There are times in the life of your business when mainstream finance options like loans and credits will be inadequate for your needs or beyond your reach. One option that may be available to you at a time like this is to consider accounts receivable financing as an alternative way of getting the cash that you need to run your business.

What, you may ask, is accounts receivable financing? Sometimes referred to as factoring, accounts receivable financing may be simply defined as a process whereby you sell the outstanding invoices for products or services already delivered by your business (otherwise known as receivables) to a financial institution (bank, finance house, etc.) at a price that is lower than the value of the invoices.

By this transaction, your business transfers ownership of the invoices to the financial institution, which then pays the discounted value of the invoices to your business, as negotiated and agreed in accordance with the quality and age of the invoices. It, thereafter, becomes the right and responsibility of the financial institution to get paid for what had hitherto been your invoices or receivables.

Accounts receivable financing works on the premise that your business has valuable assets (invoices) that can be financed. Based on this, the financial institution advances money to your business, for the slow-paying invoices of your business, waits for your customers to pay to it, and charges a small fee for this service.

Accounts receivable financing offers a source of immediate cash flow to enhance the growth of your business. It is collateral-free finance, unsecured, and does not require a pledge of assets or provision of guarantors.

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