Trade Receivables

What is Trade Receivables?

Trade receivable is the amount which the company has billed to its customer for selling its goods or supplying the services for which the amount has not been paid yet by the customers and is shown as an asset in the balance sheet of the company.

In simple words, trade receivable is the accounting entry in the balance sheet of an entity, which arises due to the selling of the goods and services on credit. Since an Entity has a legal claim over its customer for this amount and the customer is bound to pay the same, it classifies as Current Asset in the Balance sheet of the entity. Trade receivables and accounts receivableAccounts ReceivableAccounts receivables refer to the amount due on the customers for the credit sales of the products or services made by the company to them. It appears as a current asset in the corporate balance sheet.read more are used interchangeably in the industry.

Similar to accounts receivables, Company’s also have non-trade receivables, which arises on account of transactionAccount Of TransactionAccounting Transactions are business activities which have a direct monetary effect on the finances of a Company. For example, Apple representing nearly $200 billion in cash & cash equivalents in its balance sheet is an accounting transaction. read more unrelated to the regular course of business.

Trade Receivables on the Balance Sheet

Below is the standard format of the balance sheet of an enterprise.

source: Colgate SEC Filings

It is generally classified under the Current Assets in a Balance sheetCurrent Assets In A Balance SheetCurrent assets refer to those short-term assets which can be efficiently utilized for business operations, sold for immediate cash or liquidated within a year. It comprises inventory, cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, accounts receivable, etc.read more.

Example

ABC Corporation is an electrical equipment manufacturing company. It recorded a sales of USD 100 billion in FY18 with 30% sales on credit to its Corporate Customers. The trade receivables accounting entry for the transaction in its balance sheet will be as below:

 Accounts Receivables in the above example is calculated below:

Particulars	Billion USD
Total Sales in FY18	100
Credit Sales	30%
Account Receivables / Trade Receivables	Total Sales *% of Sale on Credit
Account Receivables / Trade Receivables	100*30%
Account Receivables / Trade Receivables	USD 30 Billion

In this example, accounts receivables will be recorded as USD 30 billion in the current asset head in the Balance Sheet. 

Why Trade Receivables is a Critical?

I will try to demonstrate why accounts receivables are very critical for the liquidity of Companies, and many a time becomes the sole reason for Companies becoming bankrupt. The liquidity analysisLiquidity AnalysisLiquidity shows the ease of converting the assets or the securities of the company into the cash. Liquidity is the ability of the firm to pay off the current liabilities with the current assets it possesses.read more of an enterprise comprises of a company’s short-term financial positions and its ability to pay its short-term liabilities.

One of the most important metrics we look at while analyzing the liquidity positions of Companies is the cash conversion cycle. The Cash conversion cycleCash Conversion CycleThe Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) is a ratio analysis measure to evaluate the number of days or time a company converts its inventory and other inputs into cash. It considers the days inventory outstanding, days sales outstanding and days payable outstanding for computation.read more is the number of days which an enterprise takes to convert its inventory into cash.

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For eg:
Source: Trade Receivables (wallstreetmojo.com)

The above picture explains it in more detail. For an enterprise, it starts with the purchase of inventory, which may be on cash or credit purchase. The enterprise converts that inventory into finished goodsInventory Into Finished GoodsFinished goods inventory refers to the final products acquired from the manufacturing process or through merchandise. It is the end product of the company, which is ready to be sold in the market. read more and makes sales out of it. The sales are made or cash or credit. The sales made on creditSales Made On CreditCredit Sales is a transaction type in which the customers/buyers are allowed to pay up for the bought item later on instead of paying at the exact time of purchase. It gives them the required time to collect money & make the payment. read more is recorded as trade receivables. So the cash conversion cycle is the total number of days it takes for an enterprise to convert its inventory into final sales and realization of cash.

The formula to calculate the cash conversion cycle is as below:

From the above formula, it is evident that a Company with a significantly higher proportion of trade receivables will have higher days’ receivables and, therefore, a higher cash conversion cycle.

Note: Of course, the cash conversion cycle depends on the other two factors, also which are Days inventory outstandingDays Inventory OutstandingDays Inventory Outstanding refers to the financial ratio that calculates the average number of days of inventory held by the company before selling it to the customers, providing a clear picture of the cost of holding and potential reasons for the delay in the inventory sale.read more and Days payables outstanding. However, here to explain the impact of receivables, we have kept the other two parameters indifferent.

A higher cash conversion cycle for an enterprise may lead to a significantly increased working capital loan requirement to meet its short-term demand for day to day operations. Once such receivables level reaches the alarming degree, it may create serious trouble for the enterprise creating short-term liquidity issues where the company will not be able to fund its short-term liabilities and which may further lead to suspending operations of the company.

Essential Part of Working Capital Loan Assessment

A company avails working capital loans to meet its short-term requirements for day to day operations. The assessment for the amount of working capital limit is carried out by lenders taking into account all the current assets of the Company. Since receivables make an essential and considerable part of the total current assets of the Company, it is critical for lenders to access the level of trade receivables as well as the quality of receivables to approve working capital limits for the Company.

Analysis and Interpretation

The liquidity analysis and interpretation for the level of trade receivables should always be looked into in the context of the specific industry. Certain industries operate in an environment with a high level of receivables. A typical example of the same is electricity generation companies operating in India, where receivables level are very high and days receivable for generation companies varies between as low as one month to as high as nine (9) months.

On the other side, some companies operate with virtually very few or no trade receivables. Companies operating and toll road project developers and operators have very fewer accounts receivables as their revenue is toll collection from commuters on the road. They collect the toll from commuters as and when they pass by toll plaza.

So for a meaningful analysis, one should look at the receivables levels of the top 4-5 companies in the respective industry. If your target company has higher receivables in comparison, than it is doing something wrong either in terms of business model or client/customer targeting or incentives in terms of credit sales to promote sales.

To conclude, one can safely assume that lower the receivables level and days receivables, better the liquidity position for the company.

Trade Receivables Video