Part 4: Debtor Finance Interview With Chris Allchin of Grow Business Funding

Welcome back to Part 4 of the National Collection Services cashflow discussion. This week we are speaking to Mr Chris Allchin of Grow Finance to learn about some protective measures a business can take when cash flow is tight or assistance is required for growth. If you or anyone you know needs the services of a debt collector or debtor finance assets please email me stewart.wilkinson@natcollection.com.au or call 0447474222.

Question – Chris thank you for meeting with us today, can you please provide a short summary who Grow Business Funding are and the services you offer?

Thanks Stewart, Grow Finance are a leading Invoice, Equipment and Trade financier providing SMEs cashflow finance alongside a variety of other products such as Insurance Premium Funding, Solar Funding and business loans. We try to ensure that we can find the right solution for clients to ensure they meet the demands of everyday cash flow cycle

Question – Can you please explain how debtor finance works?

Debtor Finance is a very simple way to bring forward your outstanding payment terms with your debtors. We advance typically 80-85% of an invoice value upfront so that you don’t have to wait for your customer to pay to then resupply your business with wages, stock, overheads etc. Once the customer pays the invoice the client receives back the balance of the invoice.

The client can also choose from a the following invoice finance products

• Confidential Facility: Sound quality clients where customers are unaware of the relationship between Grow and the client
• Partnership Facility: The relationship between Grow and client is disclosed to the customer but the client maintains credit control (collections and day to day accounts handling). Generally for decent quality clients that just fit outside of a sound risk profile
• Full Service Facility: The facility is disclosed to the customer base and Grow assist in the credit control and this is for clients that have a higher risk profile

Question – Do you think trade credit insurance is a valuable insurance product to have and why?

Personally I think that Trade Insurance is a unique product that should be looked at on a case by case basis. There are some significant merits of having debtor insurance, to assist your business in ensuring it is protected from bad debts, and it’s quite interesting to see how many clients do not have this product or have come across it to see what benefits it could have to their business.

However, in saying that, some businesses do not need this product as they have a well spread customer base where there is no inherent risk on the debtors.

Question – What type of Business benefits mainly from Debtor Finance?

Any B2B client that has terms larger than 7 days to their customers. If the services offered are complete, and this ranges from Labour Hire, Manufacturing, Wholesale, Transport plus many more industries, then obtaining cashflow finance is quite simple and easy to obtain.

The most sought after reason outside of the above is the fact that there is no property security required to obtain facilities for cashflow finance.

Question – I understand once a debt ages over 90+ days, generally the lender has a recourse of the invoice. How important is it for clients to take recovery action at 90 days?

That’s correct, at 90 days or 90 days EOM generally the invoice goes into recourse and is deducted from the available funds offered to the client. Considering this recourse, it’s imperative that clients stay on top of collections and also understand the debt cycle of their business as well as the industry they are in. Reading the warning signs that a debt looks like it will be delayed in payment, the cost of not having it paid on time putting the money back into their cash flow is quite high and they should initiate recovery action when the invoice falls due as per the terms, not later.

With the tsunami of insolvencies expected post covid Grow Finance is a protection measure worth some special consideration. If you would like to talk to Chris directly you can email him at chrisa@growfinance.com.au or call 0428480776

Next Week we will hear from Mark Browning of Prasidium Trade Credit Insurance to discuss Debtor Insurance and the benefits it offers.