I've got every customer on credit hold. I review every order from $1 up before it leaves. I've always been conservative, but I wasn't looking at every single account."

That, regrettably, is the new face of credit management, in this case the credit manager of a large West Coast materials supply distributor. She admits that, even prior to the 2007 plunge, she was ready for the Recession. "I'm a pessimist," she says. "I don't trust anyone, no matter who they are." Previously, however, she'd sometimes let orders go through without demanding to see current financials. Not anymore, and, in response, some customers are trying to bypass her, going straight to the president or the COO.

"That's the hardest challenge," she says. "Customers are mad at me. They don't want to deal with me. But when they complain to sales people, they get the same response: "You're going to have to see her."

The process of taking away credit lines goes back three years to when conditions began to deteriorate. But efforts were made to educate, rather than to demean, the customer. She would point out that they (her customers) had lost so much of their staffs that they now had managers and owners doing fabrication work and making collection calls. She'd urge them to save time and money, frustration and aggravation by using credit cards, joint check agreements and other arrangements to avoid the risks of open terms.

Some larger customers are still getting bank lending, providing strong financials and paying one time. And they still have credit lines, although they may be $50,000 rather than $150,000 or $300,000. But she reminds the sales force that it's the big guys who fall the hardest.

Now she's meeting each week with the company owner, the CEO and the vice president of sales to review all customers, one batch at a time. She's working on a "robust" new credit policy for new customers that will require expanded credit apps, financials and personal guarantees.

"We're muddling through, customizing for individual accounts," she says. "You can't just throw everyone in a bucket and say this is what we're doing. And, if you don't work as a team, you can't accomplish anything."