Gathering data

Back
Post Image
25/07/2022

What is invoice financing?

Table of content

Introduction

Understanding Invoice Financing

How does Invoice Financing Work?

Different Kinds of Invoice Financing

Understand the Difference Between Invoice Financing and P2P Lending

Conclusion

Introduction

Peer to peer, the practice of businesses auctioning off their unpaid bills using a centralised online site is known as invoice trading. The goal of this practice is to get quick cash to improve the company's working capital. If this is not the case, the company would have to wait anywhere from 30 - 120 days on average until the bills are paid and cash is received.

Understanding Invoice Financing

Through the use of invoice finance, businesses are granted the ability to sell particular invoices through (usually) online platforms to acquire immediate money which would otherwise be held up. Businesses can increase their cash flow or fill a gap within working capital cycles as a result of this innovative chance to sell invoices, which is offered to them. The idea adapts the concepts of peer-to-peer lending and applies them to the realm of invoice financing. The idea is sometimes referred to as "auction-based invoice finance" on occasion. 

Any company that needs access to money quickly can sell their bills on an internet marketplace and receive a rapid payment equal to between 80 and 90 percent of the invoice's face value. The role of an intermediary that invoice trading platforms play in connecting businesses (the sellers) plus investors (buyers).

Invoice financing enables businesses to obtain immediate funding for a fixed charge. Invoice financing firms purchase invoices for a fee, with the risk that the invoice may not be returned.

How does Invoice Financing Work?

Now that you know how a normal transaction for invoice financing works, let's look at some examples:

  • An application to become a certified member of the invoice finance platform is submitted online by a firm.

  • The firm will then upload the invoice(s) so that they may be checked and made available to purchasers.

  • Once their identities have been confirmed, purchasers may then place bids to purchase fractions of the whole invoice, which is handled by the platform.

  • As soon as the firm decides to accept the bid, the platform will transfer the money necessary to pay the invoice (equal to 80-90 per cent of the face value) into the company's registered bank account.

  • After the final debtor has paid the invoice in its entirety, the remaining 10–20 per cent, minus the costs charged by the platform, is sent into the account of the firm.

  • After the term, the purchasers are refunded their money.

The lending platform is responsible for managing every stage of the process, beginning with the registration of users and finishing with the transfer of the funds. Users who are searching for rapid cash often find that they simplify complicated situations while using them. In addition to the fundamental services they provide, these platforms also include a variety of features, such as accounting, decision-making, and the integration of payments.

Businesses who want to capitalise on the booming market for online lending by developing their platform need to be familiar with the appropriate organisational frameworks and implement the appropriate technology and business plan. The majority of online lending companies offer assistance to businesses by providing a customised lending framework that makes it possible to construct a lending platform using a drag-and-drop interface. The adaptable back-and-front-end architecture, as well as a plethora of pre-built features, are included with the 360-degree loan solution. These features include rule-based calculations, a flexible user interface, automatic KYC/AML, and connection with third parties.

Different Kinds of Invoice Financing

The Factoring of Invoices

One kind of invoice financing is known as "invoice factoring," and what it does is turn outstanding invoices into quick cash. When a business uses a factoring service, the factoring firm assumes responsibility for sales ledger, credit, as well as the collection of payments from clients for outstanding bills. The debtor, who may also be referred to as the client, is the one who pays the factoring firm directly for the services rendered.

Invoice Discounting

Invoice discounting is a sort of invoice financing in which a company uses its outstanding account invoicing as collateral for the loan, which may be granted by a bank or finance firm. In this type of invoice financing, the company receives a lower interest rate on the loan. The business does not lose control of the sales ledger and continues to pursue payment traditionally even when it uses invoice discounting. In contrast to invoice factoring, a debtor or even the customer is the one who settles the bills directly with the firm.

The Selective Financing of Invoices

With selective invoice financing, businesses have more control over the invoices they choose to sell than they have with traditional finance methods. The business does not have to hand up the full sales ledger; rather, it may pick and select which invoices to sell.

Understand the Difference Between Invoice Financing and P2P Lending

In deciding between invoice finance or P2P lending, it is vital to analyse the benefits and downsides of each method:

In factoring, the duty for tracking debt is given to the invoice financier, leaving you additional time to concentrate on other elements of your business. Your customer's connection with the invoice financier might suffer as a result of an unfavourable contact between the two of them.

With invoices, your consumer won’t understand that you’re utilising invoice financing, although you are accountable for collecting payment.

It is more flexible to sell your bills on a platform, but the amount you may generate relies on how well the invoices perform in the auction system.

Invoice financiers may impose a charge over the invoices, which can restrict funding from many other sources.

Finally, using P2P Lending, you might obtain more cash than you might against the invoices, but much like invoice trading above, the interest rate may rely on the bidding process.

It is worth to mention that various P2P Lending platforms allow to invest in invoices. The most popular beeing Debitum Network and Emprestamo.