Cleared funds

Cleared funds
See also
Depository bond Acquiring bank Willful default Credit terms Borrowing capacity Liquidity risk Void Transaction Current portion of long-term debt Restricted Cash

Cleared funds are the amount of money in your account that is possible to withdraw or invest. It means funds transferred by electronic transfer or bank check. Cleared funds take into account delays in settlements arising from transfers of funds from an account to account. This term appears when the company needs to know its financial situation, especially in the case of short-term cash forecasts.

Only cleared funds are available for payments because receipts or payments that have not yet been cleared do not affect the available account balance.

Types of funds

Several conditions of funds can be described:

• Cleared funds - as defined above,
• pending funds (otherwise unavailable funds), existing in the account, for example, brokerage or check are defined as pending,
• available funds are the amount of money that is on your bank account and is available for immediate use.

Moving money] between banks or selling securities can take some time. Sometimes even few days pass before the bank gets confirmation that the money was transferred. Until then the account is credited with the sum, it is pending and not cleared. Therefore, such money cannot be used in transactions.

Until the cleared funds are recognized as settled, they remain pending, thus investors or clients cannot use them. Distinguish between cleared funds and available funds. By law, banks are required to provide the depositor with a certain portion of deposits within a few days of submission.

Forecasting

Forecasting may show that there are insufficient funds and the account will have a negative balance in the cleared funds, it will be possible to take measures in advance to resolve the problem, without the risk that the bank may refuse payment that the check payment will be defamed. Funds that can be taken in advance include negotiating a sufficient temporary overdraft with the bank, or possibly postponing planned payments for a day or less until the expected proceeds are settled.

Once you have deposited funds on your account, it may take a few days for the bank to be able to make the entire amount available for withdrawal or use. Cleared funds is a situation when funds are transferred from the bank of the check issuer to the bank that is to receive the deposit.

The purpose of the cleared funds forecasts is to assess whether the company will have a sufficient amount of cleared funds on its account to meet payment obligations, allowing any overdraft facility that the company may have. Forecasts for cleared funds should be regularly reviewed and updated, on a daily basis for companies with large and uncertain cash flows.

References

• BPP Learning Media, (2012), FIA Foundations in Financial Management - FFM study Text-2013, BPP Learning Media, United Kingdom.
• BPP Learning Media 1, (2015), CIMA - F1 Financial Reporting and Taxation, BPP Learning Media, United Kingdom.
• BPP Learning Media 2, (2015), FIA Foundations in Financial Management FFM, BPP Learning Media, United Kingdom.
• Dawes G., (2003), Laws of Guernsey, Hart Publishing, USA.
• Eichberger, J., & Summer, M. (2005). Bank capital, liquidity, and systemic risk. Journal of the European Economic Association, 3(2-3), 547-555.

Author: Dominika Pszonak