Contingency Capital: A Smarter Way to Manage Cash Shortfalls

By: Scott Cilento, Oil & Gas Advisory, OneAM 
Published Thursday, June 12, 2025 | Estimated read time: 2 min 

Many businesses, even the most well-run, reach a point where they need to raise additional cash quickly. But when that moment comes, they often find their options are too slow, too expensive, or too inflexible. 

The reasons for cash shortfalls vary: 

• Expansion and hiring to meet growing customer demand 

• New infrastructure or equipment needs 

• Unforeseen tax or legal expenses 

• Delayed customer payments or extended payment terms 

In the energy sector, these challenges are often amplified by shifts in supply and demand and regulatory changes.  For example, when several states started requiring electronic filing of motor fuels excise taxes, fuel distributors had to take on additional costs to build out and maintain new integration and tax preparation capabilities. 

The Pitfalls of Traditional Capital Solutions 

To manage shortfalls, many companies still rely on conventional financing such as bank lines of credit, credit cards, term loans, asset-based lending, factoring, and raising equity. These solutions do come with some drawbacks and hidden costs such as:  

• Long onboarding timelines 

• High upfront or minimum fees 

• Restrictive covenants 

• Disruption to customer processes and relationships 

• Erosion of control 

A Better Way to Plan for the Unexpected 

Smart business owners know the best time to solve a cash flow problem is before it becomes urgent. That’s where contingency cash planning comes in by identifying plausible shortfall scenarios and building a ready-to-activate, low-friction strategy to address them on demand. 

For energy businesses, desirable attributes of a cash-generating solution may include: 

• No additional debt 

• No additional bank reporting requirements 

• No changes to customer invoicing and collections 

• Clear and transparent fees 

How Can New Early Payment Solutions Help 

Early pay solutions, such as OneAM, give companies a better way to access working capital. OneAM Early Pay unlocks the cash tied up in your receivables by connecting you to a network of sophisticated capital providers who can price risk dynamically and efficiently, provide you with offers on your invoices, and settle quickly. 

Compared to other solutions in the market such as invoice factoring, OneAM has developed a platform and capability to provide a simple and efficient process to sell your receivables. 

• No upfront costs 

• No minimums or volume commitments 

• No disruption to your customer relationships and payment processes 

• Use on demand as needed 

It’s simple, fast, and designed to work for businesses such as energy service companies where input costs and thus cash needs can vary significantly throughout the year. 

Learn more on our website and schedule a demo at info@oneam.us.