Closing a $10 Million Refinancing With No Financials and the Clock Running

The Situation

The company was growing fast, and growth in manufacturing consumes cash before it returns it. Every increase in orders meant more raw material, more work in process, and more finished goods on the floor, all of it paid for weeks or months before customers paid. The business was profitable and expanding, and it was running out of money.

At the same time, a $10 million loan had come due. Refinancing that loan was not optional, and the lenders and investors the company was talking to had a standard first question: send us your financials.

The company did not have any. The finance function produced statements once a year, at year-end, for the tax return. There were no monthly financial statements, no reconciled balance sheet, no cash forecast, and no borrowing base the company could stand behind. The then CFO did not have the systems or the infrastructure to produce them, and the lender’s timeline did not allow for building that capability the slow way.

The owner saw the situation clearly. The financing would not happen on the strength of what the company could currently produce, and the deadline would not move.

The Challenge

The refinancing had to close within a fixed window, and everything a lender would need to underwrite it had to be built inside that window:

• No monthly financial statements for the current or prior year
• No reconciled balance sheet, meaning inventory, receivables, payables, and accruals had to be established and supported
• No cash forecast to demonstrate how the business would service new debt while funding inventory growth
• No borrowing base or collateral reporting
• An incumbent finance function without the bandwidth or systems to deliver any of it
• Lenders whose confidence would be shaped as much by how quickly and cleanly the company responded as by the numbers themselves

The owner needed a team that could arrive immediately, take ownership of the deliverables, and work at the pace the deadline required.

What We Did

We took the initial call on a Friday. The team was on site Monday.

Financial statements under deadline. We rebuilt the close and produced monthly financial statements for the periods the lenders required, reconciling every balance sheet account and establishing inventory, receivables, and accrual balances with support that would hold up to lender review. Where the prior finance function had recorded transactions without closing them, we established cutoffs and posted the adjustments needed to present accrual-basis results consistently across periods.

Lender package and refinancing support. With reliable historical financials in hand, we built the package the refinancing required: a 13-week and 12-month cash forecast showing debt service alongside the working capital required for the accelerated growth, a borrowing base and collateral schedule, and the responses to lender diligence questions. We worked directly with the lenders and the company’s advisors through underwriting and closing, so the owner and management could keep running the business.

Reporting infrastructure. The financing deadline forced the build, but the infrastructure was designed to last. Once the refinancing closed, we formalized the monthly close and reporting process, implemented real-time business intelligence dashboards for revenue, margin, inventory, and working capital, and refined the cash forecast into a standing weekly discipline tied to orders, purchasing, and collections.

The Result

The $10 million refinancing closed successfully and on time. The lenders received financials, a forecast, and collateral reporting that answered their questions, delivered at a pace that signaled a company in control of its numbers rather than one scrambling to produce them.

The company now has what it lacked when the loan came due: monthly financial statements, dashboards that show performance as it develops, and a cash forecast that lets management see the working capital impact of growth before it becomes a shortage. Decisions about purchasing, production, and financing are made with visibility rather than after the fact.

Why It Matters

Rapid growth is the most common way a profitable manufacturer runs out of cash, and the moment it becomes urgent is almost always the moment a lender or investor asks for financials the company cannot produce. Companies that report once a year are not prepared for that moment, and the timeline never accommodates the gap.

Buxbaum is built for this situation. We deploy immediately, take ownership of the deliverables, and work under the pressure that a fixed deadline creates. That is not an occasional capability; it is how we operate. Friday call, Monday start is our standard response when the clock is running.

If a financing, a lender request, or a cash crunch has exposed a gap in your company’s ability to produce its numbers, the time to act is now. Let’s talk about what needs to be done and how fast it can happen.