There are various sources available to meet short term needs of finance. The different sources are discussed below:
7.1 Trade Credit: It represents credit granted by suppliers of goods, etc., as an incident of sale. The usual duration of such credit is 15 to 90 days. It generates automatically in the course of business and is common to almost all business operations. It can be in the form of an 'open account' or 'bills payable'.
Trade credit is preferred as a source of finance because it is without any explicit cost and till a business is a going concern it keeps on rotating. Another very important characteristic of trade credit is that it enhances automatically with the increase in the volume of business.
7.2. Accrued Expenses and Deferred Income: Accrued expenses represent liabilities which a company has to pay for the services which it has already received. Such expenses arise out of the day to day activities of the company and hence represent a spontaneous source of finance. Deferred income, on the other hand, reflects the amount of funds received by a company in lieu of goods and services to be provided in the future. Since these receipts increase a company’s liquidity, they are also considered to be an important source of spontaneous finance. 7.3 Advances from Customers: Manufacturers and contractors engaged in producing or constructing costly goods involving considerable length of manufacturing or construction time usually demand advance money from their customers at the time of accepting their orders for executing their contracts or supplying the goods. This is a cost free source of finance and really useful.
7.4. Commercial Paper: A Commercial Paper is an unsecured money market instrument issued in the form of a promissory note. The Reserve Bank of India introduced the commercial paper scheme in the year 1989 with a view to enabling highly rated corporate borrowers to diversify their sources of short term borrowings and to