Factoring: Unlock The Money You've Already Earned

If you run your own business there?s no reason to wait thirty days or more to get paid - you can now have the money paid within 24 hours.

When you run a small business which depends on your customers making timely payments, you may find certain times of the year to be hard going. Even with your business being a really solid going concern, at times you may not be able to find the necessary cash for running your operations.

This can lead to some vicious cycles: your suppliers are discontent with your payment delays, so you may lose out on some good deals. Your employees get frustrated if they don?t receive their wages on time, and this can lead to a loss in productivity and higher staff turnover rate. So when you do finally get paid and you want to pick up activity again, you may have no one to supply you and no one to get the work done!

You need cash up front. What are the alternatives?

There are a number of ways for you to get more cash into your business:

* Inject personal funds. This is not usually an ideal solution.
* Find a new investor, if you are prepared to give away equity in your business
* Use an overdraft. A solution that usually implies a great deal of time and a lot of conditions your business has to comply with. Overdrafts can be recalled at any time and can be restrictive on your business.
* Apply for a bank loan. In this case you may be spending a lot of time only to find out that you are not eligible. Small businesses aren't usually banks' favorites when it comes to loaning them money.

The good news is that you don't actually have to wait. A good way to avoid these cash flow gaps and not enter the vicious cycle is to set up an agreement with a factoring company.

How to use your own money?

If you?re thinking that the money you've honestly earned is all locked up in outstanding or aging invoices, think again. A factoring facility can really work for you and help you to unlock the cash in your business.

Your invoices can be as good as any other assets from a factoring company?s point of view. Through factoring you can capitalise on your largest asset, your sales ledger today as opposed to waiting for payment from your customers.

How do you put an invoice through a factoring company?

The process is simple. When you invoice a customer you also send an electronic copy of that invoice to your factor. Then, within 24 hours or less, the factor advances you up to 90% of the invoice value. The factor usually takes on the responsibility of collecting the money from your customer the day the invoice is due to be paid. After that step is accomplished, the factor pays you the rest of the money, minus a small fee for the service.

For small to medium companies outsourcing the sales ledger management function can be of great benefit because it saves you the burden of managing invoices and undertaking the collections activity. By contracting out that element, you can effectively distance yourself from that function and concentrate on the relationship with your customers and focus on sales.

An additional service offered by such companies is protection against bad debts, which would typically cover up to 90% of the outstanding balance on any customer, where you have a designated protection limit in place.

Why should you use factoring?

Factoring is a complementary solution to be used alongside your standard banking facilities. You should look for the right factoring solution for your business.

Here are a few reasons why factoring should be another source of cash to consider:

* Because you'll never run out of cash again as a consequence of extending the payment terms to your customers.
* Because the facility will grow in line with your business growth
* Because the facility will allow you to take up opportunities available to you. to propel your business forward
* Because you can grow your business at the right pace without worrying about how long it takes your customers to pay you.
* Because you want the competitive edge against your competition.

Factoring is a financial tool that will allow you to obtain cash advances by capitalising your invoices, while at the same time easing your workload.

By Freelance writer sponsored by http://www.Ltsbcf.co.uk/ . LloydsTSB Commercial Finance provides business solutions such as term loans & factoring: http://www.Ltsbcf.co.uk/factoring/ . Please link to this site when using this article.

Financing your Business with Accounts Receivable Factoring

Having to wait up to 60 days for commercial customers to pay their invoices can be one of the biggest challenges that owners of small to mid size companies have to face. Waiting to get paid is not usually an issue for well-established companies that have a significant cash cushion in the bank. However, it can seriously affect smaller companies or companies that are going through a significant growth phase.

Most owners react to this cash flow problem by going to the bank, hoping to obtain a loan or a line of credit. However, banks have strict lending guidelines and seldom lend money to businesses that cannot demonstrate three years of profitable operations and cannot provide audited financial statements. Furthermore, most bank financing products tend to have arbitrary limits, which are based on your existing financial capacity, rather than your projected growth.

What growing businesses need is a form of financing that is tied to sales, allowing you to get more working capital, as your company grows. Furthermore, the solution should work for small and mid size businesses that may not have established credit histories, but that have great paying customers. Is there such a solution?

If you are in a situation where your business is growing and selling products or services to great credit worthy customers, you should consider factoring your invoices as a possible solution. Accounts receivable factoring allows you to convert your slow paying receivables into cash, by financing them through an accounts receivable factoring company. Accounts receivable factoring is a flexible line of financing that is directly tied to your sales. Basically, the more you sell to good customers the more financing you can obtain.

The process is fairly simple. Once an accounts receivable factoring agreement has been established, you send copies of your invoices to the factoring company, who in turn advances you a significant portion of their value. A small percentage is usually not advanced and kept as a reserve to cover disputes/etc. You obtain immediate funding to pay for company expenses and grow the business, while the factoring company waits to be paid by your customers. Once they get paid, they will rebate the funds that were kept in reserve and charge a small fee for the service.

Accounts receivable factoring is an ideal product for companies that are growing quickly and cannot afford to wait 30 to 60 days to receive payment from their customers. It provides you with the necessary financing to operate and grow your business, and as opposed to bank products; it's easy to qualify for this service.

How factoring your invoices can help your business grow

Every day many business owners hit a wall. That wall prevents them from growing their business, or at least, severely limits the speed at which they can grow their companies. Sometimes, and especially for small and mid size businesses, the wall appears to be insurmountable. That wall is lack of working capital. Let's take a look at the most common source of working capital problems: extending payment terms to customers.

There are few things that small business owners hate to hear more than a customer utter the words, "We'll be happy to do business with you. However we pay net 45 days". As is well known, commercial clients like to pay their invoices in 30 to 45 days. As a business owner, you are expected to go through the trouble and expense of delivering your product or service on time... only to then wait 30 to 60 days to get paid.

It does not take a long time before the business has a lot of money tied up in their unpaid invoices - or accounts receivable. At this point the business may have more money in unpaid invoices than actual cash in the bank. When they reach the breaking point, they hit the wall. They can no longer supply new products until old invoices pay. Sometimes it's even worse. The business may stop operating until old invoices pay. Payroll is missed. Key suppliers are not paid. Unless this is fixed quickly, the business will certainly face major problems. If you hit the wall, there are two options. Either you step on the brake and stop growing your business, which means your competition gets the contracts, or you blast through the wall using some form of financing. Invoice factoring can help you do just that.

Your unpaid invoices are an asset - really!

Companies that hit the wall have a great asset that can be turned into immediate funds. They just don't know it. This asset is their unpaid invoices from credit worthy clients. Let me give you an example. Let's say that you have a $10,000 invoice from General Electric payable in 45 days. Do you think GE will pay? Isn't that invoice almost as good as money? Well, of course. GE is arguably one of the best and most financially stable companies on the planet. Most people would certainly consider that invoice to be "almost cash". Unfortunately, banks will seldom provide you any financing that relies on that "almost cash". However, there is a solution that relies solely on the power of your unpaid invoices. It is called factoring.

Invoice factoring. Financing your business without debt

Invoice factoring allows you to turn your slow paying invoices from good customers into immediate cash. It's a very simple transaction in which you trade an invoice - "almost cash" - for actual cash. Basically, the factoring company provides financing solely on the power of your soon to be paid invoices.

Provided that you have good customers, you can repeat this process for every invoice you have, almost indefinitely. If you sell products to good credit worthy customers, a factoring company will gladly buy your invoices. There are no limits, except how much you can sell.

One important thing to know about factoring is that it doesn't generate debt. The factor does not loan you money for your invoices. It buys them outright from you at a small discount. Since factoring is not a loan, qualifying for it is easy and your financial statements look cleaner. You just need a well-run business and great customers.

Who is a good candidate for factoring?

Factoring is a great resource for companies that have great paying - albeit slow paying - customers. To work well, the company should have profit margins of at least 15%. However, higher margins of 25% - 50% are more desirable.

Factoring works well for companies that have hit the wall and are turning away new business opportunities because of lack of money. In these instances, factoring will almost always allow you to grow your company immediately and will more than pay for itself.

Factoring works well for almost any industry. Some very successful staffing companies, trucking companies, IT consultancies, construction firms, manufacturers and service providers have used factoring to dramatically grow their businesses.

A sample factoring transaction

Let's take a look at a sample invoice factoring transaction. This will help you better understand how this financial tool works. Let's say that you have a company, called Super Services Inc. Super Services sells products to two clients. The clients are Company A and Company B. The factoring would look as follows:

1. Super Services delivers its products to Company A and Company B 2. Super Services sends Company A and Company B an invoice for its products. At the same time, it sends copies of the invoices to factor 3. The factoring company receives the invoices and advances funds to Super Services. Super Services can use the funds to grow the business 4. The factoring company waits to get paid. Once it gets paid, the transaction is settled

As you can see, invoice factoring is a fairly straightforward tool that allows business owners to capitalize on their most precious asset - their invoices.

Invoice Factoring Group

Invoice Factoring Group and its small business invoice factoring subsidiary can provide you with factoring quotes at no cost to you. Marco Terry, its president, can be reached at 866-730-1922.

Factoring Fundamentals - Vendor Financing

Factoring is an efficient and reliable way of meeting capital needs of the business. It is beneficial when a business promises to have definite profits in future but faces capital deficit to get the project completed.

Factoring Fundamentals: Principles that govern factoring are same as those governing bank loans, credit cards and other such lending methods. The basics of factoring are divided into two main practices. When a factor purchases an estimated value of the future account receivables it is known as non-recourse factor practice. In non-recourse factoring the factor bears the bad debt risk and the business owner is required to pay interest to the factor for the period specified in the factoring agreement.

The second full-recourse factor practice involves the use of invoice as a security to make a loan. In recourse factoring the factor has recourse to business owner if the concerned customers do not pay. Recourse factoring is cheaper than non-recourse factoring.

How does factoring work?

The first step in the process is to fill the documents provided by the factor and when they get completed the factor provides the business owner with cash against receivables. The factor then pays the business owner a certain percentage of the total value of your invoices. This can be up to 90% of the total value of the invoices. This is paid as soon as the invoices are received, or at the time agreed upon between the business owner and the factor. The process normally takes 24 hours to complete and is either sent directly to business owner’s account or through the mail. Once customers pay up the bills at pre-determined dates lenders too pay up the remaining amount. In the end business owner will also receive copies of customer checks on the date of receipt to keep a record.

( http://www.hjventures.com/factoring/accounts-receivables.html )

Factoring fundamentals once confirmed and acknowledged, are a step towards a stable and secure business, as they help in keeping the working capital needs of the company on track.

Learn more about factoring / business finance : http://www.hjventures.com/factoring/factoring-glossary.html

Howard Schwartz is a partner in several business strategy groups, including HJ Ventures International, Inc. Howard has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs worldwide with a focus on writing Business Plans for companies interested in raising capital from Venture Funds and Angel Investors. Howard’s business plans have secured several million dollars in funding. For more information: http://www.hjventures.com/factoring/factoring-glossary.html

Do You Qualify for Factoring?

This article has been created to give you straight forward content hoping to provide information into some of the things that factors are looking for when qualifying a prospect before entering into a financial relationship with them.

Lets face it, your time is very valuable and you do not need to waste it filling out applications or talking on the phone when you may be able to identify issues in this article that would prohibit you from being able to enter into a factoring relationship.

Some of this information will be basic and you may already be familiar with it, however some may not. Just read through the article and I am sure you will find some helpful information.

Lets take a look at what factoring is:

Factoring is a form of financing where a business sells its creditworthy commercial accounts receivable to a financier known as a factor.

This is a good starting point; you need to be invoicing creditworthy businesses for your product or service. Your product must be delivered and your services rendered (no pre-bills). If they are not creditworthy and you are already having collection problems, a factoring company will not be interested in purchasing those receivables. You may need a collections service.

How much do you invoice each month:

If you are invoicing under $10,000 a month this will limit the number of factoring companies that will enter into a relationship with you. If you are speaking with a factor, let them know up front what your monthly volume is and find out if they are willing to work with companies of your size. This could save you from filling out an application and wasting your time with that particular factor.

How many customers do you invoice:

Factoring companies prefer to fund companies with more than one customer; this helps them lower their risk. If you have just one customer, the factoring will have a concentration issue, meaning if something happens to your customer they do not have any other receivables from other customers to recoup their money. Let the factoring company know this up front as well. Some factors will not work with you if you only have one customer. (If your one customer is large and stable this will help).

Do you have any financing currently in place:

If you have an existing loan or line of credit you need to find out up front if the bank has a UCC-1 against your receivables. The factoring company must have 1st position on your receivables to be able to enter into a financing relationship with your company.

I would suggest if you have a current loan or line of credit to double check and make sure of this.

I have had many businesses tell me that the bank did not have their receivables as collateral and then proceed through the application process and return the contract.

The factoring company would begin due diligence and the lien search would return a current UCC-1 on the receivables. Many times the customer does not realize the bank placed a blanket lien on their company covering all assets, including the accounts receivable.

If this is the case, you still may qualify for factoring. If your loan or line of credit is small enough, the factor may be able to pay off your loan or line of credit out of your 1st advance and the bank has no choice but to subordinate (release) the receivables. If not, they may have enough collateral that they will allow the factoring company to have 1st position on the receivables and allow you to get the needed capital for your company.

So if you have current financing, check on this issue. You may find out the bank will step up to the plate and allow you access to more funds when they realize you are about to leave.

This has happened many times.

Also be aware that our factoring companies can help negotiate a subordination, so discuss this with us if you need more clarification on this topic.

Your aging report:

Your aging report is very important to a factoring company; this is the pulse on your cash flow. An accurate detailed accounts receivable aging report should be aged from invoice date and not due date. Some companies accounting software is set up to age the receivables from due date, this will reflect an inaccurate report to the factoring company.

If you have an unhealthy aging report you will have a hard time qualifying for factoring. Plus the fees you pay to a factor increase as the days outstanding increase.

Make sure you have a cash flow issue and not a collections issue.

Remember, creditworthy customers are the key.

Outstanding taxes, liens, judgments, litigations, felony convictions or bankruptcy

If you have any of these issues, it does not mean you can't qualify for factoring, you just need to be forthcoming at the beginning and find out if the issues are too complex for the factoring company to work through. This may save you some time.

Are you incorporated:

Some factors will not work with Sole Proprietors, others will, we have some that do. Find out at the beginning of the conversation.

Financial Statements:

Some factors will require financial statements and others will not.

Providing financial is usually where you will find the most aggressive rates available.

If you do not want to deal with providing financial statements, ask up front if they are required. We have programs available that requires no financial statements.

Personal Credit:

Even though your customers are the primary focus, your personal credit is taken into consideration. If your personal credit has taken some severe hits recently, discuss this up front with the factor to find out how much it will be taken into consideration.

This covers some of the basic, I hope it helps!

Thanks for reading.

Mark Little is President of Diversified Funding Services, Inc. He can be reached at 888-603-0055. His company website can be found by Clicking Here and the Company blog Click Here.

Invoice Factoring Software

Invoice factoring software enables factoring companies to provide all the necessary information to their clients and keep track of their own business. It provides the clients of factoring companies with online information regarding cash flow and allows tracking of cash flow. This allows companies to efficiently manage their business plans.

Most invoice factoring software makes use of SQL databases and is highly reliable. It is easy to use and provides quick information. Invoice factoring software is usually Web-enabled and can create portfolios of different types. Since factoring companies deal with different types of business, the software is designed to meet all types of business needs. Most invoice factoring software runs on any type of Web browser. It also provides a user-friendly information format. The software can accommodate any type of Internet connection speed and provides quick online information.

Apart from complete invoice process, Invoice factoring software features general ledger and double entry accounting. Assigning flexible rates, purchase schedules of invoices, account debtor payments, and reserve rebates and negative reserve rebates are the common features in the software. In addition to this, several types of reports can be prepared using the software. Reports can be exported into word, excel and HTML formats. Some software is also able to set periodic reminders.

Invoice factoring software provides online information regarding receivables and provides information on the financial situation with factoring companies to clients. This often allows smooth transfer of funds and improves the relations of factoring companies and clients. The greatest advantage of invoice factoring software is the time saved. With most business companies facing time crunch, the software provides up to date information about the ‘receivable money.’ It also saves money and work force. Energy spend on mails, phone calls, fax and physical meeting can be fully avoided using the software.

With factoring business getting more complicated, software companies are releasing newer versions of the software to meet the new challenges.

Invoice Factoring provides detailed information on Invoice Factoring, Invoice Factoring Companies, Invoice Factoring Discounting, Invoice Factoring Rates and more. Invoice Factoring is affiliated with Loan Factoring.