Gulf receivables are batched, not late

Read the settlement terms most merchants sign at onboarding. Tamara's Saudi merchant terms pay the net amount for orders fulfilled between Saturday and Friday on Tuesday of the following week. An order fulfilled on a Saturday waits 10 days for its money.

Below a Base Settlement Amount, set for each merchant, Tamara may hold the net amounts and pay only on the Tuesday after the total passes it. A new merchant's first 3 approved transactions can be held for 1 month. During the weekly cycle Tamara may hold up to 75% of the net amount, settled monthly, where it suspects a problem or needs to verify the merchant.

Card acquiring runs to its own timetable. Geidea's Saudi card-present terms give a merchant 75 days from the transaction to report a financial claim on a mada payment, and 7 days on a credit card. Payments by other credit cards are collected from the banks within at most 7 working days. Where a merchant banks elsewhere and outside Riyadh, Geidea settles twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday.

If refunds in a payment cycle exceed the merchant's sales, the shortfall is a debt due to Geidea at once. A week heavy with refunds turns a receivable into a payable.

Chasing these days as a collections problem is how a finance team spends a quarter phoning the wrong people. The days are fixed in the terms, so the levers are the terms: the payout day, the threshold, the share held back, the notice on fees and the windows for a claim.

In the Gulf, cash timing is a negotiated term. Most groups negotiate it once, at onboarding, when they have the least room to push. We expect the groups that reopen it at renewal, with their volumes in hand, to carry less working capital for the same sales.

• A Merchant should ask which of its sales channels pay on a cycle, how many days each cycle holds, and what those days cost in working capital at today's volume.
• A Tenant selling through platforms and payment providers should ask which terms it can reopen at renewal: the payout day, the threshold or the share held back.
• A Carrier collecting cash on delivery should ask how many days pass before that cash reaches its own account.
• Every board should ask who in the group reads the windows for a claim, because a claim filed after its window falls outside the terms.