MovieTone, Inc. is a producer and distributor of specialty DVDs. It sells directly to large retail firms on terms of net 60 and has average monthly sales of $350,000. It has recently decided to pledge all of its accounts receivable to its bank. The bank advances up to 80 percent of the face value of these receivables at a rate of 4 percent over the prime rate, while charging 2.5 percent on all receivables pledged for processing to cover billing and collection services. Prior to this arrangement Movie Tone was spending $50,000 a year on its credit department. The prime rate is 6 percent.

a. What is the average level of accounts receivable?

b. What is the effective cost of using this short-term credit for one year?