Knowledge base · Industry knowledge · 7 minuten · 9 Sep 2026

Financing on your assets and on your business

Working capital finance is often summed up as financing against assets. That is half the story. Your assets determine how much headroom there is. Your business determines whether that headroom arrives. This article walks through exactly what counts where, and what is not fundable.

Three kinds of document side by side under a desk lamp, warehouse behind glass

Two questions that get mixed up

At a finance application two questions get mixed up. How much is possible, and is it possible at this business.

The first question is arithmetic on your assets. The second is an assessment of your business.

That second question is the narrower gate. In 2025 only 9 per cent of Dutch SMEs got as far as an application, while 15 per cent had a funding need. Of the businesses that did apply, 93 per cent were granted the amount in full or in part.¹

Your receivables: the arithmetic per invoice

Under factoring the unit of finance is one receivable. Of that, the percentage set out in your agreement is advanced, up to 90 per cent.

A receivable counts if it exists and becomes due, is free of attachment and of third-party rights, and carries no ban on pledging or assignment. And the underlying performance must genuinely have been delivered.

Your debtor is assessed as well. SOOF Finance may refuse a debtor, set a debtor limit and adjust that limit during the term.

Your book is therefore not an amount but a composition. Twenty spread customers fund more easily than one large one.

Your stock: the arithmetic on value

Under inventory finance the base is the assessed value of your stock, times the percentage from your agreement.

Raw materials, work in progress and finished goods can all count. What counts depends on what is locked up in your process and on the valuation method.

That comes with an obligation. You submit stock lists periodically and you cooperate with inspections and valuations by SOOF or by a party appointed by SOOF.

Your security: what is taken before you start

The third item is not an asset but a blockage. If your receivables, stock or property are already pledged to the bank, there is nothing to fund while that remains the case.

A business loan funds the buy-out of the bank, which releases that pledge. Only after that is your asset position available for the other two forms.

Your cash flow: assessed, not financed

There is a boundary here that often gets crossed. Your cash flow is not collateral.

There is no finance that is provided on your cash flow alone. Your liquidity forecast is one of the documents that make the conversation concrete, alongside your debtor list, your stock position and an overview of existing security.

Which ratios get read is set out in improving liquidity. What else gets asked is set out in five questions a working capital financier will ask you.

Your business: the assessment that continues

The business itself is assessed at two moments, and then continuously. Before finance is provided, SOOF establishes the identity of you, your directors and your ultimate beneficial owners.

The creditworthiness of you and of your debtors is tested and that testing is repeated during the term. If control over your business changes without prior consent, that is a ground to call in the finance.

There is another side to that as well. SOOF assesses what your business does and where the opportunities are, not only the risk profile on paper. That starting point is explained at about SOOF Finance.

Where the boundary sits

Some boundaries are hard. SOOF works with SMEs and not with sole traders or one-person businesses, and the starting point is a funding need from around 1 million euros.

And finance is not unconditionally available once it is running. If the risk increases materially, the facility can be reduced or additional security can be required, with written reasons.

If the value of the security falls so far that it is out of proportion to the finance outstanding, you provide additional security or repay the difference. If a receivable turns out to be uncollectable through a dispute, a credit note or a counterclaim, the advance can be reversed.

The full provisions are in the terms and conditions.

What it comes down to

Your assets determine the size, your business determines the access, and both are tested on a continuing basis. That explains why two businesses with the same balance sheet get a different facility.

Want to know what is fundable in your case, take the Quickscan. Want to know first where this kind of process goes wrong, download the guide to working capital finance.

Sources

Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, Mkb'er krijgt aangevraagde financiering vaker toegewezen, 4 February 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

No. Your cash flow is not collateral. Your liquidity forecast does weigh in the assessment, alongside your debtor list, your stock position and your existing security.

Because the composition counts. Spread across debtors, the nature of your stock and whether your security is free all determine the headroom together.

Yes. The testing continues. At a materially higher risk the facility can be reduced or additional security can be required, with written reasons.