Knowledge base · Factoring · 6 minuten · 9 Sep 2026

Finance that grows with your turnover: how that works

With a credit limit, growth is a problem. You apply for more headroom exactly when you need it, and then the assessment starts again. With factoring your headroom hangs on your receivables book. This article sets out how that growth works arithmetically, and where it stops.

A debtor ageing list spread across a desk, the warehouse behind glass

The problem with a fixed ceiling

A credit limit is set on your position at the time of application. That number then stands still while your business moves.

Grow your turnover by a quarter and your receivables position grows by roughly as much. So you need more working capital, not less.

The term you have to bridge is not yours to set. Without an agreement the payment term is 30 days, between businesses it may run to 60 days, and from a large company to an SME supplier a maximum of 30 days applies.¹

What moves with you under factoring

With factoring your available headroom is not an agreed amount but an outcome. That outcome is worked out afresh every day by what you have invoiced.

The base is the sum of your approved outstanding receivables. Of that, SOOF Finance pays out the advance rate set out in your agreement, up to 90 per cent of the invoice value.

Invoice more and that base rises. When your client pays, the receivable drops out and headroom is released again for the next invoice.

A worked example

Suppose you have an average of 2 million euros in approved invoices outstanding, at an advance rate of 90 per cent. That makes up to 1.8 million euros of working capital available.

Grow your turnover by 25 per cent while your payment terms stay the same, and your outstanding book runs up to around 2.5 million euros. The available headroom then comes to around 2.25 million euros.

You do not have to apply for that extra 450,000 euros. It follows from your own invoicing, with no new negotiation and no new security.

These figures are an example, to show the mechanism. Your own percentage and your own limits are set out in your agreement.

Where growing with you stops

Precision matters here more than a neat promise. Growing with you is not an unlimited line.

There is a facility: the maximum headroom available to you at any given moment. On top of that each debtor carries a limit, and SOOF may adjust that limit during the term.

A receivable only counts if the performance has genuinely been delivered, the receivable is free of third-party rights and there is no ban on assignment. An invoice you send in advance on an order that has not yet been delivered falls outside that.

And the assessment continues. If the risk increases materially, SOOF may reduce the facility or ask for additional security, with written reasons. The full provisions are in the terms and conditions.

Growth that comes from one client

This is the situation where the arithmetic most often works out differently. If your growth comes from one large customer, you run into the limit for that single debtor.

The book does grow, but the fundable base does not grow to the same extent. That is why SOOF looks at your whole receivables book and agrees the percentage in advance.

If your growth sits in stock rather than in invoices, inventory finance works the same way: the headroom follows the assessed stock value.

What it comes down to

A credit limit is a snapshot, a factoring line is an outcome. You only notice that difference when you grow fast.

Want to know how much headroom sits in your receivables book, take the Quickscan. Want to see the comparison with the bank first, read factoring or bank credit.

Sources

Rijksoverheid, Minister Herbert: bedrijven en overheden, betaal je leveranciers op tijd, 18 June 2026.

About the author

Jaap van Aalst

Commercieel directeur, SOOF Finance

Jaap van Aalst started his first business almost thirty years ago, in staffing and secondment. That is where he saw for himself how many opportunities are lost when money sits too long in unpaid invoices.

Around eighteen years ago he moved into the factoring world, as commercial director. Since then he has sat across the table from countless business owners and seen at first hand what financing questions look like in practice. He looks further than the balance sheet: what the business does, where the opportunities are, and which form of finance genuinely moves it forward.

That is also the basis of his work at SOOF Finance. His starting point is simple: finance is not an end in itself, but a means by which a good entrepreneur delivers on their plans.

Ask your question

Frequently asked questions

Yes, within the agreed conditions. The headroom follows your approved outstanding receivables, at the advance rate and the debtor limits set out in your agreement.

No, as long as you stay within your facility and your debtor limits. Grow beyond those and we look together at whether the facility is adjusted.

Yes. If the risk increases materially, SOOF may reduce the facility or ask for additional security, with written reasons.