Kris Koonar By:


Growing and emerging companies require immediate capital in order to facilitate their successful ventures. These start up companies often face a deficit of working capital needed for the smooth functioning of their daily operations as most of their capital is blocked in accounts receivables. In layman’s terms it means that the growing company performs the service or delivers the product to the client, and then bills them.

However as per business norms the payment is usually held up and cleared after about 30 to 60 days. This held up or to be cleared amount is the accounts receivable of the company rendering a service or selling a product. Since capital is blocked in accounts receivables, these companies have to look for alternative sources to secure continuous cash flow to meet their daily operational needs. Accounts receivable financing is fast emerging as one of the best funding options that emerging companies are choosing to solve their cash deficit problems.

Accounts receivable financing is the process of selling off the accounts receivable bills of the company to an accounts receivable finance company to secure immediate capital. The accounts receivable financing company provides funding to the service or product selling companies against their accounts receivables which act as collaterals. This process is relatively simple, requires no other collaterals and does not take much time for releasing funds.

The financing firm usually disburses the funds a range of up to 60% to 90% of the amount receivable for a fee that could range from 1% to 5% depending upon a certain criteria set by the financing companies for each company they are funding. These companies are the clients for the financing companies. So in case the company wants a funding for their accounts receivables from the accounts receivable financing company certain criteria have to be looked at while approaching them.

Accounts receivable financing companies look at the creditworthiness of the client’s debtors. Their debt records and performance records are taken into account. The age of the receivable is a consideration while determining the fundability of the client company, in case the receivable bill is as old as 90 days or more then no accounts receivable financing company will finance it. The client company also will not qualify to secure funds on their accounts receivables, if there is already loan secured on the same accounts receivable from a banking institution, unless the bank is willing to release its security interest on the receivable held by them.

The client company’s customer’s average repayment cycles, the factoring volume and the size of the invoices are also few more determinants an accounts receivable financing company will take into account while releasing the funds. Based on this, the financing company will give the client company 60% to 95% amount of the total face value of the receivable. The balance amount would be released after the invoice is cleared.

This type of financing can prove advantageous as the service rendering or product selling companies can free up their tied up capital and use it to maximize their growth and concentrate on business development activities rather than worry about collections and rising debts.

Kris Koonar By:


Accounts receivable financing is nothing but selling your outstanding invoices or receivables at a discount either to a factoring or finance company, which assumes risk on the receivables and gives you instant cash for your business. Depending on the age of a receivable, the amount of value is assigned to the account. Business houses use these loans in order to avoid the bad cash flow in the company. Sources for accounts receivable financing could be commercial financial institutions and banks. Accounts receivable is also known as accounts receivable funding or accounts receivable factoring.

This form of financing comes in the category of secured loan, where accounts receivable acts as covenant against cash. As the receivables are collected, the loan is repaid. Accounts receivables have a particular time or an age. A current invoice will pay you more. Any accounts receivable over 90 days are not financed. Thus, the older the invoice the less value it has. Sometimes the lenders don’t pay attention to the age of the accounts, but when they find the accounts is over 90 days, they may refuse to finance. Few lenders may apply a scale to value the accounts, such as accounts which are 31 to 60 days old have loan to value ratio of 60 % and accounts from 61 to 90 days have 30%. Sometimes the overall creditworthiness of the account of debtors may affect the loan to value ratio.

Some of the benefits of accounts receivable financing are:

Free working capital: Most of the companies have the majority of capital tied up inventory. But, accounts receivable financing allows you a free capital tied in inventory.

Instant cash: Accounts receivable funding doesn’t require any kind of business plan or tax statements. Instant cash is provided, which are being used by business houses during a bad cash flow in their organization.

Pass off Collections: Passing off your accounts receivable management to the factoring company will help you to focus on other perspectives of your organization, which can take you to road of success.

Make advantageous purchases: Availability of funds enables you to buy advantageously from suppliers and can take advantage of special offers or discounts.

Before plunging your feet into accounts receivable financing, you should do a thorough research about certain factors. A monthly interest rate is calculated to the daily percentage to the outstanding receivables each day. The lesser the outstanding bills the lower the interest. But a default on payment can let the financier seizing the pledged accounts receivable. In some states a notice is required to be sent to the business’ debtors that their debt has been pledged as loan security. But in some other state, the businesses do not notify the customers because they fear that customers might feel that this method of financing is a sign of instability.

So, before using accounts receivable you should see, that the financial strategy matches with your business plan, and that your business should be ready for more money and expansion and try to explore all kind of sources for small businesses financing. You should spend some quality time to investigate the companies you are working with and analyze contracts to negotiate discounts.