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• 14 Jul

  What Does An Invoice Finance Survey Involve?

  An invoice finance survey is normally a visit to your business conducted by a surveyor. Typically, a survey can take from a few hours to several, days depending upon the size of your business and hence the amount of records that need to be examined. The surveyor will examine the records of your business in order to better understand the nature of your trade, how easily your sales invoices are paid and the financial position of your business. Part of the purpose of a survey is to confirm that your company records match the details that you have given the invoice finance sales person. Typically they will ask for the following information to be provided: sales ledger, creditors ledger, sales and purchase invoices, sales related contracts, PAYE and VAT records. The surveyor will also want to discuss with you, in detail, the nature of your business and how it operates. One of the key things that the surveyor will look to do is determine the level of dilutions to your sales invoices that could be anticipated. Four instance, if you raise credit notes or if you offer discounts. They will also check to ensure that customers that you sell to are not also on your purchase ledger as these would constitute contra accounts. The issue with a contra account is that the debtor could offset the purchase balance against the sales balance leading to a significant dilution. These situations can still be funded in some instances as there are measures that the invoice finance company can take to control the situation. After completing the survey, the invoice finance surveyor will produce a report which will be put forward for approval to the invoice finance company. In some cases, the sales person may also be authorised to conduct the survey themselves.

  By Glenn Blackman