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Stories Tagged ‘Costs’

Factoring fees can be a significant cost for any business and as such it is important to reduce factoring costs wherever possible. We have a few tips to help you:

Review your facility – it is important to reciew your facility on a regular basis both with your own factoring company and with the market. As your business grows or changes it may well mean that your business qualifies for better rates. Typically the higher your turnover the lower the percentage service fee you will pay. Often businesses that experience rapid growth fail to review their facility and as such are paying a lot more than they need to. I recently spoke with a business whose turnover had tripled since they set up their facility. As a result we more than halved their total fees. Importantly the market also changes and as such better or more suitable products become available that may be more cost effective. If you want a full review of the market to see what savings you can make please contact the team at Smart Factoring Quotes today.

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If you have a business that offers credit terms you can spend a lot of time worrying when you are going to get paid. Cash flow is probably the major challenge for any business and this is why more and more businesses in the UK are starting to use invoice factoring.

Invoice factoring offers businesses the opportunity to access up to 90% of the value tied up in unpaid invoices. This means that by using invoice factoring a business can smooth cash flow and access cash to pay salaries and suppliers when needed. Not only does this eliminate stress it also allows a business to grow and prosper. Invoice factoring also offers the opportunity to outsource your credit control function to a professional business that will chase your outstanding invoices with a system of letters, month end statements and phone calls where necessary.

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I am often amazed at how much disbursements cost factoring clients over and above the ‘headline’ charges. It is not uncommon for some clients to be paying more in disbursement charges than they do in service fee and discounting fee combined.

I was with a client yesterday where this was the case. When I spoke to them about the fees they were very upset about the ‘games’ the factoring company concerned were playing.

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Recruitment finance can take various formats. Typically it depends on the type of recruitment and also the size of the company. We will look at the three main options available:

Recruitment factoring: this is suitable for recruitment companies of all sizes and for both temporary recruitment companies and permanent recruitment companies. It provides an advance against invoices raised of up to 90% allowing temps wages to be paid. It is also suitable for permanent recruitment companies but prepayments are typically around 70% for perms. Recruitment factoring is available to new start businesses aswell as larger well established companies. It includes a credit control service and can also include credit protection to reduce the risk of bad debts.

Recruitment invoice Discounting: suitable for companies that are better established and have a good credit control function within the business. This type of recruitment finance does not include a credit control service. It can be confidential or disclosed and can include credit protection to reduce the risk of bad debts. Again it can be used for either temporary recruitment or permanent recruitment.

Recruitment back office solutions: well suited to recruitment companies that want to outsource the full back office function. This service can provide finance in the same way as factoring but 100% prepayment levels can be achieved. It also includes payroll and admin services as well as optional credit protection and credit control.

If you have a requirement for recruitment finance it is worth contacting Smart Factoring Quotes to discuss your options in detail.

Factoring Rates can differ dramatically from lender to lender. We will have a look at what variables impact on the pricing of a factoring facility and then we will look at why some factoring companies are more expensive than others.

What impacts on the service fee?

The service fee is what the lender charges for administering your facility and it is typically determined by workload. This is dictated by the number of debtors you have an also the number of invoices you issue. Turnover also has a huge impact on your service fee and typically the higher your turnover the lower the percentage service fee.

The discounting fee, what impacts on this?

This is the cost of borrowing and it should reflect the risk the company is taking. The total fee is made up of the base rate and the margin. Some lenders use the Bank of England base rate while others use LIBOR. Watch out also for the minimum  base rates which a lot of lenders put in place. The margin is often dictated by their credit policies and with negotiation can often be reduced.

These are the 2 main fees but it is important to be aware of additional fees and charges. Always consider total costs when looking at different offers. Please also consider what service is actually on offer and ensure it meets the needs of your business. Factoring rates are obviously important but so are service levels and facility structure.

There seem to be several invoice finance brokerages appearing that are linked to insolvency practitioners. Only today I was asked by a client of mine why this was so I thought a post may be due on the topic.

In short the insolvency practitioners see the invoice finance leads that give to lenders as a carrot to attract insolvency work from the lenders. In fact some of the IP owned brokers will only give leads to lenders if they give them insolvency work in return. I have seen some e-mail marketing from one such broker offering 2 new deals to a lender in return for a ‘fee generative appointment’.

Reciprocity is a buzz word in many industries these days and the invoice finance industry is no different.

However, in my opinion it does raise concerns for business owners who approach these brokerages looking for independent and impartial advice about factoring or invoice discounting. There is every chance that the business will simply be placed with the lender that they ‘owe’ a deal to. If this is the case it means that they are not really acting in the best interests of that client.

Temporary Recruitment companies will often use some form of factoring or invoice discounting. It is almost a necessity in terms of how their cash flow works. Typically they are invoicing clients on 30 day terms and yet they are having to pay wages on a weekly basis.

A factoring agreement can provide up to 90% of the invoice value the day after the invoice is raised. This means that wages are covered and you don’t have to worry about waiting for clients to pay.

As an alternative to temporary recruitment factoring there are also full back office solutions that will take care of almost everything except finding clients and temp staff!!

If you are looking for a funding solution for your temporary recruitment company it is worth speaking to Smart factoring Quotes to fully understand what your options are. Smart Factoring quotes have helped to source facilities for temporary recruitment companies who are new starts all the way through to companies with turnovers in excess of £50m.

Spot factoring seems to be gaining popularity within the UK and is a fairly common procedure in the US. We are talking about factoring a single invoice as opposed to factoring whole turnover as you would with a traditional factoring facility.

Obviously if you have an ongoing requirement to factor each invoice or the majority of your invoices it makes sense to seek a suitable factoring facility.

However, if you are looking for a short term solution to a cash flow “hiccup” then spot factoring can be ideal. It means that you can factor a single invoice and once that is paid you have no contractual obligation. You can also revisit the “facility” further down the track if you have another invoice you wish to factor. In essence you can “dip in and out” as you need to.

This can be quite attractive to some businesses. So what are the down sides?

In short the interest rates can put some people off. Most lenders will quote a daily interest rate which sounds nominal. However, this can equate to an APR of circa 80%. But does this make it more expensive than traditional factoring?

Well the interest rate is 10 – 20 times more than what you will pay on a traditional factoring facility but your debt may only be outstanding for 30 days. Traditional factoring can attract minimum service fees and minimum contract periods which can mean if you have a genuine short term requirement traditional factoring can be expensive.

While rates for spot factoring may well be higher than the rates for whole turnover factoring, if you have a genuine short term requirement spot factoring will typically be your cheaper option in terms of pounds and pence!!

So is it the future? I am not sure but it is another valid solution for many businesses so it should be embraced.