Factoring Company Guide
First Step: Filling Out the Application
Embark on a journey that could redefine your business's financial landscape. It all starts with our application – a simple yet pivotal step towards unlocking new financial horizons.
Share the essentials about your business and its customers. This information is more than just details; it's the foundation upon which your financial success will be built.
Here, you'll map out your financial needs and goals. How many invoices are you planning to factor? What terms are you aiming for? This is about crafting a strategy that aligns with your business's unique financial narrative.
Remember, in the world of factoring, volume is key. The greater the volume, the more favorable your terms, opening doors to enhanced financial opportunities.
We use your application to determine if factoring suits your business's path. Once approved, we dive into the details, where your factoring volume influences the negotiation, offering the chance for more advantageous deals.
Throughout the negotiation, you'll gain a transparent understanding of all costs involved. After finalizing the terms, we move swiftly into the funding stage – ensuring your business receives the financial boost it needs, when it needs it.
Factoring Company Benefits
Perks of Factoring Services:
- Devote more time to growing your business, rather than worrying about cash flow problems.
- There's no need to stress over monthly loan payments. You can get the money within two to four days.
- Enjoy full control of your business operations.
- Reduce or eliminate the costs that come with collecting payments.
- Exercise greater control over your cash flow by choosing the specific invoices to sell and the timing.
- Deal effectively with clients who are slow in paying their dues.
- Boost your business output and sales figures.
- Benefit from professional services for collection and credit checking.
- Ensure you can always meet your payroll needs.
- Settle your payroll taxes with ease.
- Offer cash discounts on your materials.
- Boost your buying power, which lets you enjoy discounts for bulk purchases or prompt payments.
- Better your credit score by consistently having enough cash to pay your bills on time.
- Have readily available cash for expanding your business.
- Allocate funds for marketing your business.
- Improve the look of your financial statement.
- Get comprehensive and detailed reports on your accounts receivable status.
Is Factoring For You
The Benefits of Factoring
Have you ever considered the advantages of factoring?
Factoring can provide numerous benefits for your business. Let's explore them:
Improved Cash Flow: Factoring allows you to access immediate cash by selling your accounts receivable to a factoring company. Instead of waiting for your customers to pay, you can receive a significant portion of the invoice value upfront. This infusion of funds can help you meet your financial obligations, pay your suppliers on time, and seize new business opportunities.
Elimination of Bad Debt: When you factor your receivables, the responsibility for collecting payment shifts to the factoring company. They assume the risk of non-payment, reducing your exposure to bad debts. This protects your business from the financial consequences of customers who fail to pay or become insolvent.
Focus on Core Operations: By outsourcing the accounts receivable management to a factoring company, you can free up valuable time and resources. Instead of chasing late payments, you can concentrate on core business activities, such as sales, production, and growth strategies.
Credit Risk Assessment: Factoring companies often conduct credit checks on your customers before purchasing your invoices. This assessment provides valuable insights into the creditworthiness of your clients, helping you make informed decisions about extending credit and minimizing potential risks.
Professional Collections: Factoring companies have expertise in collections and can employ professional strategies to ensure timely payment from your customers. Their dedicated teams will handle the collection process, allowing you to maintain a positive business relationship with your clients.
Flexible Financing: Factoring provides a flexible financing solution that grows with your business. As your sales increase, so does the amount of funding available to you. This scalability allows you to access the working capital you need to support your expanding operations.
Quick and Easy Process: Factoring is typically a streamlined and efficient process. Unlike traditional bank loans, factoring does not require extensive paperwork, collateral, or a lengthy approval process. The focus is primarily on the creditworthiness of your customers, making it a quicker and more accessible financing option.
Consider factoring as a strategic tool to optimize your cash flow, reduce risk, and focus on the growth and success of your business.
Factoring History
Factoring History
Welcome to the world of factoring. Whether you're a business owner, aspiring entrepreneur, or seeking new financial tools for your current employer, factoring can help you achieve your financial goals. Surprisingly, factoring serves as the financial backbone for many successful American businesses.
The irony lies in the fact that factoring is rarely taught in business colleges, seldom mentioned in business plans, and remains relatively unknown to the majority of American businesspeople. However, it plays a crucial role in freeing up billions of dollars every year, enabling thousands of businesses to thrive and prosper.
So, what exactly is factoring? It is the process of purchasing commercial accounts receivable (invoices) from a business at a discount. In today's business landscape, offering credit terms to customers has become a common practice in order to secure business. However, these terms can strain the financial health of new or struggling companies, as cash flow is the lifeblood of any business.
Factoring has a rich and ancient tradition, dating back 4,000 years to the days of Hammurabi, the king of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, often called the "cradle of civilization," contributed numerous advancements including writing, structured business codes, government regulations, and the concept of factoring.
Over time, various civilizations embraced factoring. The Romans, for example, were the first to sell promissory notes at a discount. In the American colonies before the revolution, factoring gained widespread documented use. The colonists relied on merchant bankers in London and Europe who provided funds in advance for shipping cotton, furs, and timber before they reached the continent. This allowed the colonists to continue their operations without waiting for payment from European customers.
It's important to note that these arrangements differed from modern banking relationships. If the colonists had relied on traditional banking services in eighteenth-century England, the process would have been much slower. Banks would have awaited payment from the European buyers before paying the colonists. This impractical process led to the emergence of factors in colonial times, who advanced funds against accounts receivable, enabling clients to continue their operations before receiving payment.
During the Industrial Revolution, factoring evolved to focus more on credit issues while preserving its core principle. Factors assisted clients in assessing the creditworthiness of their customers and establishing credit limits, thus guaranteeing payment for approved customers. This practice, known as non-recourse factoring, is common in today's business landscape.
Prior to the 1930s, factoring primarily occurred in the textile and garment industries, as these industries directly inherited the colonial economy's reliance on factoring. After the war years, factors recognized the potential to extend factoring to other industries that relied on invoices, leading to its expansion.
Today, factors come in various forms and sizes. They exist as divisions within large financial institutions, but more frequently as privately owned entrepreneurial endeavors. The rise of private factors surged in the 1960s and 1970s when interest rates soared to unprecedented heights. This trend continued in the 1980s due to increasing interest rates and changes in the banking industry. With banks becoming costly and inflexible due to heavy regulations (recall the Savings and Loan crisis), small business owners sought alternative sources of financing for their expansion and growth. As more banks distanced themselves from small business owners, factoring emerged as a popular option.
Each year, thousands of businesses sell billions of dollars in accounts receivable through factoring. They do so to achieve profitability, fuel growth, and, in some cases, ensure their very survival.
Credit Risk
Quick Cash Flow Solution: Unlocking Success with Expert Credit Risk Assessment
No Additional Cost for Access to Comprehensive Credit Expertise
Accurately evaluating credit risk is a vital aspect of our factoring business. Few clients possess the same level of objectivity as we do in performing this function.
At no extra cost, we serve as your dedicated credit department, supporting both new and existing customers. This provides you with a significant advantage compared to handling credit evaluations internally.
Imagine a scenario where a salesperson pursues a new account with potential for substantial purchases. In their eagerness to secure the business, they might overlook warning signs related to credit difficulties and bypass your internal credit checks. While this approach may lead to a sale, it does not guarantee payment, and without payment, there is no true success.
With us, such situations are avoided. We make credit decisions based on a comprehensive understanding of the new customer's credit situation. We refrain from purchasing invoices from customers with poor credit ratings, minimizing the risk of nonpayment. However, please note that our involvement does not imply a tightening of credit to the extent that it negatively impacts your business beyond your control.
Ultimately, the decision to engage with a new customer of questionable creditworthiness remains yours. (Although, we do reserve the right to say, ""We told you so!"")
While we may not purchase those invoices, you retain the freedom to extend credit terms as you see fit. You remain in control. Regardless of the decisions you make, our participation ensures that you have access to comprehensive, objective, and high-quality information to make informed credit decisions, surpassing your previous practices.
We conduct thorough research on new clients and, equally important, regularly monitor the credit ratings of your existing customers. This stands in stark contrast to the common practice of neglecting routine credit updates on the established customer base. Such oversight can prove to be a costly mistake.
Typically, businesses conduct credit checks only when it's too late, and the problem has already escalated. In contrast, we promptly notify you of any changes in the credit status of your existing customers.
In addition to providing specific customer credit information, we offer comprehensive and detailed reports on your accounts receivables as a whole. Our process includes accounting details, transactional insights, aging reports, and financial management reports. This valuable data empowers you to integrate it into your sales tracking, account history, and in-depth analysis.
With over 70 years of successful experience in managing cash flow and credit, we are excited to leverage our expertise for your benefit. Let us put our knowledge to work for you, helping you achieve your financial goals, unlocking your business's true potential, and paving the way for sustained success.
How To Change Factoring Companies
Changing Your Invoice Factoring Company
All you need to understand when you want to change your invoice factoring company:
If you're thinking of moving to a different invoice factoring company or if you're unsatisfied with your current one, this guide has got you covered.
Key Points to Consider:
- Understanding UCC: The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is a way factoring companies secure their rights over invoices. It acts as an alert to other lenders, indicating an official partnership between your business and the factoring company.
- Switching Process: To move to a new factoring company, the old company's dues need to be cleared by the new one. It resembles the refinancing of a home.
- What's a 'Buyout'?: A buyout occurs when the new factoring company pays the old one using money from your initial funding. This transition is defined in a 'Buyout Agreement'.
- Calculating Buyout Costs: The buyout amount comes from subtracting reserves from the total pending receivables and then adding any fees owed to the old factoring company.
- Costs Involved: If you provide new invoices to the new factoring company, which they use to clear the outstanding invoices at your previous company, you won't face additional costs during the transition.
- Duration of a Buyout: The initial funding could take a bit longer, typically two to three days more, when you're switching companies, due to invoice verification and finalizing the buyout sum.
- Complex Situations: Sometimes, both factoring companies can cooperate until the older one's dues are settled. Dividing invoices based on their issue dates might be a feasible approach.
- Before Signing: Always ask vital questions before committing to a factoring company. For instance, inquire about the possibility of working with multiple factoring companies simultaneously, or the penalties and notice periods for switching.
Additional Queries to Consider:
It's crucial to be informed and understand potential obligations. Ask about post-payment processes, the time taken to update your account after a customer's payment, the duration they hold your original invoices, the number of personnel you'll be interacting with, and any possible hidden charges.
