Ratio Trade

What Is Ratio Trade?

Ratio Trade is a Ratio product that lets a B2B buyer pay monthly or quarterly while the seller collects the full total contract value upfront at signature. Ratio underwrites the buyer and manages the payment schedule, so offering flexible payment terms no longer costs the seller cash or time.

How Ratio Trade Works

The structure resolves a conflict that sits inside almost every B2B deal. The buyer wants to spread payment across the budget year. The seller wants the whole contract paid upfront. Traditionally one side gives way: the seller discounts to win an annual prepay, or accepts monthly billing and carries a receivable for a year.

Ratio Trade removes the tradeoff. Payment options are presented as part of the proposal, so the buyer can choose monthly, quarterly, or another schedule that matches how their budget actually releases money. Ratio underwrites the buyer, and once the deal is signed the seller receives the full total contract value upfront. Ratio then manages billing and collection against the agreed schedule, so the seller's finance team is not chasing twelve payments per customer. The financing fee can be absorbed by the seller or built into the buyer's payment plan, which turns it into a commercial decision made at the proposal rather than a surprise at the end.

The important detail is that the buyer's experience stays familiar. They sign a contract, receive a schedule, and pay it. Nothing about the relationship with their vendor changes, other than the timing that suited them in the first place.

Ratio Trade in Plain English

Your customer pays over time. You get paid now. Ratio handles the credit decision and the collection in between. It is buy now, pay later applied to serious B2B contracts, where the seller has a payroll to run and cannot afford to wait twelve months for money it has already earned.

Ratio Trade and B2B BNPL

Consumer buy now, pay later trained an entire market to expect payment flexibility at checkout. B2B has the same problem in a harder form. Contract values are larger, buying committees are slower, procurement enforces budget cycles, and a single deal can determine whether a seller hits a quarter.

B2B BNPL through Ratio Trade differs from the consumer version in the parts that matter. Underwriting is on the business, not an individual, which means company financials and payment behavior rather than a personal credit score. The instrument is a negotiated contract with defined terms rather than a checkout button. And the seller is not simply financing a purchase, it is converting total contract value into cash at the close.

What Ratio Trade Changes in the Deal

The first change is discounting. A large share of the discount granted in B2B software exists purely to buy an annual prepay. When the seller receives the full contract value upfront regardless of how the buyer pays, that reason disappears, and price holds.

The second is deal size. A buyer constrained by what they can pay this quarter buys less than one who can spread the same commitment. Payment structure quietly caps contract value in more deals than most revenue leaders track.

The third is speed and predictability. Payment terms negotiations, finance escalations, and procurement rounds all add days at the exact moment momentum matters. Removing that conversation shortens the cycle, and cash landing at signature rather than across the following year makes forecasting a matter of arithmetic rather than estimation.

Ratio Trade and the Closing Motion

Ratio consolidates the close into a single motion: Propose, Close, Collect, Renew. Ratio Trade lives in the first three stages. At Propose, payment options appear alongside pricing, so terms are structured rather than conceded. At Close, the buyer signs a schedule that fits their budget and the seller collects the full contract value upfront. At Collect, Ratio runs the payment schedule it underwrote. Ratio Boost approaches the same problem from the other direction, converting recurring contracts that were signed in the past into upfront growth capital. Trade determines how the next close turns into cash. Boost releases the cash locked in previous closes. One is deal by deal, the other is portfolio wide, and both end at the same place: cash upfront.

Common Questions About Ratio Trade

Who takes the credit risk in a Ratio Trade deal?

Ratio underwrites the buyer and manages the payment schedule, which is the point of the structure. The seller collects the full contract value upfront rather than carrying a receivable and running collections against a customer it also has to renew.

Does Ratio Trade change what the buyer pays?

The buyer pays according to the schedule agreed at signature, monthly or quarterly rather than in one lump. Whether the financing fee sits with the seller or is built into the buyer's plan is decided during the proposal, so both sides see the full picture before anyone signs.

How is Ratio Trade different from Ratio Boost?

Ratio Trade applies to a specific new deal, letting the buyer pay over time while the seller collects total contract value upfront. Ratio Boost applies to contracts already signed, converting an existing recurring revenue base into upfront growth capital that is non-dilutive and carries no warrants.

Key Takeaways

• Ratio Trade lets buyers pay monthly or quarterly while the seller collects the full total contract value upfront.
• Ratio underwrites the buyer and manages the payment schedule, so the seller does not carry the receivable.
• Payment options are presented at proposal, which removes the discount usually traded for an annual prepay.
• Flexible terms increase deal size, because budget timing stops capping what a buyer can commit to.
• Ratio Trade structures cash from new closes, while Ratio Boost unlocks cash from contracts already signed.