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Need cash in a hurry? Here’s how business owners can look to their financial statements to improve cash flow.
Receivables
Many businesses turn first to their receivables when trying to drum up extra cash. For example, you could take a carrot-and-stick approach to your accounts receivable — offering early bird discounts to new or trustworthy customers while tightening credit policies or employing in-house collections staff to “talk money in the door.”
But be careful: Using too much stick could result in a loss of customers, which would obviously do more harm than good. So don’t rely on amped up collections alone for help. Also consider refining your collection process through measures such as electronic invoicing, requesting upfront payments from customers with questionable credit and using a bank lockbox to speed up cash deposits.
Inventory
The next place to find extra cash is inventory. Keep this account to a minimum to reduce storage, pilferage and security costs. This also helps you keep a closer, more analytical eye on what’s in stock.
Have you upgraded your inventory tracking and ordering systems recently? Newer ones can enable you to forecast demand and keep overstocking to a minimum. In appropriate cases, you can even share data with customers and suppliers to make supply and demand estimates more accurate.
Payables
With payables, the approach is generally the opposite of how to get cash from receivables. That is, you want to delay the payment process to keep yourself in the best possible cash position.
But there’s a possible downside to this strategy: Establishing a reputation as a slow payer can lead to unfavorable payment terms and a compromised credit standing. If this sounds familiar, see whether you need to rebuild your vendors’ trust. The goal is to, indeed, take advantage of deferred payments as a form of interest-free financing while still making those payments within an acceptable period.
Is your balance sheet lean?
Smooth day-to-day operations require a steady influx of cash. By cutting the “fat” from your working capital accounts, you can generate and deploy liquid cash to maintain your company’s competitive edge and keep it in good standing with stakeholders. For more ideas on how to manage balance sheet items more efficiently, contact us.
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