Advanced payments can help you get paid sooner and improve cash flow in a number of ways. Firstly, there is the obvious consideration that receiving payments in advance payout to vendors ensures that you will indeed receive the payment in full and on time — indeed, early. However, there are several less obvious ways that advanced payments improve cash flow.

As a supplier, advanced payments are important when an order comes through which is particularly burdensome. Given the amount of resources involved, these suppliers need some assurance that the buyer will not back out of the deal, which advanced payment provides. It can also help to cover the cost of the required resources for the supplier.Additionally, if a company does not have enough capital to purchase the materials required to complete a large order, part of the advanced payment can be put towards buying the necessaries.