For suppliers · Explainer
How does getting paid early work when I have already delivered?
You deliver and invoice exactly as you do today; once your anchor approves the invoice, a financier can pay you its value, less a cost shown before you accept, before the due date, and your anchor pays the financier when the invoice falls due.
In short
- You deliver and invoice as you do today; nothing about your sale changes.
- Once your anchor approves the invoice, a financier can pay you early, less a cost shown before you accept.
- What you still owe depends on the product: the statement under the flow says who owes the money.
Start from where you are
The goods are delivered. The invoice is with your anchor, approved or about to be. What is left is the wait, and the wait is the problem, because payroll, rent and your next order do not wait with you.
Getting paid early does not change that sale. It changes who holds the invoice while you wait, and who is paid on the due date.
Three parties, not two
You, your anchor and a financier. Your anchor is the company you sell to, and its approval of your invoice is what makes early payment possible. The financier is a separate institution that pays you now and is paid by your anchor later. Mtaji operates the platform where the three of you meet.
What moves, and in what order
You deliver. You invoice. Your anchor approves the invoice. The financier pays you early, less the cost shown to you before you accept. On the due date your anchor pays the financier. The diagram below draws the same steps.
Under the documented terms, before every trade you see the product, the amount payable to you, every deduction and the effective annualized cost. If the number does not work for you, decline and wait for the full amount on the due date.
Nothing about your sale changes
Your anchor keeps its payment terms, your price stays your price, and using early payment on one invoice commits you to nothing on the next. It is per invoice, per time.
What you still owe depends on the product
This side has three products and they do not share one answer, so be careful with anyone who gives you one. Under the documented terms: with reverse factoring, on invoices your anchor has confirmed, you sell the payment outright, if your anchor later fails to pay, that is the financier’s exposure and not yours, unless the invoice was not genuine, was already promised to someone else, or there was fraud. Invoice discounting and purchase order financing are with full recourse, if your anchor does not pay, or you do not deliver, you must repay.
That is why “is this a loan?” has no one-line answer for the whole side, and why this site will not give you one. The statement under the diagram says who owes the money, product by product, and it is drawn from the product register rather than written here.
Where to start
Find out whether your anchor already runs a program, and on which side. If it does, you join against the trading relationship you already have. If it does not, telling us who your anchor is goes into the signal that starts programs.
The flow, step by step
- Money moves
- A document moves
- Goods move
- 1.Supplier: You deliver the goods or services to your anchor. (goods move to anchor.)
- 2.Supplier: You issue the invoice to your anchor. (a document moves to anchor.)
- 3.Anchor: Your anchor approves the invoice on the platform. (a document moves to financier.)
- 4.Financier: The financier pays you early, less the cost shown to you before you accept. (money moves to supplier.)
- 5.Anchor: On the due date your anchor pays the financier. (money moves to financier.)What happens if the anchor does not pay depends on the product: see who owes the money, below.
Who owes the money: Under Reverse factoring, your anchor carries the obligation and settles with the financier. You are not borrowing against your own balance sheet. Under Purchase order financing and Invoice discounting, you carry the obligation, the financing is with full recourse: if your anchor does not pay, or you do not deliver, you must repay. What the arrangement is in your program is set out in your financier’s documentation.