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How to Use Factoring for Cash Flow

Companies facing a cash-flow squeeze and slow-paying customers often sell their invoices or accounts receivable to specialized companies called factors. The factor advances most of the invoice amount — usually 70% to 90% — after checking out the credit-worthiness of the billed customer. When the bill is paid, the factor remits the balance, minus a transaction (or factoring) fee.

Companies that use factoring like it because they get money quickly rather than waiting the usual 30 or 60 days for payment. After sending an invoice to a factoring firm, a business can have money in its hands within 24 to 48 hours.

Some businesses use factoring to get started. Whereas banks focus

on a business’s creditworthiness in considering whether to make a loan, factors look at the financial soundness of a business’s customers. As a result, firms with scant credit history may be able to sell their invoices.

But the service can be costly — several percentage points more than a conventional lender. It was once a controversial source of financing because of its ties to financially fragile companies in the garment industry. A related commonly held impression is that a company uses a factor because it isn’t credit-worthy enough to deal with a bank.

source: wsj

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