Managing your assets

Updated: 27 July 2022

Your assets can provide funding options

If you’re looking to raise funds without disrupting your cashflow, then Asset Finance is an option that you could consider. This means you can maintain your business cashflow while generating funds from your assets to take advantage of their value and help develop and grow your business.

Many businesses are increasingly using Asset Finance to help them spread the cost of new equipment or free up cash in existing assets. With easy-to-manage payments on a regular basis, financing business assets can be a simple, cashflow friendly solution.

Understanding your asset value

Using your assets can provide a higher level of financially stability for your business. To understand which assets you can use to unlock cashflow and raise funds, you need to assess your balance sheet and identify assets that have high value that can be sold or leased.

These include but are not limited to:

  • Stock
  • Plant
  • Machinery
  • Buildings
  • Office equipment
  • Vehicles

How to value your assets

When it comes to assets, their true value depends on what someone will pay for it. To value the tangible assets in your business, you’ll need to work out the net book value (NBV). This is the value of the assets as stated in your accounts.

The next step is to rework the NBV figures for your main assets and importantly, take into account economic influences that include:

  • Assets that have changed in value, such as property or other fixed assets
  • Assets or stock that can only be sold at a discount
  • Any bad debts in your business
  • The monetary impact of wear and tear of machinery and equipment that depreciates over time

Using your assets to secure funding

Buying equipment outright can be costly to your business and means you need accessible cash to do it. To alleviate cashflow pressure, you can use the assets you own through Asset Finance as a way to fund your business needs. And, because it’s a business expense, it can be written off against your taxable profits, so you reduce your tax bill while accessing the funding you need.

Businesses use Asset Finance for a number of reasons. Some of the main uses include buying new or used assets or refinancing the assets the business currently owns to release funds. The benefits of Asset Finance include manageable payments, a more affordable way to invest in your business and a much reduced need to rely on cash that your business needs for a stable cashflow.