Trade Finance Guide: A quick reference for U.S. exporters has been written to help U.S. companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), learn the fundamentals of trade finance to turn their export opportunities into actual sales and to achieve the ultimate goal: to get paid for their export sales. 

The guide begins with an introduction and then continues with 11 chapters on a variety of topics.  The topics discussed are:

• Chapter 1 Methods of Payment in International Trade
• Chapter 2 Cash-in-Advance
• Chapter 3 Letters of Credit
• Chapter 4 Documentary Collections
• Chapter 5 Open Account
• Chapter 7 Government-Guaranteed Export Working Capital Loan Programs
• Chapter 8 Export Credit Insurance
• Chapter 9 Export Factoring
• Chapter 10 Forgaiting
• Chapter 11 Government Assisted Foreign Buyer Financing
• Chapter 12 Foreign Exchange Risk Management

For more information follow this link:

http://trade.gov/media/Publications/abstract/trade_finance_guide2008desc.html