Table of Contents
120
7 min
29.07.2026
Buying Components Abroad: How to Plan Prepayments and Stop Losing Money on FX
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Oleksandr Solovei
CEO & Co-founder Finmap
Defense manufacturing almost always depends on imported components. And imports mean three things at once: long lead times, prepayment up front, and someone else's currency. Each one is manageable on its own, but together they quietly eat into your cash and your margin.
You pay for components today and in foreign currency, you receive them months later, and you sell the finished product in hryvnia. Between those points sit cash frozen in prepayments and an exchange rate that can move against you. And if you don't plan for it, “it suddenly got more expensive” becomes a permanent surprise.
This can be managed. But to do it, you have to see currency payments and the exchange rate ahead of time, not after the fact in a bank statement.
Why currency and prepayments eat your margin
The problem isn't that components are expensive. The problem is three gaps that stack on top of one another.
| Gap | What it means |
|---|---|
| Timing | You pay now, you receive it in 2–3 months, and the cash stays frozen the whole cycle |
| Currency | You pay in foreign currency and sell in hryvnia — the FX move in between can eat your margin |
| Planning | Several prepayments to different suppliers land in the same weeks |
Until these three things are brought together, planning comes down to “there's currency in the account, so we pay.” And when several prepayments fall into one week and the rate has jumped, you “suddenly” come up short on exactly the most important component.
“We built the rate as of the planning day into our unit cost, but we paid a month and a half later at a different one. On a large batch, that difference ate almost all of our profit on the contract.”
What it looks like in numbers
One batch of components, two rates — at the moment of planning and at the moment of payment:
| Moment | What you get |
|---|---|
| Planned the purchase | $20,000 at the planning rate — built into the unit cost |
| Paid the prepayment | The same $20,000, but the rate is already higher — more expensive in hryvnia |
| Difference | A few percent of the batch cost — straight out of your margin |
The dollar amount didn't change. But in hryvnia the batch cost more than you built into the product's price. On a single batch it's a few percent, and across a series of dozens of purchases it becomes a noticeable hole you never saw — because you were only looking at the dollar amount.
“The hardest part was realizing that we were losing money not on supplier prices, but on our own inability to plan currency payments and the exchange rate.”
How to plan it
For currency and prepayments to stop being a surprise, you have to run them as a separate managed loop:
- Keep your accounting in the transaction currency. See balances and payments in dollars or euros separately, not only in the hryvnia equivalent.
- Put prepayments into the calendar ahead of time. Once you can see which currency payments fall in which weeks, you can spread them out instead of paying everything at once.
- Hold a currency reserve against planned purchases, so you're not buying currency at the worst moment under deadline pressure.
- Build the exchange rate into the unit cost with a buffer — so the difference between the plan and the payment doesn't eat your margin unnoticed.
Why accounting belongs here
Seeing currency payments, the exchange rate, and cash frozen in prepayments all at once is impossible by eye when you have several suppliers, several currencies, and different lead times. It all needs to come together in one place and ahead of time, instead of being reconstructed from statements after the fact.
In Finmap you can keep accounts in different currencies, see payments to suppliers in the transaction currency, and put prepayments into the payment calendar. Then you can see which currency payments are coming, how much cash is frozen in transit, and where the exchange rate is eating your margin.
📌 See your currency payments and FX risk ahead of time. Book a Finmap demo — we'll show you how multi-currency accounting and the payment calendar work on your specific component purchases.
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Frequently asked questions
Why do losses appear if the dollar price didn't change?
Because you pay in foreign currency and sell the product in hryvnia. If the rate rose between planning the purchase and paying for it, the same dollar amount costs you more hryvnia — and that difference comes straight out of your margin, even though the supplier never raised the price.
How do you reduce FX risk on purchases?
Keep your accounting in the transaction currency, hold a currency reserve against planned purchases, and build the rate into the unit cost with a buffer. The main thing is to plan payments ahead of time rather than buying currency at the last moment under lead-time pressure.
Why put prepayments into a calendar if there's currency in the account?
Because several prepayments to different suppliers easily land in the same weeks. When you see them ahead of time in the calendar, you can spread them out or prepare the currency in advance, instead of discovering a shortfall on the payment day.
Do you need separate accounts for each currency?
It's convenient to see balances and movement in each currency separately, not just the hryvnia equivalent. Then you can see the real currency reserve against upcoming purchases, and you avoid the illusion that “there's enough money” when there's only enough in hryvnia.
How does the exchange rate affect the product's unit cost?
The rate at the moment you pay for components becomes part of their cost. If you build the planning rate into the product's price but pay later at a higher one, the real unit cost turns out to be higher — which is why you should build the rate in with a small buffer.
Any questions left?
We are ready to answer them.
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