Factoring Company Guide
First Step: Filling Out the Application
Your journey to financial transformation begins with one straightforward step: filling out our application. This is where you start reshaping your business’s financial future.
Provide us with the essentials about your business, an insight into the lifeblood of your company. This information isn't just data; it’s the key to unlocking your financial potential.
In this initial phase, we discuss what your business needs financially. How much are you looking to factor? What are your ideal terms? This is a strategy session tailored to your business's unique position and aspirations.
The amount you choose to factor plays a significant role. More factoring volume translates to more advantageous terms, giving your business the leverage it needs.
Your application lets us evaluate if factoring aligns with your business’s trajectory. Post-approval, the negotiation phase begins. Here, the extent of your factoring directly impacts the terms, offering you the chance for more beneficial deals.
During negotiations, every aspect of the cost is made clear. Following agreement, we expedite the funding process – a critical step in realizing your business's financial empowerment.
Factoring Company Benefits
Factoring Benefits: Enhance Your Business Operations
- Alleviate cash flow concerns and shift your focus to business growth.
- Avoid the stress of loan repayments with quick cash access in 2-4 days.
- Maintain complete control over your business decisions.
- Significantly reduce or eliminate costs associated with collecting payments.
- Optimize your cash flow by selectively factoring invoices.
- Stay financially ahead of slow-paying clients.
- Boost your business’s production and sales capabilities.
- Utilize expert services for efficient payment collection and credit assessment.
- Consistently meet your payroll obligations.
- Always have sufficient funds for payroll taxes.
- Benefit from discounts on bulk material purchases.
- Enhance your purchasing power for additional savings and discounts.
- Improve your credit rating by maintaining adequate cash flow.
- Ensure available capital for business expansion.
- Secure necessary funding for your marketing efforts.
- See tangible improvements in your financial statements.
- Receive detailed reports on your accounts receivable for informed decision-making.
Is Factoring For You
The Importance of Factoring
Completing a sale goes beyond just making the transaction. It's about collecting the money that is owed to you. Imagine being a part-time banker for your customers, providing them with interest-free financing.
Take a moment to examine your accounts receivable aging schedule. How many accounts are overdue by more than 30 days? By not receiving timely payment, you're effectively extending credit to these customers. This may not align with your original business intentions.
Consider this: If your customers approached a bank for the same amount of money, they would expect to pay a significant amount of interest. Yet, you're not earning any interest on the money you've extended to them.
What's more, you're missing out on the opportunity to utilize that capital while waiting for customers to settle their debts. The cost of not having this money readily available can be significant. Essentially, your customers are asking you to finance their business by granting them extended payment terms.
Have you thought about the expenses incurred due to missed opportunities when your funds are tied up in accounts receivable? It's time to take a closer look at the impact on your business and explore the benefits of factoring.
Factoring History
Factoring: Empowering Businesses for Success
Welcome to the world of factoring, where businesses find the financial support they need to thrive. Whether you're a business owner, an aspiring entrepreneur, or seeking innovative financial solutions for your employer, factoring can play a crucial role in helping you achieve your financial goals.
It's interesting to note that factoring has often been overlooked and remains relatively unknown in the business world. Despite this, it serves as the backbone for many successful American businesses, unlocking billions of dollars each year and enabling thousands of enterprises to grow and prosper.
So, what exactly is factoring? Simply put, it involves purchasing commercial accounts receivable (invoices) from businesses at a discounted rate. In today's competitive landscape, offering credit terms to customers is often necessary to secure business. However, this can create cash flow challenges, particularly for new or struggling companies that rely on steady and timely payments.
Factoring, with its long and rich history, traces back 4,000 years to the time of Hammurabi, the king of Mesopotamia, often considered the birthplace of civilization. Mesopotamians were pioneers in developing writing, establishing business codes, and introducing the concept of factoring.
Over time, factoring gained traction in various civilizations. The Romans, for instance, were early adopters, introducing the sale of promissory notes at discounted rates. In the American colonies, factoring played a crucial role before the revolution. Merchant bankers in London and Europe provided funds in advance for goods such as cotton, furs, and timber, allowing colonists to continue their operations without being hindered by delayed payments from European customers.
It's important to highlight that these historical arrangements differ from modern banking relationships. In fact, modern banks would have caused delays, waiting to collect payments from European buyers before disbursing funds to the colonists. This impractical process led to the emergence of factors in colonial times who provided advances against accounts receivable, enabling clients to maintain their operations while awaiting payment.
As the Industrial Revolution unfolded, factoring adapted to address credit concerns while maintaining its core principles. Factors began assisting clients in assessing customer creditworthiness, establishing credit limits, and guaranteeing payment for approved customers. Today, this approach, known as non-recourse factoring, is commonly practiced in the business world.
Before the 1930s, factoring primarily served the textile and garment industries, which inherited the practice from the colonial economy. However, after the war years, factors recognized the potential to expand factoring to other industries reliant on invoicing, leading to its broader adoption.
In the present day, factors come in various shapes and sizes. Some operate as divisions within large financial institutions, while many others are independently owned entrepreneurial endeavors. The popularity of privately owned factors surged in the 1960s and 1970s when high-interest rates made traditional bank financing less accessible. This trend continued in the 1980s, driven by increasing interest rates and changes in the banking industry. As banks became more expensive and inflexible due to regulatory constraints, small business owners sought alternative financing options. Factoring emerged as an increasingly popular choice.
Each year, thousands of businesses leverage factoring to sell billions of dollars in accounts receivable. By doing so, they unlock cash flow, achieve profitability, drive growth, and, in some cases, secure their very survival. Factoring empowers businesses by providing them with the financial support they need to thrive in today's competitive market.
Credit Risk
Quick Continuous Cash: Access Our Expert Credit Risk Assessment at No Extra Cost
In the realm of factoring, accurately evaluating credit risk is vital. Our expertise in this crucial area is now available to you, at no additional fee. We act as your dedicated credit department for all customer transactions, giving you a distinct advantage.
Visualize a situation where a salesperson's eagerness to secure a deal overlooks critical credit risks, potentially leading to sales without payment. Our expert credit analysis prevents this, safeguarding your financial interests.
We provide in-depth credit assessments, but the decision to transact remains in your hands. Our role is to deliver comprehensive and objective credit information, enhancing your decision-making process.
Our continuous monitoring of your customers' credit status, a practice often neglected in business, is your safety net against financial uncertainties.
You also benefit from detailed accounts receivable reports, providing insights essential for effective financial management and strategic decision-making.
With a 70-year track record in managing cash flow and credit, we are ideally positioned to support your business's financial health. Let us apply our proven expertise for your benefit.
How To Change Factoring Companies
Changing Invoice Financing Providers
Want to switch your invoice financing provider? Not satisfied with your current one? Planning to bid goodbye to your present provider? Not sure what to know before making the switch? Here's a simple guide with all the answers.
Understanding UCC and its role in changing providers
Typically, an invoice financing company (also called a factor) will file a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). This is like staking a claim on the invoices they've funded. This helps to keep track of who's got a claim on what assets, especially because invoices change every day - some are paid, some are collected, and some new ones are created.
So, the factor files a 'blanket' UCC covering all your invoices, even though you might not be getting funding for all your sales. It's just not practical to file a new UCC for every single invoice. The UCC is like a warning sign for other lenders that there's a deal between your business and the factor.
The specifics of your agreement with the factor, like rates and which accounts are factored, are outlined in a private Security Agreement. A UCC is kind of like having a first mortgage on your business.
The process of changing factors
The factor with the oldest UCC is said to be in the 'First Position' on the collateral. This means they have the first right to collect payments on your invoices and any related items.
If you want to change factors, the old one must be paid off by the new one. This is similar to refinancing your house. The old factor's claim is released and the new one's claim is filed.
The process where the new factor pays off the old one using money from your first funding is called a 'buyout'. The Buyout Agreement, which outlines the transition process, is signed by the old factor, new factor, and your company. In this agreement, you approve the 'buyout figure' provided by the old factor.
How is the Buyout Figure Calculated:
The buyout figure is usually calculated by subtracting any reserves from the Gross Receivables Outstanding and adding in fees due to the old factor. It's good to ask for a breakdown of this figure so you can understand if there are any early termination fees or other charges added to your usual factoring fees.
Once the old factor is paid off, you only have to deal with the new factor. If you're changing from an 80% advance rate to a 90% advance rate, you might have enough money to pay off the old factor without needing more invoices.
How much does the buyout cost?
If you can give the new factor new invoices to pay off the old ones, there's no additional cost for the switch. As payments come in on the old invoices, those payments are forwarded to the new factor who then sends them to you.
However, if you need to resubmit some invoices already factored with the old factor to the new one, those invoices will incur fees from both factors. As a result, your factoring fees for the first month after the change could be higher than normal. If the new factor's rate is lower, you can calculate how long it will take to recover this cost and make a cost-benefit analysis.
How long does a buyout take?
When changing factors, expect the first funding to take a couple of days more than the usual setup process. This extra time is needed for invoice verification and for calculating the buyout figures.
What if my situation is not that easy?
In some cases, the old factor and the new one can work together via an Intercreditor or Subordination Agreement until the old factor is paid off. The old factor has rights to invoices up to a certain date and the new one has rights to all invoices after that date.
Questions you might have wished you asked before signing up with your current factor:
- How many factors can I use at one time? (The universal answer is one, according to the UCC.)
- If I want to change factors, how much notice do I need to give?
- What is the penalty if I leave without giving the required notice?
- Do you use a bank lock box to post my customer payments? If so, how long does it take for a customer's payment to post to my account from the date the bank receives it?
- How long do you hold my original invoices before sending them to my customers?
- How many different people will I work with at your company?
- Do I need to pay for postage for you to mail my invoices?
- Do you charge me every time I have a new customer to check or set up?
- Do you start holding reserves once a customer hits 60 days even though I have 90 day recourse?
