Have you ever encountered a problem running your business especially When clients have not paid their invoices?

This is the most common problem encountered by businessmen. Most of them spend their time trying to track down payments from the client who have not yet paid the invoices. But guess what? Some give up and end up closing down the business. And so today here is a solution for you. Invoice financing is here to solve this problem by unlocking the cash that is tied invoice and consequently speeding up cash flow for your business. Invoice financing is also referred to as receivable finance or invoice discounting.

How it works

After providing your customers with goods and services, what follows is to invoice them, then the invoice details should be sent to the finance provider or the supplier for the invoice finance for business process. Following the formal business rule that states that the percentage of the product face value should be paid within 48 hours, or any given time frame, ( depending on the business or company rules) by the customer. The payments from you will be received, and you will find that it is less by the service fee detected by the supplier or finance provider.

Importance

Invoice financing gives the business owners the way to transform invoices into cash instantly and also helps them to avoid making awkward phone calls towards pushing clients to pay for debts. Apart from settling business owner worries about payments, there are other main importance of invoice financing to a company or an individual business. i.e.

• Company/ Business Gain No Additional Debts

The money issued to a business or a company is neither a Loan or a debt, but just cash in advance . and there will be no additional liability added to your balance sheet.

• Minimal Fee

The cost of financing fee is lower than the normal bank rates, micro-finance among other money lending institutions.

• Helps In Meeting Customers Demand

Invoice financing allows you to continually be in positions to meet your custom product or service demand through instant and fixed lines of credit.

• Office Support

Invoice Finance help support the business or company in pushing for Payments, handling billing, contacting clients about invoices and doing credit checks. This creates time for the staff to work on other issues and thus helping the company save time they used to do this job.

• Helps Customer Service Improvement

Invoice financing helps provide the business owners with a piece of mind to focus on customer service other than worrying about cash-flow.

However, the discovery of the invoice finance plan, most companies and businesses have experienced continuous business improvement and reliable service delivery to its customers, since financial constraints are no longer the obstacles to business success. Choose the invoice finance today and you will experience a great change on your way to success.

You find yourself in the same position many companies have in the past, but you have clients and active projects, but you have no cash. You have a list of successfully completed work, but all you have to show for your effort is a pile of invoices. This is of no consequence to your creditors, they expect to be paid today. Never mind the rest of your overheads that don’t just go away because you have cash flow problems. But getting a short term loan had proven difficult. But there is another solution available. Is your company in danger of failing?

Have you heard of invoice financing?

If you find yourself in the above situation all is not lost. Fortunately, some lenders are smart enough to know your pile of invoices aren’t worthless. But they certainly might be if you are forced to close your doors. They will analyze your invoices to see if they can be used as security against a loan. This will allow you to stay in operation until your debtors settle their accounts. Your business can continue to work and create additional streams of income, instead of grinding to a halt, due to circumstances outside of their control.

The lender will treat it as a collateralized loan, they might be willing to front you 80% to 90% of the cash. You will receive the balance once your customers pay their invoices. Minus the fees of course. these lenders recognize the fact that most successful businesses experience cash flow problems. This does not mean these companies will inevitably fail, most continue to grow, with the help of an invoice loan. These institutions also offer financial advice to businesses to help prevent this occurring again.

Lenders are more focused on the value of your invoices than the finances of the company. So regardless of your overall financial health, this avenue could be just the solution you need, there are other options available, but you might have a more difficult time qualifying for another type of finance.

If you are approved for cash flow finance for business, the next step is to change your business model to ensure you do not find yourself in this situation again. Gets some financial advice to ensure you have access to cash in the future. Talk to your customers about paying in a more prompt manner. Anything that prevents having to leverage invoices to keep your business afloat in the future.

Factoring can be defined as a process where a business sells its invoices to a factoring company and in return, it receives instant payment as a cash advance. Just for a small fee, the factoring company makes the debt follow-up and handles all the payment issues which are not yet settled, getting rid of all the difficulties associated with the administration of the invoice.

Factoring is very crucial to any small business as it can enhance the cash flow and promote the growth of the company as it ensures there is consistent flow of income and also guarantees that there are no monetary assets held up in invoices thereby providing quick access to funds which are meant for the business though they are yet to be paid by the debtors. Factoring is ideal for a start-up business and small companies.

How factoring can improve your business:

Invoice factoring ensures the businesses have quick access to cash flow, conveniently and is an excellent option to traditional means of financing. Factoring can improve your business in a variety of ways.

Improves cash flow and generates working capital quickly without incurring debts

Since it isn’t a loan, account receivable finance can aid you in accessing the funds you require quickly, with minimal credit requirements. This makes it possible to secure working capital without damaging your credit, without accruing debt or negatively affecting your credit rating. Securing a loan from other financial institutions such as banks will impair your credit score which can make it difficult for you to secure loans from any other institution.

Factoring can better your credit

As a result of increased cash flow you have realized through factoring, you can better your credit score as well as the credit ranking.

Since you can factor your receivables and have huge amounts of money quickly, you are well placed to settle the debts from other companies which may have extended you credit on time. This enables you to strengthen your relationship with your other creditors.

Paying your debts or bills on time is one of the ways of improving your credit score and not exploiting all the available credit. If you can follow these two things consistently then you will boost your credit score and this will help to qualify for huge amounts.

Factoring enhances your credibility

When you decide to partner with an invoice factoring company, paying bills on a timely manner cannot only improve your credit score but also enhance your credibility. Settling your bills on time helps to strengthen your relationship with the companies you acquire goods and services that your business requires. Contractors and vendors tend to build trust with businesses that settle their bills on time and this may lead to an extension of their credit. 

Factoring allows companies to obtain the repayment of their receivables without waiting for the payment periods to lapse. How do the methods of financing and debt collection actually work? What are the benefits for the company?

Factoring is aimed at all companies, although SMEs use this technique for generally smaller amounts than large groups. This market allows a company to receive an advance payment of an invoice by assigning it to a financial institution named “factor”. From an accounting point of view, this method is therefore for the company to take invoices receivables from its balance sheet to turn them into cash.

This method of financing can take many forms. Classical factoring involves the company giving up its invoices to the factor in return for immediate financing. It is particularly suitable for small structures. This financing technique, therefore, has several advantages over the discount that is not available to start-up companies, but also in relation to bank overdraft or securitization.

There are other less known forms. Among them is unmanaged notified factoring, which is more relevant to companies with a significant turnover. In this case, the structure transfers the notified receivables to the financial institution but is responsible for internally relaunching and collecting the customer invoices. The advantages for the company are numerous: the ability to control the customer relationship from A to Z, benefit from a cash advance or maintain certain transparency with customers.

Then, confidential factoring allows a company to maintain the management of the receivables while the regulations are financed by the factor. However, in this situation, customers are unaware of the existence of a contract between the company and the factor. In the case of reverse factoring, the company mandates the factor to pay its suppliers in its place which allows it to benefit from a commercial discount and pay it at the normal expiry date. Finally, factoring import-export concerns companies that develop internationally with a similar operation to conventional factoring. This last technique allows the company to outsource the management of the international customer, to consolidate and secure its orders.

HOW DOES FACTORING WORK?

The factoring contract is based on a tripartite relationship between the supplier, the factor and the customers. More concretely, it works as follows: the company that subscribes to the factoring contract sells products or services to its customer and then sells the invoice to the factor who becomes the owner. The latter makes a cash advance to the company and finances it in a timely manner. The customer of the company at the origin of the factoring contract must pay his invoice directly to the factor.

The factor takes care of the recovery of the invoices. In the case of unpaid bills and depending on the nature of the contract, the latter may assume the losses or claim the amounts due to the company. The credit institution can also offer a credit insurance contract to guarantee payments. By
subscribing to credit insurance, the company secures its receivables, guarantees its receipts and can obtain financial information on its partners.

WHY CHOOSE FACTORING?

Factoring has several advantages for the company. It is first and foremost a financing tool that enables it to improve the management of its operating cycle by ensuring the rapid settlement of its receivables. This helps to increase the company’s cash flow and reduce the need for working capital. Indeed, cash is a key element since it is used to pay salaries and suppliers. Thanks to this operation, the company does not need to resort to the bank loan.

Then, this technique allows the structures to lighten their administrative burden because it is the factor that ensures the functions of monitoring and recovery of invoices. By delegating these tasks, the company reduces its financial costs and saves valuable time.

Another advantage related to the use of factoring deserves to be emphasized: the elimination of the risk of unpaid bills. The factor can offer its client credit insurance that guarantees up to 100% of the
purchased receivables. The factoring company Credit Agricol leasing Factoring offers, for example, a complete solution to companies to optimize the management of their receivables and allow them to benefit from the financing of the invoices transferred, the management of settlements and the recovery of receivables as well as credit insurance to guard against the insolvency of their clients.

Factoring, however, has certain limitations to be known among which include the lack of flexibility of certain factors and the cost of this service. Thus, the establishment of such a contract requires to study in advance the additional costs that it generates for the company. It may be wise to compare offers from several companies to get the most out of this technical product.

Invoice debtor finance is a form of financing through which a business can obtain fund to run its operations against an invoice whose payment has not yet fallen due. It is a common form of financing among small and middle-sized business startups. It is one of the most preferred forms of financing as it is relatively easy to obtain money against these financial instruments.

It is common in those business entities that extend 30 or 60-day payment terms to their debtors after supplying goods but cannot wait until term lapses. It is common for those businesses that do not have steady cashflows or business reserves to cater for the period that you will have to wait. Since there are those financial obligations that the business has to meet between supplying the goods or products and receiving the payment, as an owner, you will have to find ways to meet these obligations, hence invoice debtor finance.

Can it save the business?

Invoice debtor financing can act as a lifesaver for your business when you hard-pressed for cash. With the 30 or 60-day delay period, most areas fo the business can suffer especially when you do not have any other source of income. If your business has a tight cash flow, you might not be able to bid for more jobs as you won’t have the money to service the contracts. This may lead to delayed contracts which will adversely affect your relationship with your business partners which will greatly impair your chances of future contracts.

If you are however able to free some money from the already completed projects, you will be able to bid for more work and deliver in time. With time, you will be liquid enough that you will not need to take the debtor invoice finance to facilitate your contracts. The beauty about these financing is that the risk of losing money is quite low since most of the debtors will pay once the period lapses. This means that you can accrue some obligations to be settled once you receive your pay.

From these illustrations it is clear that invoice debtor finance can save your business is well utilized. The most important thing is to ensure that you take it with the organization with the most favorable terms. Again, when choosing the organizations to supply to, ensure to get the ones with the least possibility of default as this will avoiding creating unnecessary risk to you and your financier.

Proper cash flow is the goal of all entrepreneurs. This is the key to growth and a good continuation of business cash flow is the flow of working capital finance and expenses within the enterprise… Cash flow provides the fuel you need to pay for your small business. Cash flow problems can lead to a disrupted business structure, an important indicator of declining business.

Here are some of the common causes of cash flow problems:

You have a lot of debtors:
Many businesses today offer their customers credit so that their customers can offer products and services immediately even if they do not have the cash available to them. Credit sales have a direct impact on cash flow, especially when customers cannot pay in the agreed time. The loss of time to pay by customers, especially when they are forced to pay a large sum, makes you get little money.

You have too many creditors:
Having too many creditors can mean that your business has a large amount of debt to repay. This is especially catastrophic for cash flow when your business is ineffective, you have very limited cash reserves, and your creditors already require payment. Late payments may increase rapidly, making it more difficult to pay the outstanding amounts. Delay in payments can also affect your relationship with creditors and may lead to other problems, such as lower credit terms and premium rates.

Over-financing your business: Borrowing large amounts of money for your business can lead to additional charges, such as interest, and may require a shorter repayment plan. If you are not afraid of raising your debt, you can control your company. The more money you earn, the more difficult your borrowing terms will be, usually at a higher interest rate. Loans often delay the future crisis of cash flows, which may be worse than the crisis they are currently facing.

Failure to Leverage Factoring or Inventory Financing: Failure to use this financing solution when producing a product or service for a customer can result in a short-term cash flow problem. Think about using factoring to request a customer or inventory to buy the stock needed to create a product or service to help the company’s cash flow problem in the short term.

Excessive investment:
Excessive investments, such as excessive trading volume, can cause negative cash flows. Businesses with sufficient resources may be tempted to purchase non-priority assets. This can, of course, lead to business failures, because existing funds, which should be available to fund day-to-day operations and any unforeseen expenses, are related to the asset purchased. Alternatively, assets such as cars and buildings can be rented to provide more funds.

Effective planning of Working capital finance is of great importance to the business to avoid other problems. To solve the cash flow problems your business and face, you can also use the services of a business restructuring expert to help you plan and manage your money efficiently.

Cash flow can make or break a business, but many small business owners do not do everything in their power to maximise it, and the result is loss of opportunity and stress for the company and the owner. On the other hand, there are some simple steps that can be taken to drastically improve business cash flow, which will also improve business management, i.e. use globalisation and how it can be used effectively to help the corporate cash flow. Here are some tips to improve your business cash flow:

Develop good terms and conditions:
Having good conditions is not only a good business practice for large businesses. It is a very good practice for small business owners to make sure that their clients know when (and how) they expect to pay. Be sure to include items related to late payment and interest, and that debt collection costs will be transferred to the customer. I had many customers who thought they could transfer the fees to the debt collection agency only to see that they had to absorb these costs themselves because they did not recognize their customers.

Perform credit checks on potential customers or customers who do not pay in cash.

Many small businesses deal with any business they can acquire and make credit checks only when problems arise. It is often too late to check for problems. It may be better for your company in the long term to reject the customer immediately if he or she has a bad credit record, free payment or fixed arrears. Fee payers are often troublesome customers. These are usually backward, and it is usually impossible to satisfy and find any reason or justification for choosing errors in the company, and draining resources as they do.

Factoring finance:
If you are a small company that is just starting, it is very important that payments for sales are made at a regular rate. There are cases when payments are so heavily supported that the company is very close to bankruptcy. Cash flows from the company occur at a normal rate because the services provided to produce goods cannot be stopped. So outgoing money and no money cannot lead to serious problems. In cases like these, there is another real option that companies can use. This option is called Factoring Finance. Factoring companies usually buy pending invoices from these companies at a reduced price and charge the full fee from customers at a later date. It helps both the company and companies. From the company’s point of view there is no need to sell the product, just buy an invoice at a lower price and get the full amount. The difference leads to profit.


Forecast your business’s cash flow:
Many businesses spend a lot of time planning, budgeting, analyzing sales, overhead, profit and loss, and balance sheets, but they can forget cash flow. Get a good accountant. At a minimum, make a monthly plan and if it seems you can be a little tight, set up weekly or even daily forecasts. Develop a business plan for your money – if you look at how you can pass some payments, or talk to a factoring company to see how they can help.

Collecting payments for the invoices created for customers must be easy, routine and simplified. However, recession, competition, high taxes, tense margins, volatile market; all these factors have made it extremely difficult to stay in the market even with large departments, leaving the same companies coming. To make matters worse, companies often struggle with the financial crisis because of late payments. With financial factoring and receivables, factoring companies that deal with a cash crunch due to late payments or unpaid bills can breathe a sigh of relief because they can generate badly needed cash flows without having to worry about collecting bills.

Financial Factoring:
Financial factoring is the practice of selling unpaid invoices to an outside agency at a reduced rate for immediate payment of a certain amount. This practice works in favor of both sellers and buyers. The seller is able to generate immediate funds; after the download, the factoring company ends up earning. After finalizing the transaction, the debtors are notified of the payment made to the Factoring Company. This saves the seller from hassles downloading unpaid invoices.

Receivables Factoring:
If your business deals with unpaid invoices, the factoring of receivables can be the best solution to this problem. With receivables, you sell receivables or bills to generate quick cash. Dealing with receivables is a common practice used by companies around the world to manage cash flow for centuries.

Invoice Factoring:
Smooth cash flow is a prerequisite for good work. Companies have resorted to different types of financing to ensure that some alternative and non-traditional financing instruments have now emerged. Invoice Factoring is a process where unpaid invoices are sold to a third party or factoring institution so that the business receives funding for receivables and unpaid invoices. This tool helps to release working capital for better cash flows and the operation and expansion of the smooth business. The factoring company then waits for payment from customers.

Use Debt Collection Lawyer Assistance:
It does not matter if you know the customer personally or if you have good relationships with him. In each position, you have the right to raise funds that you own. Before you use the help of the debt collection lawyer, you must do everything to collect it yourself. If you notice that things are out of control, you should take legal action. The first thing you need to do is keep calm. You have provided the customer with services and products, obviously, you are frustrated, but you should not lose your temper and calm down. Sometimes you can successfully raise money if you are talking politely to a client who owes you money.

Growth is one of the key objectives every business owner will have. Various factors will determine how fast your business grows, but one of the main ones is the cash flow. To pay your employees, suppliers, and cover other business expenses, you will need to have a good cash flow. However, maintaining good cash flow is not a simple thing, and you will need excellent plans. If you are trying to grow your business, you will find yourself with no cash flow most of the times, and you will need to look for a way to get instant cash flow. So how do you get immediate cash for your business?

Cash flow finance:
Cash flow finance is helpful when your customers take much time to pay after you have delivered the goods. Some customers take up to 30 days before they pay for the invoice, and this can really inconvenience you. Cash flow finance is a type of financing where you take a copy of the invoice to your financier who will make the cash available for you before the customer pays. Benefits of cash flow finance include: Up to 90% financing of the total invoices, cover the gap of slow payment, avoid interruptions, and grow your business with ease. 

Selling your assets:
Another great way of getting an instant cash flow is selling your idle assets. You can sell any unused equipment, or rent your free space to another company. By selling your assets, you will get an interest free cash that you can use to grow your business. 

Quick bank loans:
If you have a good credit history, you can consider asking your banker to give you a quick loan that you will pay within a few days. When intending to invest in a long term project such as buying a long term asset, you can ask for a long term loan so that you don’t set your business to a cash crunch. Some banks will even process your loan within 24 hours. 

Selling your inventories:
Do you have old stock that is not moving? Then this is a good chance to get some cash flow. You can liquidate any old inventory that is not moving and get some instant cash. You can even do this at a loss. 

Ensuring your business has good cash flow is very important as it will determine your growth rate. Use the above tips and get instant cash flow for your business.

Most people assume that all business financing services are similar. Therefore, they cannot seem to decide on the difference between invoice discounting and factoring. With factoring, the supplier plays the role of sales management and credit checks, as well as prosecuting clients so they can settle their invoices in the company. When we talk about someone as a resource, we mean a financial company you call for financial services. The other important difference between invoicing and factoring is secrecy. If you use factoring services, customers will have to settle their invoices with the factoring company rather than your company.

Invoice Factoring: 
Factoring is a financing method that allows collecting financing based on the value of overdue invoices. Instead of sending bills, and then wait a month or more until the funds arrive, you can almost instantly convert them into cash. Many companies that are just beginning to realize that factoring provides a more flexible source of working capital than overdrafts or loans.

Choosing an account means that your cash flow finance company sells invoice financial rights to a factoring company. The transaction is organized as a sale, and the factoring company will pay the invoice amount in two installments. The first payment is known as an advance payment and is forwarded to your company after the sale of the invoice, which can be up to 90% of the invoice. The remaining part is received from 10% to 20%, discount when the customer settles the invoice.

When applying for a commercial loan, you usually have to wait a moment to find out if the application is effective or not. Factoring is easier and faster because the waiting period is much shorter. Because factoring companies generally buy invoices from a company, 

Invoice discounting: Works in the same way factoring work, freeing cash from invoices. The difference is that the lender does not offer credit management services to facilitate the collection of overdue bills. The service releases the invoice value, which can reach 90%, and you can control the loan management. Then you can reach the remaining 10% when customers pay the bill.

Cash is the source of maintenance for every company, and if you owe it to you, but you do not have it, it can cause a lot of frustration and potential headaches. An invoice discount allows you to control your debit account because you are responsible for managing your loan, which means that your company is responsible for collecting the payments due to customers.

The advantage of using invoice discounting is that it does not affect the relationship between you and your clients. There is no reason why they should be aware of the contract, especially if you manage a special account. This ensures that you can continue to provide the same loan terms that you have previously agreed with clients without affecting the cash flow finance company