¿Sus clientes están tomando hasta 60 días para pagar sus facturas? Esta es una situación muy común y una causa significativa de estrés a muchos propietarios de negocios. Por desgracia, tener un negocio rentable no significa necesariamente que haya un flujo de caja fiable. Al contrario, muchas veces un negocio puede tener grandes beneficios y un flujo de caja muy poco fiable.
¿Cómo puede ser esto? Simple. Sus clientes le pagan en 60 días, pero deberá pagar a los empleados cada semana, alquiler y suministradores. Aunque los números pueden funcionar a largo plazo, a corto plazo se queda con muy poco dinero en efectivo. Esto es a menos que tenga un montón de dinero en el Banco para cubrir el déficit.
Pero, ¿qué hacer si son nuevos, crecimiento o simplemente no tienen una gran cantidad de fondos en el Banco? ¿Obtener un préstamo de negocio? Es improbable. Préstamos de negocio son difíciles de obtener. Una mejor opción sería utilizar el descuento en factura. Descuento en factura es una forma de financiación que no está disponible para un banco – es ofrecido por una compañía de factoring.
Descuento de factura, como su nombre lo indica, consiste en vender sus facturas por dinero en efectivo inmediato, en un pequeño descuento. Su propuesta de valor es muy simple. ¿Está usted dispuesto descuento entre un 1,5 y un 6% de sus facturas a recibir el pago ahora? Considere la posibilidad de que muchos de los propietarios de negocios ofrecen un 2% de descuento a las empresas que pagan dentro de 10 días. Por lo tanto, descontando de la factura ofrece una propuesta similar.
Por supuesto, descontando de la factura (o factura factoring como también se le llama) no es para todas las empresas. Funciona mejor cuando sus márgenes de beneficios son superiores al 15% y si utiliza los fondos acelerados para pagar los gastos de negocios o para buscar nuevas oportunidades de negocio.
Empresas de factoraje siempre sus facturas en dos entregas de compra. La primera entrega, contemplada como el avance, cubre hasta el 85% de la factura. El 15% restante (menos el descuento) es reembolsado una vez que el cliente realmente paga la factura.
Descuento en factura es fácil de obtener y puede configurarse en días. El requisito de calificación más grande es que las facturas de los clientes confiables. Por lo tanto, si usted está sentado sobre un montón de facturas de pagados lentos, asegúrese de considerar la posibilidad de descuento de factura.
Descuento de factura: Una herramienta para financiar su negocio
Factura de factoraje para pequeñas empresas
¿Venden productos o servicios a comerciales o clientes de Gobierno? Si lo hace, entonces debe estar muy familiarizado con tener que esperar días 60 30, 40 o incluso a cobrar por sus clientes.
Las más grandes empresas pueden permitirse esperar. Lamentablemente, algunos propietarios de pequeñas empresas pueden permitirse esperar – y lo que es peor: la mayoría de los propietarios de pequeñas empresas no tienen en cuenta que tendrá que esperar a recibir el pago cuando inician por primera vez sus negocios.
Pero ¿qué pasa si no puede permitirse esperar 60 días para recibir el pago? La mejor solución es factor de sus facturas.
Factoring es una herramienta financiera (similar a una línea de crédito) que elimina a la espera de que se pagan por sus clientes. Financiamiento de factoraje le proporciona dinero para sus facturas, normalmente 24 horas después de que se presenten. Proporciona el dinero necesario para pagar alquiler, gastos y aprovechar nuevas oportunidades.
Factura factoring es una herramienta ideal para las empresas intensivas de efectivo tales como camiones, dotación de personal, servicios de negocios, oficinas médicas y se. Funciona como sigue: 1. ofrecen un producto o un servicio y generar una factura 2. Puedes enviar la factura a su cliente y enviar una copia a la empresa de factoraje 3. La compañía de factoring avanza le hasta el 85% de su factura de 4. El 15% restante se celebra como una reserva a espaldas de la cubierta de carga y créditos de 5. ¿Una vez su paga de cliente se liquida el factor, la transacción y la reserva es reembolsado (menos una pequeña tarifa) Y cuánto cuesta factoring? Varía en su volumen de negocio, los clientes cuánto tardan en pagar y su mérito de crédito. La mayoría de los factores cobrará una tarifa de cualquier lugar entre 1% y 2,3% por cada 10 días que una factura es sobresaliente. Sin embargo, las tarifas varían y generalmente se pueden personalizar para satisfacer sus necesidades.
La mayor diferencia entre factura financiamiento de factoraje y un préstamo del Banco es que factoring es fácil de obtener. Ya que el factor es la financiación de sus facturas, su mayor preocupación es que hacer negocios con empresas de fuerte digno de crédito. Esto significa que factoring está disponible para las empresas pequeñas y de nuevas, siempre que tiene buenos clientes. Y a diferencia de un banco, una empresa de factoring no le pedirá un sinfín de informes financieros y tres años por valor de Estados financieros auditados.
Empresas de factoraje de factura: Un valioso recurso de financiación
Invoice factoring companies can provide immediate, short-term funds for companies that are unable to obtain a traditional bank loan. Financing from traditional banks generally requires commercial borrowers to have two years in business and showing a profit. Banks tend to favor loans secured by tangible assets like machinery, inventory, equipment and real estate.
Working with factoring companies, in contrast, are less restrictive. When you sell your invoices - often called factoring - you don’t incur any debt so there are no monthly payments. Plus, you can control your cash flow by determining how much to factor and when. Young, growing companies or those with tax liens - and even bankruptcy - can still qualify for an invoice factoring account. This makes factoring companies a viable source of funding for many businesses.
How It Works
In simple terms, here’s how invoice factoring works: Factoring companies purchase your accounts receivable or freight bills at a discounted rate and issue you a lump sum payment. Essentially, your company sells its accounts receivable or invoices at a lower value for quick cash, instead of waiting the usual 30 to 45 days for the invoices to be paid.
After you deliver your product/service and generate an approved invoice, factoring companies can provide your money in as little as 24 hrs. In essence, working with a factoring company can help speed up your cash flow. The influx of cash can better enable you to meet your financial obligations. For example, you can use the money to increase your working capital, pay bills or taxes, pay up front for equipment or supplies, and even take advantage of early payment discounts offered to you by your vendors.
Typically, factoring companies pay 80 percent of the invoice value upfront. Then they issue the remaining value—minus a factoring fee—once they’ve receive payment from your client. The factoring fee is determined by a combination of the credit worthiness of your customer base, the average terms, the invoice number and size, and factoring volume.
Factoring companies structure their fees in any number of ways, but the rate you pay generally works out to be about three to five percent of the invoice value. Keep in mind that financing fees will fluctuate according to the creditworthiness and performance of your individual receivables. If there’s an extremely low level of risk involved, fees can be as low as 1 percent of the invoice amount.
History of Factoring Companies
Factoring companies have been around for centuries. In the U.S., factoring companies first emerged in the colonies shortly after the British began colonizing New England. At that time, a factoring company was a business or individual that facilitated trade between sellers of goods in Europe and buyers of goods in the colonies.
Factoring companies would “vouch” for the buyer—essentially ensuring the seller in the “old” country that the buyer in the “new” country was creditworthy. In addition to charging a fee for their credit advice, factoring companies became trade merchants themselves and facilitated the sale by acting as the buyer and reseller of goods.
Currently, in North America, the factoring business maintains close ties to the apparel and textiles industries. In fact, an estimated 60 to 70 percent of the North American markets dollar turnover comes from these industries. But many modern factoring companies also specialize in industries such as furnishings, trucking, IT staffing, temporary staffing, nurse staffing and manufacturing. Regardless of the industry, many of the basic services offered by full-service factoring companies have remained largely unchanged. Factoring companies generally offer credit advice to help their clients minimize bad debt, cash advances against invoices and collection expertise.
How Factoring Companies Operate
Factoring companies range from small financial service businesses to large banks. Each company has its own approach to operating. For example, many factoring companies specialize in specific industries or regions. Some may require a certain minimum per invoice or total invoice amount before they’ll conduct business with you.
Regardless of the industry or value of invoices involved, all factoring companies work as middlemen. And they have two basic requirements for qualifying for their alternative form of financing. First, you should have no existing primary liens on your accounts receivable, which means no other company should have a claim on payments when they come in.
Next, your customers must be creditworthy because factoring companies depend on the ability to successfully collect on your clients’ invoices. That means your company's credit history won’t necessarily factor into a decision to approve or deny your account. Instead, factoring companies will primarily consider your clients’ payment history and financial stability.
Here’s a step-by-step example of the process of working with a factoring company:
• You complete an application, submitting essential information about your company and accounts receivables.
• The factoring company does its due diligence and prepares all the necessary legal paperwork. Typically this process takes five to ten days, and some factors may charge an application fee.
• Once you begin working with the factoring company, you’ll prepare your customer invoices and forward them to the company for an immediate cash advance.
• The factoring company will bill the customer and follow up to ensure receipt of payment, handling all the accounting, invoicing and other payment processing responsibilities. (The company likely will verify that you actually completed the work or delivered the products.)
• If everything checks out, the factoring company will advance anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of the value of the purchased invoices.
• Your customers will likely send their payments directly to your factoring company. Once the company receives them, it will electronically send you the "unadvanced" portion of the invoices—minus its financing fee.
Important Considerations When Evaluating Factoring Companies
When evaluating factoring companies to work with, there are a number of important areas you should carefully consider. Of course, the pricing structure is a critical factor. You should consider likely customer payment scenarios and calculate what the total fees would be for the different vendors. Also, compare the deposit or application fees, the advance rate, and monthly minimums.
You also should inquire about how the factor company handles unpaid invoices. Some factoring companies will assume all the risk and not require you to repay them if the invoice isn’t paid within a set period of time. Other factoring companies will require you to repay funds advanced for any unpaid client invoice—plus the factoring charges. And still some factoring companies will allow you to replace the invoices of non-paying clients with invoices from paying customers.
Last, but certainly not least, select a factoring company that provides a high level of customer care. This helps to ensure that your customers will be properly treated. All factoring companies operate differently. That’s why it’s important to do your research and find the best-priced and most knowledgeable factoring company for your particular business.