commercial lending – CredebtExchange

The Importance of Time

Date: January 31, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

When it comes to credit control and working capital, time is critical. More often than not, days and weeks are allowed to pass without actions being taken to get results. As you’ll see in the other articles in this Smart Cash Flow Programme, there are very simple ways to use time more effectively and reduce your reliance on banks or other sources of working capital.

Reducing your reliance on external working capital will not necessarily remove it altogether, particularly as your business grows. In many cases, a continuously growing business will always have a demand for alternative working capital. Using the DSO and WADSO methods in this Smart Cash Flow Programme will help.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how a simple understanding of time can reduce the cost of your working capital, particularly when using Credebt Exchange®. When you issue and invoice/ETR it has a date on it, this is the Issue Date. When you upload this ETR to the Exchange, you must enter the Expected Date. This is the date that payment is most likely to occur. The number of days between the Issue Date and the Expected Date. The Expected Date, minus the Issue Date is the Day Sales Outstanding, or DSO, value. This DSO value is used to calculate the Discount that will be charged on the Face Value of the ETR.

Expected Date – Issue Date = Day Sales outstanding/DSO

For example, an ETR with a Face Value of € 10,000 with a Revolving ETR Sales Agreement, or RSA, of 1.000% per month and a DSO of 30-days, means that the Discount charge will be € 100.00. The same value ETR with a DSO of 60-days, means that the Discount charge will be € 200.00. This is double the cost of the previous ETR. Therefore, if your DSO is moved from 60-days to 30-days, you will reduce your finance costs by 50%. Time is, most definitely, money. Time is very important.

Calculate Working Capital

Date: January 24, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

If a company takes all of its short-term assets (e.g. cash in the bank, receivables invoices, stock, etc) and pays all its short-term liabilities (e.g. suppliers, staff, etc) the remaining balance is their working capital position. If the working capital position is positive, it is more than likely that the company is adequately capitalised and is self sufficient. If however, the working capital position is negative, then the company needs to make up the difference by borrowing money or using some other source of working capital. To calculate the working capital of a business, simply subtract its Current Liabilities from its Current Assets.

Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities

Knowing the working capital of a business will help to avoid unnecessary financial strain on the company. Companies with insufficient working capital will invariably delay payments to suppliers, fail to pay staff salaries, delay tax payments and may ultimately lead to business failure and/or closure. A useful measurement of the financial health of a business is its working capital ratio. In a financially stable business, the working capital ratio will be above 2.

Working Capital Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities

For example, a company with current assets of 100,000 and current liabilities of 40,000 has working capital of 60,000 and its working capital ratio is 2.5. Working capital ratios below 2 are an indication that there may be a potential financial problem. A company with a working capital ratios below 2 needs to address the issue swiftly by borrowing money or using some other source of working capital.

Finding your Current Assets & Current Liabilities

Go to your accounts system and print your Balance Sheet, or ask your accountant for a recent Balance Sheet. Current Assets is a standard heading on most Balance Sheets. There may be a Current Liabilities heading and if not, there should be a heading: Creditors – amount falling due within one year and this is your Current Liabilities.

Institutional Roadshow III Begins

Date: January 20, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

Today Credebt Exchange® completed its initial Institutional Investor Roadshow in London. From an initial panel of six UK banks, presentations were made to three. The primary focus of the presentation was on risk and controls. Initial reaction was positive with offers from two of the three banks expected before…

Weighted Average DSO [WADSO]

Date: January 17, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

As explained in the Day Sales Outstanding [DSO] article, there are only two technical terms we refer to in the programme DSO (pronounced D-S-O or D-SO) and WADSO (pronounced WAD-SO). Once you’ve read and understand how DSO is calculated, WADSO is the tool that measures performance i.e. how effective your cash collections are. WADSO is short for Weighted Average Day Sales Outstanding.

The previous article defined the sale and invoice components used to count the number of days in the DSO. With DSO clearly defined, WADSO can be calculated. Takes the sample list of invoices below as an example. The average days that these invoice is outstanding is 54 days, or a little under two months. If you called your credit control people and asked them what the average DSA was, a DSO of 54 doesn’t sound too bad. However, this is not an accurate measure of the real average days outstanding because it does not take into account that there is one big invoice for 1,000,000 that hasn’t been paid for three months!

Invoice No.	Face Value	DSO	SumProduct	Weight %	WADSO
00001	1,000	30	3,000	0.03%	0.01
00002	10,000	45	450,000	0.49%	0.22
00003	1,000,000	90	90,000,000	97.61%	87.85
00004	25,000	60	1,500,000	1.63%	0.98
00005	5,000	45	225,000	0.24%	0.11
Totals	1,041,000	54	92,205,000	100.00%	89.16
WADSO					89.16

The purpose of the weighted average is to give a more accurate representation of the average amount of money across the entire book of outstanding debt. To accurately measure this, each DSO is weighted in order to provide a more accurate payment analysis. Using each DSO weighting, the Weighted Average Day Sales Outstanding [WADSO] is actually 89 days. This is three months and almost double the DSO average figure.

Using the above table of date, SumProduct is calculated by multiplying the two known values: Face Value and DSO and WADSO is calculated by dividing the SumProduct by the total SumProduct to get a Weight for each payment received. The Weight is then divided by the DSO to get the weighted value for each payment. Only then can the WADSO be calculated

WADSO = Total SumProduct / Total Face Value

As you move through this Smart Cash Flow Programme, WADSO is used to measure the true performance of your cash collections/credit control personnel.

Delinquent Accounts Can Ruin A Business – Put An End To Them

Day Sales Outstanding [DSO]

Date: January 15, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

There are only and two technical terms we refer to in the programme DSO (pronounced D-S-O or D-SO) and WADSO (pronounced WAD-SO). Don’t get distracted with all the other cash/credit control jargon like Collection Effectiveness Index, Transaction Turnover per Cash Applicator, etc. They’re too complicated and aren’t used in this programme. This programme is focused on real results that are measured on ‘cash in the bank’. Real results use are achieved using the combination of DSO and WADSO.

Before getting to DSO, let’s be very clear on what a sale is and also what constitutes an invoice. The issues that many business owners experience in collecting payment from their customers may have nothing to do with their product or its delivery, indeed in many cases poor management of the documentation and invoicing are the real culprits. People moan about paperwork, this is a smart cash flow programme, so be smart and get yours right.

A sale is when the correctly executed provision of a service, or the delivery of goods that are fit for purpose, is completed. In other words, the provision of the goods/services is indisputable (let’s call this Quality). Only when Quality has been delivered can an invoice be issued. Don’t waste your time, or confuse your ultimate target of achieving a low DSO figure, if you’re not delivering Quality.

Once you’re sure of the Quality, then move to the invoicing of that sale. It is crucial that the invoice contains all the correct data when being prepared (more on this later). If the invoice is wrong (because of incorrect data) then it will go back and forth between your office and your customer’s before it’s finally correct. Only then should the ‘DSO clock’ start.

Based on a clear understanding of the above, Day Sales Outstanding, or DSO, is the amount of days it takes from the date on the invoice, to actually receiving payment in full, that appears on your bank statement. Most DSO definitions forget to mention the payment must appear as cleared funds in your bank. That’s probably because they don’t consider the real world situation where payments can and do ‘bounce’.

Low Cost Capital

Date: January 14, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

Exchange Overview
Credebt Exchange® provides an unrivalled and unique form of Low Cost Capital specifically for organisations in the micro-medium business sector. The Exchange model is substantially different from any other type of traditional working capital/lending model. A summary of the principal differences is highlighted below:

Selling model, as opposed to a lending model
No liens & no personal guarantees
Low discount rates & no ‘face value’ charge
Access up to 90% of your invoices’ value quickly

Single Membership fee, regardless of volume
Payment terms can be greater than 90 days
Not required to sell all invoices/entire ‘book’
No long term contract & leave at any time

No ‘Debtor Concentration’ (i.e. no maximum value per Debtor)
Block trading & trade automation are possible
No retrospective, refactoring, or review fees
Simple, streamlined online reporting

Grow Your Business
If accessing your working capital quickly and easily is essential to growing your business, then Credebt Exchange® can help you access the capital ‘locked’ in your invoices now. We convert your invoices into Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR] for sale on the Exchange. ETR offer the best Low Cost Capital and most efficient cash flow solution in the market today.

Your Way
Credebt Exchange® Low Cost Capital uses a unique purchasing/true sale, legal assignment model. You are not borrowing money, you are selling your invoices/ETR. Selling your invoices/ETR dispenses with the onerous requirements associated with traditional lending. As a Member of the Exchange, you only sell what’s needed to meet your capital requirements.

Take Control Now
Take control of your cash flow today and apply for Membership by email using the form below. Priority applications can be processed online or by telephone on 01 799-5499

Low Cost Capital

The Smart Cash Flow Programme

Date: January 14, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

From 25 years of owning and operating small companies (and some large ones too), one of the hidden costs of doing business has always been our bank charges, fees and, of course: the lending/borrowing interest rate charges. These can be prohibitively expensive so we devised a simple smart cash flow programme to ensure we kept bank fees, charges, lending rates and ‘one-time’ management fees (let’s call all of these Hidden Bank Charges) to the absolute minimum.

As most micro-medium business owners will understand, trying to negotiate reduced bank fees and rates is largely a waste of time. Given the current banking situation, most business owners are too scared to even call their bank, let alone try to negotiate a reduction in any Hidden Bank Charges. Keeping this in mind we went about developing a smart cash flow methodology with a simple set of procedures to improve our cash position.

This blog covers all the smart cash flow ‘tricks’ we developed and over the next few weeks it will provide an entire programme that your credit control people (i.e. the people in your company that collect cash from the people and organisations that owe you money) can easily adopt. Most importantly, we don’t move the costs around from one area (the bank) and ‘jack up’ the workload on another (your people).

As its name suggests, this is a smart cash flow programme that uses technology to reduce the workload whilst improving cash collections and maintain the key objective of reducing Hidden Bank Charges and DSO. Before setting out the programme, let’s first understand some of the basic terminology used in credit control and also look at some of the language used on the dreaded bank statement where most of the Hidden Bank Charges can be found (not all bank charges are clearly identifiable from the bank statement… more on this later…).

2013-Q4 ETR Briefing

Date: January 3, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR], are invoices issued under Contract for goods and services supplied to investment quality† companies, or credit insured invoices from Investment Grade [IG] insurers. As at Q4, Credebt Exchange® held RPA of €4.3m, with €2.7m allocated during the quarter. The full spectrum of available ETR was utilised and all currency exposure was hedged.

Settled ETR totalled €1.9m during the period, representing 36% of all outstanding trades. There continues to be no delinquent ETR recorded to date. Overall market conditions are favourable, with strong growth expected for 2014.

Performance
2013-Q4 was the second quarter of trading for Credebt Exchange®. Total Debtors numbered 270+ with a total trade value of € 4.8m to date. Daily volume remained steady in excess of 1,300+. Highest single value trades were in October & December at an average of € 0.15m. Total current RSA are valued at € 15.1m+

Trend
Yield trend stabilised at an average of 3.75% during the quarter. Originator trading volumes continued on a slightly upward trend, with Investor demand slowing in December. Originator demand for 2014 will be strong. Additional capacity for RPA contracts of €10-15.0m are expected in Q1-2014, subject to Institutional Investor demand.

2013-Q4 ETR Briefing

† Investment quality is a combination of Investment Grade [IG] organisations & other credit worthy organisations, as determined by AIG and other credit rating providers, from time to time

How to use risk to your advantage

Date: January 2, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

As explained in the previous article “It’s all about Risk…” you’ll now understand that larger organisations get preferential treatment from banks. That’s the status quo and isn’t likely to change any time soon. So what can you do to improve the banks perception of your business, so that you achieve ‘next best’ status?

The answer is to make sure you present your business as the ‘next best’ lowest possible risk. This means you have to remove all possible negative ‘what if’ scenarios, wherever you can. What if these top two customers cancel their business with you? What if your cost of supplies increases unexpectedly? What if a senior member of staff leaves? What if demand in your market declines suddenly? And so on…

The more you think about all the risks that undermines the integrity and viability of your business, then you’re thinking like a banker. Banks don’t like risk. If you have given sufficient thought to the removal or reaction to risk, then you’re making it easier for them to lend to you.

It’s all about Risk

Date: January 1, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

Once you understand risk, then you’ll begin to understand banks and how banking works. Banks, investors, shareholders, managers, financial markets, brokers and other investment/lending professionals all learn about risk. That’s not to say they necessarily understand risk in all its guises, but they must understand the principal that high risk is bad risk.

Think of it like parenting. Does a responsible parent leave a young child with the wild teenager next door, or do they leave the child with a mature, responsible adult? If you were a bank, who would you rather lend money to: an established, well managed, large company or the young start-up business (notice how inverting this speaks volumes: ‘up-start’)?

As a bank manager, if you are paid the same salary for lending to large companies as you were for lending to the up-starts (sorry, start-up), but were only promoted when the loan was repaid, who would you lend too?

Unless you’re being obstinate, the answer’s simple: the established, well managed, large company is less risky than the young start-up. So they get the money first (and in most cases, at much lower cost too). Only after the large corporates market is satisfied, will banks look to the micro-medium sized, more risky market.

Low risk, high volume lending is more efficient and ‘safer’ than almost every type of other riskier lending to the micro-medium sized business. That’s a simple fact of banking and isn’t likely to change any time soon. So don’t get angry with your bank, if you were in their shoes, you’d probably use the same principal: low risk

Alternative Banking Channels Will Not Eliminate Bank Branches

It's all about Risk

Date: January 1, 2014 Author: BlogMaster

Alternative Banking Channels Will Not Eliminate Bank Branches

Welcome to Credebt Exchange Blog

Date: December 29, 2013 Author: administrator@credebtexchange.com

Credebt Exchange® enables service and goods providers to offer their invoices as Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR] for sale on the Exchange. These ETR are attractive to Investors and when purchased on the Exchange, this provides Alternative Working Capital to the Originator/seller. A key objective for Credebt Exchange® is to achieve rates that are comparable to, and preferably less than, other commercial finance lending rates. By selling ETR, the trading organisation is avoiding the need for loans and/or credit facilities by using the ETR to provide Alternative Working Capital

50+ Retail Investors

Date: November 18, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

Today the Exchange received funds from it’s fiftieth Retail Investor. Since the first date of trading on 4 July of his Year (see article: First RSA/RPA Trade Executed), achieving 50 Retail Investors demonstrates a strong appetite amongst the investment community for strong, short term cash-equivalents such as ETR….

2013-Q3 ETR Briefing

Date: October 3, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR] are invoices issued under Contract for goods and services supplied to investment quality† companies, or credit insured invoices from Investment Grade [IG] insurers. As at Q3, Credebt Exchange® held RPA of €3.2m, with €1.7m contributed during the quarter. The full spectrum of available ETR was utilised and all currency exposure was hedged

In September, Credebt Exchange® introduced Instalment ETR [i-ETR] with Standard & Poor’s AA- or X2A Long-Term rating. i-ETR are invoices under Contract payable on an instalment basis (e.g. insurance premiums/asset purchases)

Performance
2013-Q3 was the first quarter of trading for Credebt Exchange®. Debtor numbers to the end of September were circa 200. Daily volume rose sharply with total recorded trades in excess of 1,300+. Highest single value trades were in July and September at an average of € 0.4m. Current RSA valued at € 13.1m+

Trend
Yield continued to trend downwards during the quarter, reflective of prevailing deposit rates. Volume of Originator trading continued a steady trend upwards with Investor demand slowing in August and returning to steady growth in September. Outlook for Q4 is medium to strong with immediate, additional capacity for RPA contracts of €3-5.0m

2013-Q3 ETR Briefing

† Investment quality is a combination of Investment Grade [IG] organisations & other credit worthy organisations, as determined by AIG and other credit rating providers, from time to time

Unaffected by Seasonality

Date: August 12, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

The Summer months tend to be the slowest for most Originators (and indeed Investors), however, August continues the steady growth experienced in Q2. The performance demonstrates that the initial Members of …

First RSA/RPA Trade Executed

Date: July 4, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

Volume trading in Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR], has been strong using Revolving Sales Agreement [RSA] block and buy-out trades to increase market penetration. Little, or no, initial resistance in the market. Deals are delivering on Investor Revolving Purchase Agreement [RPA] …

Investor Demand

Date: May 13, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

After only six weeks, Investor demand for Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR], is ahead of expectations and indications are that demand will continue into Q3 at a steady pace. This strong positive performance indicates that ETR placement and yield…

ETR OnRisk with AIG

Date: March 28, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR], officially went ‘OnRisk’ with AIG as finance trade, commercial risks attaching on an insurance contract with specific reference to the Master Agreement …

Investor Road Show II

Date: March 28, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

The second Investor & Intermediary road show concludes with a further 10 Intermediaries being appointed as agents for Credebt Exchange®. This brings the total number of…

Exchange Opens for Business

Date: February 21, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

The first two Investors both confirmed their initial investments in ETR today. Both are deposit investments and the Buy rate commences on 25th February for an initial…….

Intermediary Growth

Date: January 18, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

As the New Year starts the number of Intermediaries has grown substantially now that ETR have both capital and yield protection. The ETR Repurchase forms a central part of the Credebt Exchange®……

ETR Overview

Date: January 8, 2013 Author: BlogMaster

Credebt Exchange® was founded in 2011, specifically to address two important issues in the economy: 1. liquidity in the micro-medium business sector; and 2. providing a strong, stable, cash equivalent alternative to bank deposits for Investors. Trading commenced in July, 2013 and Credebt Exchange® continues to deliver on its commitments to both businesses and Investors.

ETR Overview

The Investor’s yield is achieved by purchasing Exchange Traded Receivables [ETR] at a discount. As explained in the ETR Fact Sheet, ETR are invoices issued under Contract for goods and services supplied to investment quality companies or credit insured invoices from Investment Grade [IG] insurers. ETR provide Investors with:

Protected

ETR payable by investment quality Debtor companies
100% ETR Repurchase (see AIG in the ETR Fact Sheet)
4-Tier capital protection (see ETR Overview)

Liquid

Using RPA, typical investment period is 1-Year revolving
Full or partial redemption available on request
No ‘break charges’ or early redemption fees

Tax Efficient

Significantly tax efficient for individuals with annual exemption
Subject to status, may be off-set against capital losses
Individual’s return taxed as a capital gain

Yield

Substantial increase on comparable bank deposit rates
Capital not committed for long periods, or years
Higher yield than alternative cash equivalents

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