Accounts Receivable Sales Agreement

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Accounts Receivable Sales AgreementWe have an A/R sales agreement to sell short-term receivables from certain customer trade accounts to an unaffiliated financial institution on a revolving basis. The A/R Sales Agreement has a 3 year term, which we intend to renew.

As part of the A/R Sales Agreement, we routinely sell designated pools of receivables as they are originated by it and certain U.S. subsidiaries to a separate bankruptcy-remote special purpose entity (“SPE”). The assets of the SPE would be first available to satisfy the creditor claims of the unaffiliated financial institution. We control and therefore consolidate the SPE in our consolidated financial statements.

The SPE transferred ownership and control of certain receivables that met certain qualifying conditions to the unaffiliated financial institution in exchange for cash. We account for transactions with the unaffiliated financial institution as sales of financial assets, with the associated receivables derecognized from our consolidated balance sheet. The remaining receivables held by the SPE were pledged to secure the collectability of the sold receivables. The amount of receivables pledged as collateral as of December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 is approximately $1.1 billion and $973 million, respectively.

We continue to be involved with the receivables transferred by the SPE to the unaffiliated financial institution by providing collection services. As cash is collected on sold receivables, the SPE continuously transfers ownership and control of new qualifying receivables to the unaffiliated financial institution so that the total principal amount outstanding of receivables sold is approximately $1.0 billion at any point in time (which is the maximum amount allowed under the agreement). The future amount of receivables outstanding as sold could decrease, based on the level of activity and other factors. Total principal amount outstanding of receivables sold is approximately $1.0 billion and $800 million as of December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively.

The following table summarizes the activity and amounts outstanding under the A/R Sales Agreement as of period end:


	December 31, 2022		December 31, 2021
Receivables sold to the financial institution and derecognized	$	8,946,730	$	7,520,474
Cash collected on sold receivables	$	8,746,740	$	7,520,465

Continuous cash activity related to the A/R Sales Agreement is reflected in cash from operating activities in the consolidated statement of cash flows. We received a benefit to cash from operations of approximately $200 million from increasing the amount of receivables sold under the A/R Sales Agreement in the year ended December 31, 2022.

The SPE incurs fees due to the unaffiliated financial institution related to the accounts receivable sales transactions. Those fees, which totaled $27 million, $11 million, and $6 million in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively, are recorded within other non-operating expense (income) in the consolidated statements of income. The SPE has a recourse obligation to repurchase from the unaffiliated financial institution any previously sold receivables that are not collected due to the occurrence of certain events, including credit quality deterioration and customer sales returns. The reserve recognized for this recourse obligation as of December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 is not material. The servicing liability related to our collection services also is not material, given the high quality of the customers underlying the receivables and the anticipated short collection period.