Supply Chain Finance — In A Nutshell

What is Supply Chain Finance?

Wes Emretiyoma
agriiDAO
4 min readAug 14, 2019

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As worldwide supply chains extend over the globe with diverse groups of suppliers looking to meet demands for multinational consumers, companies are under more pressure than ever to unlock the working capital that is being trapped in their supply chain.

Supply chain finance is a set of alternatives that allow companies to optimize cash flows by enabling them to extend their payment terms to their suppliers while offering an early payment option for their large and small-medium size suppliers.

This puts the buyer and the supplier in a win-win scenario. The buyer is able to optimize their working capital, while the supplier receives extra cash flows for operations. This minimizes the risk across the supply chain.

How Does Supply Chain Financing Work?

Supply chain financing is utilized to improve payments between organizations and their suppliers. Supply chain finance arrangements can be actualized in different ways.

For instance, a supplier is expecting to receive a large order request and needs to create the necessary inventory can utilize supply chain financing. This arrangement enables them to buy the materials required to meet their buyer requests and development goals.

There are two main ways supply chain financing happens — Supplier financing, which a form of pre-delivery financing, and Reverse factoring financing, which is a form of post-delivery financing.

Supplier financing

Supplier financing is a type of supply chain financing that enables producers and merchants to purchase raw materials (or completed goods) so as to build up an inventory or satisfy large requests. It works by partnering with a supply chain financing company that grants you trade credit, and it acts like a middleman between your business and your supplier.

At whatever point you need to purchase raw materials/goods, you submit a buy request to the supply finance company instead of your suppliers. Orders will be placed to you suppliers on your behalf. Additionally, the payments necessary will also be handled.

When your supplier gets the buy request, they produce and convey the merchandise to you. The funding company pays your supplier and issues a receipt to you. The receipt from the production network account organization is payable on net credit terms (ordinarily 30 to 60 days).

Supplier of financing Advantages.

Supplier financing has a few favorable circumstances over different arrangements. The most significant one is that it is a pre-conveyance financing apparatus. It tends to be utilized to fabricate stock and develop your organization. Moreover, it doesn’t meddle with your current financing. The network does not have to document a lien on your advantages.

In conclusion, in contrast to different arrangements, customers don’t have to do anything for your sake. It’s accessible to any little and average size assembling organization or item provider that meets the capability prerequisites. Company with incomes as low as $2 million dollars a year can qualify.

Supplier financing drawbacks

The arrangement has a few constraints and isn’t for everybody. It works just for organizations that can be credit safeguarded. On the off chance that your organization can’t be credit protected, you won’t qualify. Additionally, this arrangement encourages you just with the expense of crude materials and completed merchandise. It doesn’t give help to cover different costs.

Reverse factoring

The most widely recognized organization of a supply chain financing arrangement includes utilizing an item called “switch calculating.” In an ordinary figuring course of action, an organization looks to improve its budgetary position by selling its records receivable to a considering organization. This course of action is very basic and is accessible to numerous organizations.

A turn around calculating arrangement works to some degree uniquely in contrast to the manner in which an ordinary considering course of action works. A huge organization (e.g., Company An) enters an invert figuring concurrence with a store network fund organization. The production network money organization at that point intermediates the records receivable procedure for this organization.

Traditional switch considering arrangements permit providers of the huge organization (Company A) to get an early installment on their net-30 to net-60 solicitations. The provider pays a little charge for this administration. The turn around calculating organization at that point gathers the receipt from the huge organization (Company A) when it develops.

Reverse Factoring Advantages

From a provider point of view, turn around calculating has a few focal points. It enables the provider to get early installments for solicitations due from their client. Clearly, early installments can improve their income.

Furthermore, the expense the supplier pays to get the early payment is aggressively evaluated in light of the fact that the expense is to a great extent controlled by the business financial soundness of the huge customer. This point is significant, as the enormous customer is probably going to have great credit, along these lines enabling its providers to pay a lower charge for the early installments.

Reverse factoring

Turn around figuring has various critical confinements. To start with, it is driven by the client (Company An, in the clarification). The client must get the turn around calculating project and should offer it to its providers — as an advantage to them (providers) for working with the customer. This program helps just those providers with installments from that client (Company A). It doesn’t assist providers with installments from different clients, except if they have their very own invert considering program.

Maybe the best confinement of switch calculating is that, much like considering, it tends to be utilized uniquely as a type of post-conveyance financing. You can get financing simply after the item has been conveyed and the receipt has been affirmed.

Conclusion

While traditional supply chain financing can afford a lot of benefits for a company, there are also some drawbacks as well. With InventoryClub, we are aiming to take some of the best benefits that come with supply chain financing and make it available for people who are just getting started in business — for the people who are often times left out because they are “too small”. In an upcoming post we will be discussing how we are using a new model to turn this on it heads, enabling everyday people who would like to get started in business to receive access to business-critical financing. Stay tuned.

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