Purchase Order Financing Tips and Secrets for Canadian Firms Seeking Trade Finance

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Your worst business nightmare just occurred. You got the order/contract! Now what?!

Purchase order financing is an excellent tool for firms with unusual purchase order and contract sales financing needs. Still, it can access traditional financing via banks or their capital resources within its firm. How does trade finance P O financing work, does your firm qualify, what are the costs, and how does it work? Great questions; now let’s explore some answers!

Typically, Canadian firms looking for this type of financing are distributors, manufacturers, or wholesalers. Various industries in Canada have access to this type of financing, but those tend to be the typical firms needing assistance.

Your need for purchase order financing arises out of what we call the classic working capital gap. What do we mean by that? It’s a case of your suppliers requiring payment either upfront or within 30 days, with your firm unable to generate those funds for payment and, therefore, unable to fill large purchase orders and contracts in your favor. Your supplier is asking you for payment in advance or 30 days, and you won’t receive compensation for at least 60-90 days, perhaps more depending on your build cycle, etc.

Purchase Order Financing Tips and Secrets for Canadian Firms Seeking Trade Finance 1

You don’t want to turn down orders or lose your competitive market position.

The apparent solution for low-cost large amounts of funds is Canadian chartered banks. Still, we observe that many firms can’t satisfy the bank’s requirements for this type of financing to occur. If your firm is growing, profitable, has a clean balance sheet, and has strong historical cash flows and history, you have a solid chance of meeting bank requirements. However, that typically is not the case in the number of clients we talk to looking for alternatives to their growth challenge!

When you accessPOo financing, you can feel that your suppliers will be paid, and at the same time, you generally have access to all the funds you need. Typical purchase order financing applications take anywhere from 2-4 weeks to complete and involve essential financial due diligence on your firm’s ability to fulfill the order, who your customer is (they must be creditworthy), and your good supplier sources must be identified and vetted. It’s as simple as that Media Focus.

So, what are the essential prerequisites for a solid P.O. Financing deal? Naturally, your company must have a contract or order not canceled by your client. The P O finance firm arranges to pay your suppliers directly, alleviating your cash flow and working capital concerns. The transaction is completed when you ship the goods, and your receivables are generated on the sale. Currently, the purchase order finance firm expects to be paid, traditionally handled by your firm’s monetizing of its receivables via a bank or factoring facility. Factoring facilities are great partners to the P.O. financing strategy because they guarantee payment to your firm.

Let’s cover a couple of tips and secrets around the cost of purchase order financing – It generally is in Canada’s 2-3% per month range, which means you have to have solid gross profit margins to sustain the finance charges. But let’s be honest, let’s say your firm has been doing 750k of revenue for the last couple of years, and you finally get a large order from a major customer for 1 Million dollars. Wouldn’t you give up 2-3 % of your profit margin to make one sale, equivalent to your entire year’s business? We think you should positively consider that! The higher cost of this type of financing covers the complexity and risk that the P O finance firm takes in paying for goods, waiting to get paid, and believing that your firm will fulfill the contract order.

Our observation with specific clients has been that completing a purchase order finance deal typically significantly enhances your relationship with your major suppliers. Of course, customers, that’s a personal benefit that is intangible but invaluable at the same time.

Is P O financing for everyone? Maybe not. Could it be the solution to significant working capital needs if your business is growing and can’t be financed traditionally – we certainly think so. Speak to a trusted, credible, experienced purchase order finance expert to explore your options.

Stan Prokop is the founder of 7 Park Avenue Financial – http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com The company originates business financing for Canadian companies and is a specialist in working capital, cash flow asset-based financing. In six years, the company has completed more than 45 Million dollars in funding for Canadian corporations of all sizes. For information on Canadian business financing and contact details, please see http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com/purchase_order_financing_trade_finance.html.

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