Background
The worsening liquidity crunch has resulted in a serious decline in activity, and many of us are failing to sell enough to cover overheads and operating costs. Some also have a situation where they have several debtors who are failing to pay, and on the other end creditors are chasing them for payment, and they cannot pay because their debtors and sales are not performing.
Sales and purchases
To address these problems, we have come up with a way in which you can sell, but not for cash. You can exchange the goods or services you have, for goods or services you want or need. How do you do this? Simply complete our spreadsheet, which you can download by clicking here, and list the goods/services you have and would like to exchange on one side, and the goods/services you need on the other. Then send it to us and we will match you to counterparties. The more items you include, particularly on the purchases side, the higher the chances that we will be able to match you to counterparties.
Normally, what you would put on your selling side are the things you routinely sell from your business. You can also include other non-stock items, but if they are not new, please indicate this fact. On the other side, what you want would be items you normally use and purchase in your business. Examples are stationery, motor vehicle spares, computers, inputs, services (accounting, legal e.t.c) and anything else that would normally be a purchase or expense item.
In other words, this system allows you to transact, but without the use of cash. Whatever sales you then do for cash will enable you to pay for things that are not exchangeable, such as taxes and salaries/wages.
Debtors and Creditors
In similar fashion, we have also set up a system to enable the setting off of debtors and creditors' balances amongst businesses. Currently, there are several summonses flying around between businesses which cannot settle outstanding dues because of lack of cash. Yet when one looks at the scenario, A owes B, who owes C, who owes A. If they are set off, then no-one owes anyone anything. While this scenario is simplified and in practice there will be several counterparties involved in a set-up, the principle and end result are sound.
Just as with the sales and purchases, all we need you to do is to provide us with a list of your debtors and creditors, and we will do the matching. The schedule for this is included in the attached spreadsheet as a second sheet. Please note that you need to include both debtor(s) and creditor(s) on your list, otherwise offsetting is not possible. Any debtors submitted must be overdue, i.e they must have gone beyond the agreed payment date. You can also simply give us your debtors' and creditors' analyses.
In the "status" column on the spreadsheet, please indicate what stage you are with that debtor/creditor: "final notice", "letter of demand", "summons" or "under litigation".
Accounting treatment
Swap or exchange transactions are accounted for in the same way as you would record your normal trade entries if you were using cash. You can set up a separate account, similar to your cash account, to process these transactions through. They are also treated the same way for tax purposes.
Charges
It costs you nothing, and you do not have to be a paid-up member to participate. All you need to do is submit your sale and purchases, and/or debtors and creditors that you would like included in the program. Charges will only arise when we do a transaction for you.
For sales and purchases involving tangible goods, a charge of 2.5% of the value of the product will be levied on the seller only. No charge applies on the goods you receive/purchase. For services/intangibles, the charge shall be 5% of the value. Note that for services, the service will need to be provided prior to the counterparty delivering the other side of the transaction.
For debtors and creditors' set-offs, the charge shall be the higher of $50 or 1% of the value of the debtor/creditor settled.
Interested?
If you have transactions to be completed, simply fill in the attached form and send to