FM – L2 – Q111 – Management of receivables and payables

(A). A business entity offers its customers trade credit of 90 days. It is considering whether to offer a settlement discount of 2% for payment within seven days.

Required

Calculate the cost of offering the discount, as an annual interest cost.

(B). Entity K has monthly sales of GH₵100,000. A factor has offered to take over the administration of Entity K’s trade receivables, on a non-recourse basis (or without recourse basis). It would charge a fee of 4% of the value of invoices processed. If the factor takes over this work, Entity K would save monthly administration costs of GH₵2,000 and would avoid its bad debts, which are 0.75% of sales.

Entity K has been informed by the factor that the average collection period (the time between issuing an invoice and receiving payment from the customer) will be reduced from 2 months to 1 month.

The factor will also provide finance by lending 80% of the value of unpaid invoices, charging interest at an annual rate of 8% on the cash that it lends. At the moment, Entity K finances its trade receivables with bank overdraft finance at 9% per year interest.

Required

Calculate the net effect on annual profits of Entity K if the factor took over the administration of the trade receivables and provided finance on the terms described above.

(B). Annual sales = GH₵100,000 × 12 months = GH₵1,200,000.
Average trade receivables without the factor = GH₵1,200,000 × 2 months / 12 months = GH₵200,000.
Average trade receivables with the factor = GH₵1,200,000 × 1 month / 12 months = GH₵100,000.

Annual costs

GH₵ GH₵
Without the factor
Administration (12 × GH₵2,000) 24,000
Bad debts (0.75% × GH₵1,200,000) 9,000
Interest cost of finance (9% × GH₵200,000) 18,000 51,000
With the factor
Fees (4% × GH₵1,200,000) 48,000
Interest cost of finance
Factor finance (8% × 80% × GH₵100,000) 6,400
Overdraft finance (9% × 20% × GH₵100,000) 1,800 56,200
Net extra cost of the factor per year 5,200