You read it as a collections list. A lender reads it as a borrowing base and a buyer reads it as a statement about your customers, and those two readings decide considerably more money than the chasing does.

On the figures below, $635,000 of receivables produces $377,600 of borrowing availability rather than $508,000. The $130,400 difference has nothing to do with the advance rate.

Guidance current as of August 2026

Three readers, three different documents

— You see

A collections list

Who owes what, who to chase this week, and whether the month will land where it should.

— A lender see

A borrowing base

What survives the eligibility filters and can be advanced against. Past ninety days is out, concentration above the limit is out, and only the remainder earns an advance rate.

— A buyer see

A statement about your customers

Whether revenue converts to cash, whether anybody is quietly in trouble, and whether the business depends on one relationship that might not survive a change of owner.

The buckets

BucketAmountShareWhat it means

Current$320,00050.4%Inside terms. This is the part that behaves.

31 to 60 days$145,00022.8%Late, but ordinary. Still eligible.

61 to 90 days$78,00012.3%The warning band. Eligible, and worth a call this week.

Over 90 days$92,00014.5%Excluded from the borrowing base entirely.

Total$635,000100%97 days sales outstanding on $2,400,000 of annual sales

What a lender actually advances against

The filters come before the rate, which is the part owners get backwards. Arguing five points of advance rate is worth far less than removing an ineligible balance, because ineligibles come off the whole amount and the rate only applies to what survives.

— From $635,000 to availability

Total receivables$635,000

Less everything over 90 daysExcluded in full, regardless of who owes it-$92,000

Less concentration above 20.0%Largest customer is $198,000, the cap is $127,000-$71,000

Eligible receivables$472,000

Advance at 80.0%$377,600

$130,400 of availability, lost before the rate applies

An owner looking at $635,000 and an 80.0% advance rate expects $508,000. The filters take $130,400 of that away, and neither filter is about how good your business is. One is about how old the invoices are and the other is about how many customers you have. Run a borrowing base on your own figures.

Concentration is the harder problem

One customer at 31.2% of receivables costs $71,000 of eligibility here. But the borrowing base is the small part of it. A buyer reads a single dominant customer as the question of whether the business survives a change of owner, and prices it accordingly.

Why it cannot be fixed the way an old invoice can

An over-90 balance responds to phone calls. Concentration responds only to new customers, and that takes quarters rather than weeks. It is the single strongest argument for preparing twelve to twenty-four months out rather than deciding to sell and then discovering what the schedule says about you.

What helps in the meantime

A written contract with assignment language, a documented payment history, and a relationship held by the company rather than by you personally. None of it removes the discount. All of it moves the finding from a deal-ender to a price conversation, which is a meaningful distinction when there is only one buyer left.

What the schedule says about the business

Days sales outstanding on these figures is 97 days. Collect the over-90 bucket and it falls to 83. The number matters less than the gap between it and the terms you actually agreed: a business selling on net thirty with a 97-day DSO has a collections problem whatever the industry average happens to be.

The uncomfortable reading

A large over-90 column says one of two things to a buyer. Either a customer is in trouble, or the owner is reluctant to ask for money. Buyers consider the second more often than owners expect, because it suggests the same reluctance shows up in pricing, in renewals and in every other negotiation the business conducts.

This is the other half of the stage one work. The quality of earnings guide covers whether the earnings are real; this covers whether they turn into cash.

Questions

See your schedule the way a lender will

The A/R aging report buckets your own receivables, strips what a lender will not count, flags concentration against the limit and shows the availability that actually results. It is a stage one tool in the Exit Arc and is not sold separately.

See the Exit Arc — $299 once

Or start with quality of earnings, the other stage one tool, which is free once you have an account.