Supply chain finance (SCF) is the practice of financing working capital and capital expenditures for businesses. It can help companies in many different industries, including manufacturing, construction and agriculture. The main objective of supply chain finance is to help businesses manage their cash flow by providing them with short-term loans or lines of credit at a lower cost than traditional bank loans.
Supply chain finance is a financing solution for businesses. It's a way to get cash flow and help suppliers and customers, as well as businesses, grow.
The supply chain finance handbook explains what it is, why you should use it and how to set up a supply chain finance facility yourself or with the assistance of an intermediary.
Supply chain finance is not just about cash flow. It is not a panacea for all the ills of your business. However, it can be an important tool to help you achieve your objectives as a growing business and manage risk in an uncertain environment. As such, supply chain finance should be considered as part of any funding plan.
Supply chain finance is a suite of financial products that allow you to tap into the value of your existing inventory. The most common types include:
· Factoring, where you sell invoices for a discount
· Leasing, where you rent equipment like forklifts and trucks from a third party
· Receivables management, which allows you to move your invoices from an information system onto an accounting platform and update them as necessary before selling them in bulk at wholesale prices
· Inventory financing, which allows you to borrow against inventory when cash flow is tight
Supply chain finance is a way of financing a company's supply chain. It functions like invoice finance, but instead of financing invoices from suppliers to retailers, it finances the movement of goods through the supply chain.
Supply chain finance is typically used by large retailers that have complex supply chains and need flexible funding options to keep them running smoothly. These companies often employ thousands of suppliers across multiple countries with varying currencies and payment terms, so they rely on third-party services (like banks) to help manage this complexity.
It's important to understand that supply chain finance is a complex ecosystem. There are many different players involved, and each has a specific role to play.
You should also be aware that not all the different players are working together in the same way, or for the same company. So it's important to understand how these roles fit together in order to work effectively with them.
Supply chain finance is a tool to help companies manage their cash flow. It’s also a tool to help companies manage working capital and inventory. The value of supply chain finance comes from the impact it has on each of these three areas, which can improve your ability to predict and control your business performance.
Supply chain finance is part of traditional banking, but it differs in that it uses cash-based financing rather than credit-based financing. Supply chain finance offers more flexibility over traditional bank lending because you don't need a loan approval or collateral—you only need enough cash at the end of each month to pay off your invoices from suppliers. For this reason, supply chain finance is less expensive than traditional bank loans because there's no interest rate attached to it (though some providers will charge an origination fee when you first open an account).
SCF is a very dynamic market, and there are many opportunities for providers to innovate in this space. The industry continues to grow and develop, so it’s important for everyone involved to stay up-to-date with the latest developments.