Knowledge base · Factoring · 4 minuten · 4 Sep 2026
Five questions a working capital financier will ask you
A financing conversation moves faster when you know what will be asked. The questions from a working capital financier are different from a bank's. Five subjects always come up. Here is what sits behind each one.
1. What exactly does your business do
Your business activity decides what your credit risk looks like. Your registration in the Dutch trade register carries an SBI code, the standard industrial classification used by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
That code plays a part in insurance premiums and in the assessment of credit risk. No longer matching what you actually do? Have it updated.
2. How is your receivables book made up
This is the most important of the five. A financier looks at spread, payment behaviour and concentration.
Twenty customers of comparable size is a different book from three. If one client provides the bulk of your turnover, their creditworthiness weighs heavily.
So bring a receivables list with an ageing analysis.
3. What security is already in place
With factoring the question is who holds a pledge over your receivables. With inventory finance it is your stock.
If that is already pledged to your bank, it has to be sorted out first. SOOF Finance takes over an existing pledge and coordinates that process.
What a pledge is and why applications stall on it is set out in what is a pledge.
4. How large is your funding need
This question decides which form fits, not whether you are welcome. A temporary peak calls for something different from a structural need.
SOOF Finance works with SMEs. Sole traders and one-person businesses fall outside the target group.
5. Where is the money going
Growth, an acquisition, a seasonal peak or a repayment to the bank. The answer decides which form fits and whether a combination makes more sense.
SOOF Finance combines factoring, inventory finance and a business loan through one party. The trade-off is set out in which type of finance fits you.
What you take to the conversation
Four documents make the conversation concrete: your receivables list with an ageing analysis, your stock position, an overview of existing security and your liquidity forecast for twelve months.
More on that in what your accountant needs. Or take the quickscan first.
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.
Frequently asked questions
The build-up of the costs is set out under rates and costs. What it means for your situation, you hear in the first conversation.
SOOF Finance works with SMEs, not with sole traders or one-person businesses. Which legal forms fit exactly, you hear in the first conversation.
Further reading: the biggest pitfalls in factoring
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