What Is Invoice Financing?

Invoice financing, sometimes called accounts receivable financing, is a form of asset-based financing in which business owners receive an advance of capital in exchange for their unpaid invoices. Typically, invoice financing companies can advance you up to 85% of the value of your invoices and you receive the remaining 15% (minus fees) when your invoices are paid.

Because the invoices themselves serve as collateral on the capital you borrow, invoice financing is often easier to qualify for than other types of small business loans. In this way, invoice financing is a great funding option for B2B and service-based businesses—as it alleviates cash flow problems due to unpaid customer invoices.

How Does Invoice Financing Work?

Invoice financing is a form of asset-based financing in which you receive an advance of capital for your unpaid invoices. This is different from many business financing products, which are structured as term loans—meaning you receive a lump sum of capital that you pay back, with interest, over time.

Although it’s possible to receive up to 100% of the value of your unpaid invoices, most invoice financing companies will advance you up to 85%, holding the remaining 15% until the invoices are paid.

When your customer pays the invoice, you receive the remaining 15%, minus the lender’s fees. Typically, you’ll be charged a processing fee (about 3%), as well as a factor fee. The factor fee, usually about 1% to 2%, is charged on the total value of the invoice for each week it takes the customer to pay.

With invoice financing, you pay for fast and immediate access to your capital, freeing up your cash flow that’s being held up in unpaid invoices.

How Much Does Invoice Financing Cost?

Invoice financing costs may range from 10% to 60% in estimated APR. Here’s an example to give you a better sense of how expensive invoice financing can be an example:

Let’s say you have a $100,000 invoice with payment due in 30 days.

You find a financing company that’s willing to advance you 85% of that amount—$85,000—and hold the remaining $15,000 in reserve.

The company is going to charge a 1% factor rate for each week it takes the customer to pay the invoice, as well as a 3% processing fee. In this case, it takes the customer two weeks to pay the invoice, so you’ll be paying 2% in factoring fees ($2,000), plus the 3% ($3,000) processing fee.

Therefore, of the $15,000 held in reserve by the financing company, you’ll only receive $10,000 ($15,000 – $5,000 in fees). All in all, invoice financing would have cost you $5,000 of the original invoice amount, which equals an estimated APR of roughly 70%.

Now, that may seem like a steep price to pay, but ultimately, that comes down to your business’s financials and if that amount is worth early access to your capital.

Types of Invoice Financing

There are a few variations of invoice financing, including invoice factoring and accounts receivable lines of credit.

Invoice Factoring

Invoice factoring and invoice financing are often used interchangeably; however, there are differences between these two types of funding.

With traditional invoice financing, you pay back the advance of capital you borrowed, plus fees. With invoice factoring, you actually sell your invoices to the invoice factoring company at a discount.

In most cases, this also means that the invoice factoring company is the one collecting payments from your customers.

Accounts Receivable Line of Credit

An accounts receivable line of credit is a type of invoice financing in which you use your unpaid invoices to finance a credit line. In this case, the line of credit is backed by your invoices and the amount you receive on the line is usually up to 85% of the value of those invoices.

Unlike traditional invoice financing or invoice factoring, where you’re given a full advance of the value of your invoices, an accounts receivable line of credit lets you draw capital as needed—just like any other business line of credit.

With an accounts receivable line of credit, you pay an interest rate based on your balance, and when a customer pays their invoice, the amount is deducted from your current balance. In addition, some lenders will charge you a draw fee, every time you pull on the credit line.

In most cases an accounts receivable line of credit is like traditional invoice financing (as opposed to factoring), in which you retain ownership of your invoices and are responsible for collecting customer payments.

Pros and Cons of Invoice Financing

Of course, as with any type of funding, invoice financing will not be right for every business. First and foremost, by the nature of this business financing, it’s best-suited for B2B and service-based businesses and is often used by those in industries like retail, manufacturing, healthcare, real estate, and consulting.

If you’re trying to decide if invoice financing makes sense for your small business, you can reference the pros and cons below:

Pros

• Fast access to working capital: Since invoice financing is backed by your accounts receivable, this type of financing is often very quick to fund, especially when working with alternative lenders who offer an online-based, streamline application process. You may be able to access funding in as little as one day.
• Alleviates cash flow problems due to unpaid invoices: If you’re running short on capital to meet upcoming expenses, like taxes or payroll, invoice financing gives you the ability to free up cash flow to cover those expenses.
• Easier to qualify for than other types of business financing: Although the requirements you need to meet for invoice financing will vary based on the small business lender, in general, you’ll find that because the financing is backed by your invoices, lenders will be much more flexible with qualifications. Instead of solely focusing on your credit score and financials, lenders will also look at your customers and their payment history.
• Invoices themselves serve as collateral: As we just mentioned, your invoices serve as collateral with this financing, which not only makes it easier to qualify for, but makes it more likely that you won’t be asked to put up other assets, like real estate or inventory, as collateral.
• Low cost if your customers pay on time: Although invoice financing can be expensive compared to other types of business loans, it’s pretty affordable if your customers pay on time, or even early. Whereas you’d pay interest on a traditional loan for the entirety of the term, you’ll only pay fees on invoice financing as long as the invoice is outstanding.

Cons

• Can have higher fees than other types of financing: Invoice financing can be affordable in a certain sense, but overall, the fees you end up paying are often more expensive than you’d find with other types of loans. Additionally, depending on the lender, you might find you have to meet monthly minimums or pay extraneous fees.
• Difficult to evaluate cost upfront: Although you can use an invoice financing calculator to estimate costs to a certain extent, it’s difficult to evaluate exactly how much invoice financing costs ahead of time. Because the final fees you pay are based on the time it takes your customer to pay, the ultimate cost of this financing will vary.
• Can be expensive and risky if customers are late to pay, or don’t pay at all: When it comes down to it, if your customers are late to pay their invoices, this type of financing will end up being very expensive. Some financing companies charge sizable late fees or increase the rates for each week it takes the customer to pay. On the other hand, if your customer doesn’t pay at all, you’ll usually be responsible for repaying the lender in full—which could be detrimental to your cash flow.
• Not really an option for most B2C businesses: Finally, as we mentioned above, accounts receivable financing is very specific—you have to actually have outstanding invoices to apply for invoice financing. Therefore, if you’re a B2C business or subscription-based business, it’s very likely that this financing won’t be an option for you.

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