Factoring

Factoring is a financial service in which the business entity sells its bill receivables to a third party at a discount in order to raise funds. It differs from invoice discounting. The concept of invoice discounting involves, getting the invoice discounted at a certain rate to get the funds, whereas the concept of factoring is broader. Factoring involves the selling of all the accounts receivable to an outside agency. Such an agency is called a factor.

Concept of Factoring

The seller makes the sale of goods or services and generates invoices for the same. The business then sells all its invoices to a third party called the factor. The factor pays the seller, after deducting some discount on the invoice value. The rate of discount in factoring ranges from 2 to 6 percent. However, the factor does not make the payment of all invoices immediately to the seller. Rather, it pays only up to 75 to 80 percent of the invoice value after deducting the discount. The remaining 20 to 25 percent of the invoice value is paid after the factor receives the payments from the seller’s customers. It is called factor reserve.

Functions of Factor

The factor performs the following functions:

1. Maintenance of Sales Ledger

A factor is responsible for maintaining the sales ledger of the client. So the factor takes care of all the sales transactions of the client.

2. Financing

The factor finances the client by purchasing all the account receivables.

3. Credit Protection

In the case of non-recourse factoring, the risk of non-payment or bad debts is on the factor.

4. Collection of Money

The factor performs the duty of collecting funds from the client’s debtors. This enables the client to focus on core areas of business instead of putting energies in the collection of money.

Types of Factoring

• Recourse: In this, client had to buy back unpaid bills receivables from factor.
• Non-Recourse: In this, client in which there is no absorb for unpaid invoices.
• Advance: In this, advance is paid to the client by factor against uncollected receivables.
• Maturity: In this, bank collects money from the customer and pays to firm on due date or before.
• Full Factoring:
• Disclosed: If factor name is represented on the invoice of the goods or services and asks customer to pay the factor.
• Undisclosed: Factor is not mentioned on the invoice of the goods or services by manufacturer.
• Domestic: If factor name is represented on the invoice of the goods or services and asks customer to pay the factor.
• Cross-Border: It involves four parties, the exporter, the export factor, the import factor and the importer. It is also called as cross border factoring.
• Agency factoring: In this, finance and protection against bad debts is done by factor, administration and collection is done by client.

Factoring Process

The following steps are involved in the process of factoring:

• The seller sells the goods to the buyer and raises the invoice on the customer.
• The seller then submits the invoice to the factor for funding. The factor verifies the invoice.
• After verification, the factor pays 75 to 80 percent to the client/seller.
• The factor then waits for the customer to make the payment to him.
• On receiving the payment from the customer, the factor pays the remaining amount to the client.
• Fees charged by factor or interest charged by a factor may be upfront i.e. in advance or it may be in arrears. It depends upon the type of factoring agreement.
• In case of non–recourse factoring services factor bears the risk of bad debt so in that case factoring commission rate would be comparatively higher.
• The rate of factoring commission, factor reserve, the rate of interest, all of them is negotiable. These are decided depending upon the financial situation of the client.

Advantages of Factoring

The following are the advantages:

• It reduces the credit risk of the seller.
• The working capital cycle runs smoothly as the factor immediately provides funds on the invoice.
• Sales ledger maintenance by the factor leads to a reduction of cost.
• Improves liquidity and cash flow in the organization.
• It leads to improvement of cash in hand. This helps the business to pay its creditors in a timely manner which helps in negotiating better discount terms.
• It reduces the need for the introduction of new capital in the business.
• There is a saving of administration or collection cost.

Disadvantages of Factoring

The following are the disadvantages:

• Factor collecting the money on behalf of the company can lead to stress in the company and the client relationships.
• The cost of factoring is very high.
• Bad behavior of factor with the debtors can hamper the goodwill of the company.
• Factors often avoid taking responsibility for risky debtors. So the burden of managing such debtor is always in the company.
• The company needs to show all the details about company customers and sales to factor.

Thus, factoring forms an important part of a business, especially those businesses which are big in size. However, if used wisely and to the benefit of the company, it can help the business to grow significantly.