A large order in, but you have to buy first: what is possible?

The situation everyone knows

The order is in. Your supplier wants paying up front, or within ten days. Your client only pays after delivery, and then on their own term.

That term is not yours to set. Without an agreement it 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

So a gap of weeks to months opens up that you have to pre-fund. On a large order that gap is bigger than your usual buffer.

What SOOF does not do

SOOF does not finance an order and does not finance a purchase instruction. There is no product that pays for goods before those goods are yours.

The reason is technical and hard. Factoring works on a receivable, and a receivable only exists once you have genuinely delivered. An invoice you send in advance on an order that has not yet been delivered does not qualify.

You would rather read that now than after three conversations. What is possible is set out below, and in practice that is often enough.

Four states, one boundary

Set out the states your goods can be in and the boundary becomes clear at once.

• Not yet bought, there is only an order: not fundable.
• Bought and in transit, not yet delivered: fundable as stock, as long as the goods are yours.
• Bought and in your warehouse: fundable as stock.
• Delivered and invoiced: fundable as a receivable, up to 90 per cent.

The boundary sits at ownership and delivery, not at the size of the order.

What is possible: capital already in your chain

The first question is not how you fund the new purchase, but where your current money is sitting. At trading and manufacturing businesses a large part of it stands still in the warehouse.

Inventory finance frees that capital up without running your stock position down. The headroom follows the assessed stock value and the percentage from your agreement.

Stock you have already bought but which is still in transit can count. At a car wholesaler, vehicles are advanced against while they are on the road to their final destination.

Note the difference with purchase finance. Those vehicles have already been bought and are already owned, and that is precisely why they count.

What is possible: getting back faster out of your open invoices

The second source sits in what you have already delivered. If you have invoices outstanding, factoring takes up to 90 per cent out of them straight away.

That funds the new purchase from your own turnover cycle rather than from a loan. The shorter your lead time from purchase to invoice, the harder this works.

And the headroom moves with you. Deliver more and more becomes available, with no new application.

What is possible: clearing the blockage first

Sometimes there is headroom but you cannot reach it. If your receivables and stock are already pledged to the bank, another financier can do nothing with them.

A business loan funds the buy-out of the bank, after which that pledge is released. You can then put stock and receivables to work after all.

That is the longest of the three routes. So do not start on it in the week the order lands.

The arithmetic on the buying side

There is one more item that often stays out of view. Many suppliers give a discount if you pay within ten days.

At a high purchase value that discount can cover part of your funding cost. Put the two side by side before you decide, as worked through in the early payment discount from your suppliers.

What it comes down to

The order itself is never the collateral. The question is where in your chain the money is locked up: in your warehouse, in your receivables, or behind a pledge.

That differs per business and it can be worked out in a short conversation. Start with the Quickscan, or get in touch straight away if the order has a deadline.

Sources

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