What It Means to Buy Accounts Receivable
Put bluntly, in a free market economy is it only ever those business entities which are prepared to change with the times and ensure that they provide the most competitive service possible that will ultimately reign supreme and survive. For years, one of the mainstays of business financing, i.e. commercial lenders such as banks and the like, were the most commonly used and relied upon source of acquiring additional finance.
However, with the collapse of the global economy this forced the lenders to rethink a great deal of their current strategies and specifically, be more selective with who they deemed to be worthy of receiving their support. Unfortunately, this meant that the doors were quietly but firmly closed to a majority of business entities and this meant that the average business had to either remodel their business strategy, or face going under.
Then, as if by magic, a whole new method of business financing was introduced which quickly and radically shifted the manner in which business financing was achieved, and so there were entire companies that were dedicated to buy accounts receivable. Also known as factoring agencies, the companies that specialised in the provision of buy accounts receivable were able to finally break the dreadful stalemate that had resulted from the blanket refusal of the banking bodies to lend additional cash.
For the average business owner, these companies were nothing short of godsend because they meant that the business owner would be able to secure and find additional financial support…without having to sell a significant proportion of their business to acquire it. This came as welcome news to the generation of hard working business people who were oftentimes faced with the all too grim prospect of signing over significant amounts of their business away simply to get a token payment in return.
By far, one of the most commendable and indeed, desirable features of buy accounts receivable was that one of the most commonly found assets of a business was put to effective use, and for the overall benefit of the company as a whole: the invoices. Here, the business owner would sell their invoices to the factoring agency who would assume total and complete control of the collection process.
This in turn, meant that not only was the business owner guaranteed a certain level of capital return (due to the fact that the factoring company would provide the money upfront) it also meant that the business owner would be in a better position to save money. Why? Because they would not be required to hire administrative staff whose sole remit was to chase up outstanding accounts of these debtors who were yet to settle their bills.
Furthermore, the actual credit rating of the business did not matter at all and so this meant that the business owner would be able to enjoy the benefits of instant access to cash without having their credit rating, or the rating of their business influence the success of the acquisition of the capital.