Knowledge base · Accounting & tax · 4 minuten · 4 Sep 2026

What your accountant needs for a finance application

Many SME owners put a financing question to their accountant first. That makes sense, because the accountant knows the figures and the history. An accountant only really engages once it is clear which form you are looking for. This article sets out what makes that conversation concrete.

An adviser pointing something out on a laptop beside a business owner

Why the accountant is the first port of call

Your accountant knows your margins, your receivables position and your repayment obligations. That makes the accountant the logical person to talk to about a financing question.

Even so, that conversation often stalls at the same point. Working capital finance is a different discipline from the annual accounts.

What you take to that conversation

A financier looks at different things from a tax adviser. For working capital, these are the four documents that give the conversation substance.

Your receivables list with an ageing analysis. That shows how much money is tied up and with whom.
Your stock position, split out into raw materials, work in progress and finished goods.
An overview of existing security. Which bank holds a pledge over which asset?
Your liquidity forecast for the coming twelve months.

With these four documents on the table, the conversation is about amounts. Without them, it is about assumptions.

Where the accountant makes the difference

On one point your accountant is indispensable: the existing pledge. Is your receivables book or your stock already pledged to the bank? A new financier will want to know that first.

Your accountant knows which security is in place and which deed it comes from. That saves weeks of searching.

SOOF Finance takes over an existing pledge from the bank and coordinates that process. For many SMEs that is the point at which alternative finance becomes possible after all. How pledging works is set out in what is a pledge.

What your accountant does not decide

Your accountant advises, the financier assesses. A positive recommendation is not an approval, and a cautious one is not a rejection.

So put the question to both in parallel. Then you hear from both sides what is possible.

Not sure yet which form fits? Start with which type of finance fits you or take the quickscan.

Want to know which questions come up in that conversation? They are in five questions a working capital financier will ask you.

Are you an accountant yourself, looking for a party to refer to? See For accountants.

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

SOOF Finance works with SMEs, not with sole traders or one-person businesses.

Yes. If the accountant supplies the file, the conversation gets to the substance faster.