Sometimes in a B2B setting, you’re paper-rich but cash-poor. It simply means that your sales are good, customers owe you money, but there’s nothing in the account for day-to-day business expenses. 

Now, if you wait for customers to clear their dues, someone might pay in 30 days, and another one in 90 days. In between this, you might not have the funding to clear bills or pay the staff, and ultimately, you’ll be forced to borrow some money until the due amount hits your account. If you seek a bank loan in this situation, the approval time and eligibility criteria will be two major hurdles. 

Therefore, financing experts have developed things like invoice factoring services, where you get the money customers owe you before their set time (with some extra fees). Not sure how getting your own invoices cleared from a third-party is a good decision? Let us convince you. 

What is Invoice Factoring?

Invoice factoring means that a business sells its unpaid invoices to a third-party financing company and gets 70-90% of the due amount from the said company. Then, the customer(s) directly pay the third-party. After keeping its fee/charges, it clears the rest of your dues too. 

Businesses need invoice factoring services when their customers’ payment terms are 30 days or above (as happens in the B2B sphere). So if a company urgently needs money and has unpaid invoices, it sells them to a lender and gets paid much earlier. 

How Can Invoice Factoring Services Keep Your Cash Flow Healthy?

Invoice factoring is equivalent to any advance payment, just with a few different terms. Since the lenders cover for you when your finances are tough, they charge for that service. That said, here is how invoice factoring services can keep your cash flow healthy: 

Bridges the Gap of Long Payment Terms

Businesses often agree on 30-90 days of payment terms to secure new clients and build client relationships, as per Stripe. It means that even if your sales are great, you’ll have to wait for up to three months for payment. Eventually, your cash will be completely tied up, and you won’t be able to reinvest in your next job or cover immediate costs.

That’s when invoice factoring services convert that 90-day asset into 24-hour cash. For example, if you make a $40,000 sale today and the client’s standard payment cycle is 30 days, factoring lets you access up to $36,000 within 1-2 days. 

Thanks to that rapid turnaround, your business can function continuously, and there is no operational lag. You can use the advance secured against your invoice for payroll, inventory management, or equipment repairs rather than putting something this crucial off. 

Funds Daily Operating Expenses

When you’re waiting on a payment, but the payroll deadline is here, it surely drains your working capital. Also, essentials like keeping the inventory stocked and buying new materials don’t wait 60 days. If this situation arises, you might be forced to use your personal savings or overdraft lines to cover basic survival costs.

However, with invoice factoring services, you eliminate this concern. You get a reliable cash injection tied to your sales and get the immediate capital to meet those fixed deadlines. Since your cash inflow is consistent, you can pay vendors on schedule, secure your inventory, and, most importantly, guarantee your team gets paid. 

Allows for Early Payment Discounts to Suppliers

If your money is trapped in slow-paying customer invoices, you may lose one of the easiest ways to save money, i.e., taking early payment discounts from your suppliers. Suppliers often structure terms, and if you don’t have the cash on hand, you have to wait and pay the full price.

But invoice factoring services change this dynamic by adding cash into your business. With more financial flexibility to pay your suppliers within the window, you can save. 

As a result, the cost of goods sold is lower, and your gross profit margins are higher on every order. That’s why smart businesses recognize that the savings realized by consistently taking these supplier discounts can offset the cost of the factoring service itself.

Helps You Accept Larger Orders

A large order should be a win, not a headache. But sometimes, these opportunities are impossible to take when you don’t have the cash to buy materials or manage production. If things are tough, you might even have to decline growth or dangerously overextend your credit. 

But with invoice factoring, you overcome this hurdle and get the necessary instant fuel for growth. When a big contract lands, you factor your invoices and gain the capital needed to say “yes.” 

Now, you feel more flexible to acquire inventory and hire necessary personnel to execute the job without compromising your cash reserves. 

It’s Not a Loan, so It Doesn’t Increase Debt

Business loans appear as liabilities to banks and investors. When you take out a loan, you increase your debt-to-equity ratio, and that alone can disqualify you from future borrowing opportunities. That’s why you play it safe even when money is tight, and instead of signing up for a new loan, you simply get your invoices cleared faster. 

You get the necessary working capital without registering a new liability or debt on your balance sheet. It’s worth noting that factoring is a non-dilutive, non-debt form of financing that keeps your financial records clean and preserves your borrowing power. 

Never Let the Cash Flow Dry Up

Invoice factoring services exist so businesses never run out of working capital. If your payments also show up in the account long after you have worked with a customer, a time might come when you need a cash advance against your invoice. And when that happens, ROK Financial is a call away. We take your unpaid invoices and make sure you have the required funding to keep things moving. 

So never risk your assets or savings, call us, and we’ll figure it out together!  

FAQs

1. Does invoice factoring cover 100% of my invoice value?

Not 100%. You receive an immediate cash advance (usually 70-90% of the value). The remaining reserve is paid to you later, minus a small fee.

2. Do customers know if a business is using a factoring service?

Yes. In most cases, your customer is notified to change the payment destination and remit the invoice amount to the factor. This is a standard part of the factoring process, so the customer inevitably knows. 

3. How does the factoring company decide if my business qualifies?

Besides your business reputation, lenders also focus on your customers’ payment reliability because they’ll receive money from them. So, as long as your clients are creditworthy and the invoices are valid, you’ll qualify.