In a society that embraces industry jargon and lingo, acronyms are often casually dropped and misunderstood—their true definitions remain mysteries. To help you understand one of these acronyms, we’re breaking down what PPMS certification means and why obtaining it is important for players in the accounts receivable industry.
The Professional Practices Management System (PPMS) certification is a quality assurance program that indicates a collection agency has a management system that adheres to industry standards for professional practices and policies. A collection agency can only achieve PPMS certification by achieving rigorous standards for professionalism, efficiency, and effectiveness within their organization, and it must go through an 18-element process to develop, implement, and adhere to its unique manuals with efficient policies and practices that bring about increased client satisfaction and extremely high-level business procedures.
To retain a PPMS certification, collection agencies must dedicate themselves to continually assessing their PPMS and measuring their operations’ performance to analyze adherence, conduct management reviews, perform internal audits, and continue to grow. There are multiple compliance checks by independent auditors throughout the process of obtaining the PPMS certification and after its achievement, and the certification’s elements address management, business practices, support of practices, and client confidence.
The 18 elements of the PPMS certification process include, but are not limited to, defining management responsibility in a written document, creating a formal process to review client issues, and creating or refining a system that ensures proper management of records and data, making them easily accessible. Notably, an effective PPMS reduces mistakes, increases communication, improves client communication and satisfaction, and achieves bottom-line improvement in addition to awarding recognition at a distinguished industry-level to the collection agency who has achieved the certification.
The PPMS certification is awarded by the American Collectors Association (ACA) upon successful completion of the certification process, and in the ACA’s own words, it allows a collection agency to, “Reduce errors, increase communication, adhere to industry standards and improve your bottom line…[by] show[ing] your clients that yours is an agency they can trust.”
Frost-Arnett is proud to be one of less than 1% of ACA’s members to be PPMS Certified. We are dedicated to consumer respect, superior recovery, and customer service that entails providing each client with the utmost support and attention they deserve. Only through your success will we achieve our success. Contact us at 1 (855) 287-7043 to learn more.