Ways to Protect Your Business's Cash Flow

Ways to protect cash flow

With cash flow so fundamental to the success of any business, it’s important to be proactive in cash flow protection rather than reactive once cash flow issues occur.

Trading on credit terms is a common cause of cash flow problems. By providing goods and services on credit, cash can quickly become tied up by the need to pay suppliers and meet day-to-day commitments, such as staff wages and mortgage payments, before you are paid by customers. This problem can then be exacerbated further when customers miss payment due dates, which is so common in today’s marketplace.

Alongside late payments, there are many other triggers that can lead a business to seek out cash flow protection.

At Hilton-Baird, we can help your business to protect its cash flow by matching your business’s requirements with the most suitable facility or combination of facilities, affording you the level of cash flow protection you desire.

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Why your business may need added cash flow protection

You operate within an industry that has typically long payment terms
Customers often pay invoices late
Suppliers and/or customers are based overseas, with longer distances for goods to travel
Debtor insolvency is rife in your sector due to economic circumstances
Seasonal or environmental changes cause your cash flow to be volatile
The majority of your income comes from one or two key customers
Your business has grown a significant amount in a short period of time
You’ve experienced any difficulties with cash flow in the past
You commonly make international payments and are subject to exchange rate volatility

Solutions designed to protect your cash flow

While there are many steps you can take in-house to help protect your cash flow, there are also a variety of solutions you can implement to protect against issues outside of your control.

Credit Insurance

Credit insurance protects businesses against the threat of bad debt, whether through debtor insolvency or protracted default. In the event a customer doesn’t pay your invoice, the facility will provide a shield of cover and ensure that you get paid for any goods or services you have supplied in line with designated credit limits.

Read more about credit insurance

Invoice Finance

Invoice finance releases cash that’s tied up in unpaid invoices within 24 hours of their issue to specifically improve cash flow. Up to 90% of their value will be made available to overcome the cash flow gap between providing a service and getting paid, enabling you to pay suppliers and meet day-to-day commitments before you receive payment from your customers.

Read more about invoice finance

Commercial Currency Exchange

Remove the uncertainty from commercial currency exchange and maximise your margins when making international payments. We’ll match your requirements with the most suitable options to support your currency needs, from facilities that provide seamless access to foreign currency to those which provide certainty of transactions and support cash flow.

Debt Collection

There is a range of debt collection services to help businesses get paid faster by customers and minimise the risk of late payment and bad debt. While outsourcing your credit control can improve collection times and give you back the time to focus on growth, debt collection agencies can also recover outstanding invoices from slow paying customers or non-payers.

Read more about debt collection

Why choose Hilton-Baird Financial Solutions?

As an independent finance broker, we work with businesses looking to protect and improve their finances every day.

There are many different solutions you can use to protect your cash flow, and we can help you find the right one – whether that’s insurance, funding or debt recovery- to keep your business secure.

With your cash flow protected, you may look to improve it further, allowing you to take advantage of new opportunities and grow your business. With solutions such as asset based lending and business loans designed to provide access to more cash, we can help you at every stage of your cash flow journey.

To discuss your options in more detail, call our cash flow specialists on 0800 9774833 or request a call back.