do it for you. Their own done-for-you is a £324 add-on on top of that, so £523 combined. The full comparison.

On the 8%

Collection agencies publish domestic rates from 5% to 25%, on debt they only take once it has gone cold. We start on day three and charge 8%, and only past 45 days, and never more than £1,000 from a single invoice. A £40,000 debt costs you £1,000, not £3,200.

And the part nobody mentions

The statutory interest is yours, not ours. Past about 218 days overdue it covers our fee outright, so the law pays for the service and you keep the invoice.

Before you sign with anyone

Five questions. Ask them of us, and of whoever else you are considering.

  1. Do you claim the statutory interest, or just ask for the invoice?

    Almost nobody claims it. On one £12,400 invoice at 61 days that is £343.50 you are legally owed and will never see if the letter does not ask for it.

  2. What happens the second my customer replies?

    Everything stops, here, automatically. A reminder tool keeps firing on a schedule, which is how you insult the customer who was about to pay you and lose the next job as well.

  3. Do you treat a limited company and a private customer differently?

    They are not the same in law and it is not close. No statutory interest against a homeowner, a Pre-Action Protocol to follow, and a different tone throughout. Software that sends one template to both is handing your customer a complaint.

  4. Who checks the debtor still exists before you escalate?

    We check Companies House. Chasing a dissolved company through a solicitor is a bill with nothing at the end of it.

  5. What happens on day 49, when a letter is not enough?

    Software does nothing: it is your problem again. An agency starts here, on a commission published from 5 to 25%. We hand it to a regulated firm, in your name, on your instruction, at cost.

We wrote these because we had to build all five to operate legally. Ask them anywhere else and see how many answers you get.

Read it yourself

This is the letter that lands on day 35.

Not a sample. This is the text the system composes, with the interest and compensation figures worked out from the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and the Bank of England base rate on the day it sends.

You have no reviews of us to read, because we are new. So judge the thing itself: if you would not pay after receiving this, do not buy.

Rung 4 · Hound letterhead · you approve before it goes
Dear [the debtor],

We act for [your company] in the recovery of the
following overdue invoices.

  INV-1041: £4,800.00 (35 days overdue)

Principal outstanding:      £4,800.00
Statutory interest to date: £54.08
Statutory compensation:     £70.00
Total now payable:          £4,924.08

Interest and compensation are claimed under the Late
Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and
continue to accrue daily.

Please arrange payment to your usual account for this
supplier, or reply with the date payment will be made.
If the account remains unpaid it will be reviewed for a
formal letter before action through a regulated legal
partner.

Hound Credit Management, on behalf of [your company]

Included, not extra

Four things you would otherwise buy one at a time.

Every figure below is
somebody else's public price

  • The evidence pack, assembled per debt

    Correspondence timeline, invoices, the pre-action documents, on your letterhead and ready for a court claim. Built as we go, not reconstructed in a panic six months later.

    Bought separately A solicitor's letter before action runs about £150 to £400, and several firms publish considerably more.

  • The statutory interest, calculated and claimed

    At 11.75% a year plus fixed compensation per invoice, added to the debt and demanded in writing. Most trades never claim a penny of it because claiming it means writing the letter that says so.

    Worth, on one stuck invoice £343.50 on the £12,400 at the top of this page, and it is yours, not ours.

  • The escalation, at cost

    Letter before action and county court claim through a regulated firm, on your instruction, with the pack already assembled. We take no margin on their fee and we tell you the figure first.

    Bought separately A collection agency starts at 10% and commonly runs to 25%, on debt they only take once it has gone cold.

  • Somebody checking before it escalates

    Companies House on every limited-company debtor, so nobody instructs a solicitor against a company that was dissolved in March. Whether the debtor is a business or a private individual, because the law is not the same and neither is the letter.

    Bought separately Nothing sells this. It is the step that gets skipped, and the bill with nothing at the end of it is how you find out.

None of these are bonuses we invented to pad a page. They are the work, and they are in the price, and we have told you what each one costs when you buy it on its own so you can check.

Two ways in

Hand us the book. Or test us with one debt.

Prices exclude VAT

Ledger Cover · start here

£199/month

plus 8% of anything recovered past 45 days overdue, never more than £1,000 from any one invoice
A debt owed by a private customer is 5%, not 8%: there is no statutory interest against a consumer, so you recover less and we charge less.

Or £1,990 a year, which is ten months for twelve.

  • Every overdue invoice you have, chased daily
  • The same £199 Chaser charge for software you operate yourself
  • Evidence pack assembled per debt, ready for a letter or a court claim
  • One message on Friday, and one tap to hold any customer
  • Most people start here the week their first rescue lands
Start Ledger Cover

In your first 90 days we put more overdue cash in your account than Hound costs, or we work free until we have.

Debt Rescue · not ready for that?

£249/60 days

and nothing at all if we recover nothing

  • Your worst debt, run end to end, entirely by us
  • The whole ladder: reminder, statement, call, our letterhead, then a regulated firm
  • Statutory interest and compensation claimed, and it is yours to keep
  • All legal partner costs included
  • It becomes Ledger Cover after 60 days. We ask you three times before that, and one reply stops it
Start a rescue

Nothing is taken up front. If we have recovered nothing by day 60 we cancel it ourselves, and you are charged nothing at all.

Owed by a homeowner?

Homeowner Rescue, £399 a debt. A private customer is not a business in law and we do not treat them like one: no statutory interest exists, the Pre-Action Protocol applies, and you approve every single message before it goes. It costs more than the business version because every step is done by a person, and because getting it wrong there costs you a complaint rather than an invoice.

Start a homeowner rescue

Straight answers

The questions everyone asks.

Are you solicitors?

No, and we never pretend to be. Hound is credit control: we chase, we add the statutory interest and compensation the law already gives you, and we assemble the evidence. When a debt needs a letter before action or a court claim, it goes to a regulated legal partner at cost, and only after you approve it. Nothing we send implies a power we do not have.

Who will you chase?

Both, in England and Wales, but not in the same way. A limited-company debtor is checked against Companies House and chased in full by us, with statutory interest added. A private customer is a consumer: no statutory interest exists against them, the Pre-Action Protocol applies, and every single message needs your approval before it goes. That is Homeowner Rescue at £399 a debt, and the success fee on consumer recoveries is 5% rather than 8%.

Will this upset customers I want to keep?

The first three steps come from your own accounts address, signed as your accounts team, so a customer who is slow but decent pays up and never learns Hound exists. You can put any customer on hold with one tap, at any point, and nothing further goes out to them. That hold beats everything else in the system.

What happens if an invoice is genuinely disputed?

It leaves the sequence immediately and a human picks it up. Chasing a disputed invoice as though it were clean is how good relationships get burned, so the system will not do it.

Do you handle the money?

No. Your customers pay you directly, into your account, exactly as they do now. We never touch recovered money and we never ask a debtor to pay us.

What does it cost?

Ledger Cover is £199 a month plus 8% of anything we recover that was more than 45 days overdue, never more than £1,000 on one invoice. One stuck invoice instead of the whole book is Debt Rescue: a 60-day trial with nothing charged up front, and nothing charged at all if we recover nothing. Legal steps are passed through at cost.

What do you need from me?

About fifteen minutes, once. Read-only access to your accounting software by default, a mandate so we can write in your name, and your approval of the ladder. After that your only job is reading one message on a Friday.

The money is already yours.

Every week it sits out there, it funds someone else's cash cycle instead of yours. Connect your ledger and the first chase goes out the same day, not the next working morning.

Set the Hound on it