If your business is planning to invest in capital assets (ie plant and machinery) and/or new staff for expansion, rationalisation or diversification then your business could be eligible for a grant. If the project is yet to start and the your business serves or plans to serve more than a local market than European Grant monies may be available. XL Business Finance has teamed up with a specialist firm of chartered accountants to provide a free assessment of your eligibility for a grant. The initial assessment is absolutely free and a fee is only payable on the successful draw down of a grant.  No grant no fee!

The minimum grant available is  £10k and provided that all other areas of funding have been exhausted then funding may be awarded for between 10-35% of the total project cost therefore other sources of business finance must be secured to prove that the project is financially viable.

Following an initial meeting and a draft a project proposal which is discussed with the funding body and we get feedback within 2/3 days as to whether or not the business is likely to be successful with a grant application. It is important that you use  the best possible expertise and experience in making sure that the application is dealt with in the correct manner to obtain the best possible chance of success. It is  possible to go though the process yourself however experience suggests that it is better leaving it to the experts. From start to finish the process should take no more than six weeks however a business left to their own devices may take as long as six months wasting time energy and money. Far better to take the money now pay someone to do it and avoid making a mistake which leaves your application worthless.

Any business which has applied for the ECFG funding and has been declined may find a greater chance of success with the possibility of a grant. XL business Finance has over 10 years experience in providing innovative funding solutions and this is just one of the many areas we may be able to add value to your business.

Contrary to popular belief switching factoring or invoice discounting companies is relatively straight forward.  However it is more difficult if the exiting funder doesn’t want want you to leave.  Under extreme circumstances the existing discounting company will have notice periods built into the terms of the deal which  they will require paying in full. As notice periods could be anything from a  month to six months a chunk of minimum payments can soon add up. However if the relationship has totally broken down the existing provider may be willing t0 reduce their fees and the new provider may be willing to contribute to the fees to ease the pain so to speak. In addition a minimum contract from one to three years is not unusual and this must also be taken into consideration.

How you will be dealt with depends on the existing provider. Many of the banks prefer to keep a very clean and straight forward portfolio and if you don’t meet the banks strict criteria they will be more likely to let you go without a fuss. They dont want to be seen hindering a business especially if it is one of our government owned institutions. One of the biggest enquiries at the moment is for businesses wanting to switch from bank owned factoring and invoice discounting comapnies to more flexible providers.

Once all parties have agreed to the move there is a code of conduct that exists between the two funders. The new finance company will set up their  own trust accounts and the existing funder will sweep any money coming to the old accounts and pay it across until your customers get to grips with the change of banking arrangements. Hopefully the small amount of pain will result in new found financial freedom and flexibility. So there!

Ok, I know I keep harping on about the banks and potentially having too many eggs in one basket however we have recently come across a situation which shows the banks for what they truly are.

Approx 12 months we were approached by a engineering company with a turnover of approx £12m to help source a competitive invoice discounting facility. They were banking with a well known high street bank that shall also remain nameless. A commercial mortgage was in place with the same bank for approx £500k against a fairly recent valuation of £1.1m so plenty of security here thank you very much. We recommended a totally independent invoice discounting company so the bank wouldn’t have too much control. The cost via the independent would be appox £30k of service fee for running the facility compared with what the bank who were offering the facility at a loss leading £12k per annum. From a cost point of view a no brainer however if trading conditions were to take a turn for the worse this could leave the customer exposed to the mercy of the bank.

Now then 12 months down the line and because one of the group businesses have struggled the customer has been placed with the banks specialist care unit and as such is facing massively increased costs.

The service fee has been increased by 1%,  the interest rate has been increased by 0.75% and a monthly management fee of £1200 per month for monitoring the business has been applied. In addition a one of fee of £10k is being charged to verify the management information and cash flow projections. All this adds up to a whopping additional £50k per annum. Ouch!

Although this business has a £100k overdraft facility they are currently running stock at £2.5m. Within in two weeks we expect to have the customer uplifted from the bank with a new invoice finance company complete with a revolving stocking finance loan providing the business with an additional £200k working capital even after paying off the bank overdraft!

Invoice discounting is purely a means to be obtaining cash against your unpaid invoices. The facility can be provided on a confidential or disclosed basis.  Normally the facility will pay  up to 85% of any invoices your business raises. Credit is provided for up to 90 days however under certain circumstances there are a number of invoice discounting providers that will provide up to 120 days. Unlike a bank overdraft the level of funding is not restricted by the profitability length of time and credit worthiness of your business. The facility will grow with your business and as such it provides the ideal working capital facility.

Invoice discounting is different from factoring because all factoring facilities are provided on a disclosed basis and factoring also offers credit control. Invoice discounting is simply a meansof obtaining cash against your outstanding invoices however not all businesses will be eligible for a undisclosed facility. From the finance company’s point of view invoice discounting is a far more riskier facility. This is because the finance company has little control  over your customers. It is a more trusting facility in that the customer will raise an invoice and on a weekly, daily or monthly basis copies of the invoices will be provided to the finance company and the finance company make available 85% of the invoices available as immediate cash. The finance company doesn’t check with your customers that you have raised the invoice. The remaining 15% of the invoice is paid to the customer as and when your customers settle your invoices. Obviously the finance company will deduct an amount for interest owing and a small amount for the service fee. The service fee is usually a percentage of the overall turnover.

There are a vast number of businesses going through a prepacked administration process at the moment. These are commonly known as a phoenix company. Agree or disagree with the concept they are an option open to many struggling businesses and are widely being recommended by many insolvency practitioners. However obtaining invoice  finance coming out of the other side might not be as straight forward as one might think. It is very unlikely that a bank will finance a phoenix company. There are a few independent finance companies that will finance a phoenix company however the majority will offer factoring or disclosed invoice discounting. There are only one or two finance companies offering confidential invoice finance facilities. Whether you are offered a confidential facility depends upon how you have conducted t your previous business. All factoring and invoice discounting will take a reference from any previous invoice finance company. In a nut shell if the old factoring or invoice discounting has managed to collect out the old debt you have a much greater chance of being offered a confidential facility. If however the old finance company has struggled to collect out the old debt then you have less chance of being offered a confidential facility.

News on the high street today is that we are finally out of the recession. This is great news however don’t expect the banks to suddenly ease up on their underwriting criteria. We believe that it will be many months possibly years before the banks get back to where we were before all this kicked off.

Hopefully we will see businesses once again seeing an increase in turnover and as a result more profitable times ahead. Any increase in turnover will undoubtedly see an increase in working capital requirement. Do you really want to rely on the bank overdraft to provide the necessary working capital for your business? I don’t think so. While a business is expanding invoice discounting will provide the perfect cash flow finance facility that will grow with your business.

XL Business Finance has been helping businesses for over 10 years with their invoice discounting and factoring needs. Both are forms of invoice financing that will release up to 85% of unpaid invoices immediately. Providing there are no added complications to your business factoring or invoice discounting facilities can be up and running in a couple of days.

Although an overall funding limit will be set against your business this is reviewed on a regular basis and will grow as your business expands. As and when your customers pay you typically in 90 days from the date of the invoice the proceeds are used to repay the initial 85% advance and the remaining 15% is paid back to your business less an interest payment and a service fee. Interest is charged at a percentage over base rate or Finance House Base Rate and the service fee can range from 0.2% of turnover to 2.5 % of turnover depending on the whether you are utilising factoring or invoice discounting.

Both products are excellent for a businesses cash flow and we can help you obtain the most appropriate funding product.

It is now possible for certain new start businesses to offered full confidential invoice discounting. As we know confidential invoice discounting will release up to 85% of any unpaid invoices. As invoice finance can grow with the business it is much more preferable than any bank overdraft which tends to stay at a fixed level. In addition a bank overdraft is repayable at any time therefore invoice discounting provides a much safer option in terms of stability.

Traditionally confidential invoice discounting was for businesses with turnover in excess of £1.0m however before the credit crunch many different invoice discounting were offering confidential facilities for businesses who wouldn’t normally meet the standard criteria for such a facility. Along comes the credit crunch and all of a sudden it is like going back 10 years and all you can get is factoring. From the finance company point of view factoring is allot safer product because they are able to verify the debt by phoning your customers.  This can cause a problem for certain customers firstly because they don’t like the finance companies calling their customers ( not all of them are very subtle) and secondly you may already have an adequate credit control facility in place and as such factoring could become unnecessarily expensive.

However it has become apparent that a number of the the more independent invoice discounting companies are once again beginning o relax their criteria and as such it is again possible to obtain invoice discounting whereas last year you may have only been offered factoring. This is again the case with new start businesses. So long as the directors have had experience within that sector, adequate systems and procedures will be put in place invoice discounting with certain finance companies is definitely an option. XL Business Finance has been helping and advising customer for over 10 years in such matter.

We are seeing many businesses being forced by their banks  to use factoring as opposed to more risky invoice  discounting. This is usually following some adverse trading conditions where the bank wish to keep a tighter grip on the business. The good news is that there are still one or two independent based finance companies that would rather fund via confidential invoice discounting rather than factoring.

Although factoring and invoice discounting are both forms of invoice finance it is traditionally harder to obtain invoice discounting as opposed to factoring. From the point of view of any finance company invoice discounting is a far riskier finance product. Usually invoice discounting is provided on a confidential basis. Many customers prefer the confidentiality that invoice discounting provides as there is still in some circles a stigma against using such products. However the confidentiality of invoice discounting does bring its risks from the finance companies point of view. As the customer you will send copy invoices to the finance company against which approx 85 % of the value of the unpaid invoice is paid upfront. As such invoice discounting is more open to abuse and as such a business must normally have been trading for a number of years, have a strong balance sheet and be profitable before a bank will consider them for invoice discounting.

With factoring the fiannce company maintains afar greater degree of control as the financec ompany will verify the sales ledger on a regular basis and will have more hand on approach to running the facility. Therefor phoenix businesses, loss making businesses and new start businesses may be eligible for factoring but not invoice discounting.

However one finance company we do business with would rather do invoice discounting as opposed to factoring. For the first few months of the contract they will keep a close eye on it and run a shadow ledger and if everything goes well ther business will have a fully operational invoice  discounting facility.

Invoice discounting is the ability to raise up to 85-90% of a businesses unpaid invoices. There are approximately fifty or so providers based in the UK all offering a similar service. As explained in other posts not all finance companies are the same and as such great care should be taken when choosing a finance company. Most invoice discounting facilities can be run on line and at the end of the day the client will send a copy of their sales day book to the discounter. The discounter will then make available 85% of the invoices available for draw down by the client. The client runs the sales ledger and collection and makes telephone calls to chase the debt. The client collects payments from their customer and pays the money into a trust account. The discounter collects the funds from the trust account and pays back the remaining fiftenn percent less the charges for running the facility.

There are two main charges in invoice discounting agreements. The service fee is a percentage of the clients turnover for the privilege of operating the facility. These costs can vary between 0.1% -1% of turnover depending on the circumstances of the facility. The second charge is the cost of borrowing the money which is an interest charge for the priveledge of borrowing the money. Charges are usually 1-2.5% over the cost of borrowing. Some providers will link to bank base rate and others will link to LIBOR, which at times can be completely different. In addition some invoice discounting companies will charge a minimum base rate and as such the headline interest rate must be viewed with an air of caution.

If base rates  are low as they are now and we are expecting rates to go up a lower add on rate with a higher minimum may be better tan a ower min but with a higher add on.

Invoice discounting is only one of several invoice finance products available in the market place. Invoice discounting is mainly provided on a confidential basis and as such is commonly known as confidential invoice discounting. How it works is that  a customers will raise an invoice in the usual manner and post a copy to the finance company. the finance company will then make a percentage of the invoice available to the business typically 80%. All this can be viewed on line and different finance companies have slightly different systems and procedures when your customer pays you the finance company is repaid and a small fee is paid to the funder.

As  invoice discounting is quite a trusting way of operating a facility and is very much open to fraud and missuse any finance company requiring an invoice discounting facility  must be squeaky clean, be reasonably profitable, be very established and should have adequate systems and procedures in place. Therefore as most banks, in terms of underwriting, tend to be over cautious in the current climate and will shy  away from offering such facilities. A factoring facility will give the bank more control over the ledger as payments from your customers must be made direct to the invoice discounting company.

The good news is that there are a few alternative finance companies that will take a few. Most finance companies will put a customer on factoring and if they prove themselves then after a period of time they may allow the customer to go to confidential invoice discounting.   A half way house is for the finance company to  leave the credit control with the client however payments are made direct to the finance company. XL Business Finance has helped a number of businesses that have been refused invoice discounting via their banks however we have been able to help by providing a funder that will give the customer a chance on invoice discounting. If it doesn’t work they will put them on factoring.