Fasten your seatbelts. if you are encountering some business finance turbulence these days. Our good friends at Webster’s define turbulence as a ‘disorder… or commotion” That’s why one new tool in your finance toolkit just might be an AR Finance facility! Let’s look at receivables financing and what you need to know.

More often than not, but not always, it’s simply an alternative to a bank line of credit. And the reality in our current environment economics is that this financing often becomes either the first or only choice when any business, from start up to mature, cannot acquire the financing they need, or better said, the amount of financing they require to grow.

To put it in the proper context what this is simply, is a sub set of what we term asset based lending. We hate to get lost in the terminology sometimes, but when you combine a Receivable facility with inventory financing it’s often called a working capital facility. That is to say that both A/R and inventories are margined at a pre agreed amount, and you borrow against them.

The fundamental belief of your AR finance partner is that the quality of the underlying collateral alone is good enough for you to borrow against. Banks in Canada are challenged to accept just that collateral alone, as their rules and regulations force them to focus on cash flows, balance sheets, historical profits, and all the ratios and covenants that come along with that.
Just leverage alone sometimes, i.e. too much of it, ensure you won’t qualify for a traditional bank facility.

By the way, that brings up an important point, which is the actual financiers of AR Finance receivables financing are in fact non bank commercial finance firms. They vary in size from huge corporations, or subsidiaries thereof, to small boutique firms specializing in a certain size of deal of industry. That’s of course why talking to an expert in the field allows your firm to quickly focus in on working with the right partner in your firm’s particular situation.

Receivables financing works because it maximizes the amount of cash flow and working capital you can draw on, and, as we noted, if you combine it with an inventory line you’re more often than not either doubling or tripling your access to capital. So when your current finance model isn’t working it’s absolutely never too late to consider a new finance tool for your firm!

We are often asked by clients if they are required to provide personal guarantees for such a facility. If you’re a private company in the small to medium enterprise sector the answer is, yes, probably. But, and it’s a key point here, the emphasis on any A/R financing facility is never the personal guarantee, it’s the underlying receivables or inventory that is being financed.

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor who can assist you in determining if its time for your company to consider this growing from of business finance.