If you want to enhance your firm’s cash flow, it is best to have a company secretary born under the sign of Scorpio but to deal with businesses whose company secretaries were born under the sign of Leo. That is the implication of analysis carried out by credit information specialist Creditsafe into its ‘database of 2.8 million companies’.

According to Creditsafe’s managing director Simon Camilleri, ‘analytical, inquisitive’ Scorpios take an average of 50.78 days to clear their debts, but show their ‘jealous and controlling traits’ when it comes to collecting debts owed to them, which they ensure are paid within an average 20.7 days.

By contrast, ‘generous, dignified’ Leos clear their own debts within 30.48 days, ‘almost a week quicker than the overall UK average of 36.84 days’, but are the slowest to collect payment, taking an average 34.19 days, against the average of 25.33 days.

Creditsafe’s research shows only Leos pay their debts quicker than they clear them. ‘Sympathetic, sensitive Cancerians take less than one day longer to pay than collect’, while ‘prudent, businesslike Capricorns take 17 days longer to pay than collect.’

‘Star signs seem to be a pretty good indicator of a company’s reliability,’ suggests Camilleri. He does, however, concede that the boring route of researching credit ratings and checking the number of creditor and debtor days to a company’s name is superior.