A recent analysis has found that, at the median, businesses with customer accounts will have 15 percent of them past due by at least a month at any given time, CFO.com reported. The data, which came from benchmarking firm APQC, also showed that, in general, most businesses shoot for a target of 10 percent to 15 percent, depending on industry and other factors.

As one might imagine, the stronger a company is, the less likely it will have delinquent accounts. Those in the 25th percentile have 40 percent fewer customers delinquent at any given time (12 percent) than those in the 75th percentile (20 percent). 

Mitigating this risk is vital for a company's good health. APQC suggested that companies integrate revenue stream systems in order to provide a comprehensive view and facilitate customer service; use credit risk scorecards to establish proper limits; leverage the credit system to generate credit holds, update credit limits and produce credit limit tolerance reports; improve billing systems such as by automating payment reminders; and accelerate dispute resolution, possibly through a dedicated finance team to handle those disputes that automated systems cannot resolve. 

The data was based on a survey of 500 organizations.