Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Pharmacy Cash Flow Instruments New Hampshire and Financial Discount Rates

By Brad MacLiver
Authorship and profile at Google


When a pharmacy is considering selling a cash flow instrument such as the pharmacy’s receivables, or a pharmacy business note, the price the New Hampshire (NH) pharmacy owner receives will reflect how much time is involved before the Buyer/Investor/Funder of the cash flow instrument will recoup his principal investment and the desired rate of return the Investor needs to make it desirable to take the risk of buying the pharmacies cash flow instrument.

To entice an Investor to shift the risk of holding the cash flow instrument from the pharmacy owner to the Investor, there is typically a financial incentive for the Investor. The incentive is the rate of return, which is required to compensate for the Investors perceived risk. The risk is based on the credit of the cash flow instrument’s Payor, previous payment history, seasoning, interest rate, and other variables. Discount rates may change depending on the circumstances of the cash flow instrument, the economy, etc.

If the NH pharmacy owner or an investor could take the cash flow instrument to the bank and cash it in at face value, the asset would hold more value. However, since this can’t happen the risk of holding the cash flow instrument makes it worth less than face value.

Time Value of Money:
The concept of cash being more valuable to have a dollar today instead of tomorrow is based on the Time Value of Money (TVM). Most business people are aware of the TVM and how it is fundamental to both personal and corporate decision making, but to make sure we are on the same page, we will cover the basics of TVM.

TVM assumes that money earns interest over time. Therefore, as the cliché says time is money, and because of this we can compare money at different points in time that have different values and call them equal.

Along with interest rates and principal amounts, a cash flow instruments such as New Hampshire Pharmacy Business Notes in New Hampshire, are originated with a certain time period. The TVM can be looked at, as if it were on a sliding scale. The earlier in time the Note is paid off, the smaller the amount becomes. If the Note is paid off too soon, you won’t get to collect the amount in compounded interest. 


The interest would normally have accumulated if you had waited the full time period. The Note was already written and the terms were set. Unlike a loan in which the rate of return is needed to cover the risk is added to the loan amount. Investors are unable to go back to the buyer of your business and change the note's terms. The investor must therefore look at the portion of the note that is going to be purchased and then subtract the rate of return needed to justify the risk. This is called Discounting. The amount of the discount is contingent on the risk.

If you want an investor to advance you a lump sum of cash, you will no longer have any risk because you have transferred it to the Investor. To compensate the Investor for accepting the risk of holding the note, the Investor will discount the note, and pay you an amount equivalent to the time and risk involved.

The price you receive when selling your note will be the discounted rate according to the basic TVM principals minus the amount that allows an investor to justify the risk.                               

If a note is a length of 3, or more years, it may be beneficial for you to sell only a portion of the note. Because the payments from a month in the 5th year will hold less value than payments collected this year, it is beneficial to you to only sell the number of months that you need to obtain the cash that meets your current financial needs. You can always sell more payments at a later date if you need additional funds. Determine what cash you really need and we will calculate the number of months we will purchase to meet your needs.

Although it involves a much shorter period of time, understanding discount rates is the same when selling a New Hampshire pharmacy’s accounts receivables.


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