If you’re a contractor or supplier who is regularly involved in construction projects, you may have considered doing business with a factoring company to help you even out your cash flow. As you probably know, factors will purchase your outstanding invoices at a discount, advance you part of what you’re owed, and then collect from the contractor or owner you’re working for. The terms will vary, but typically you can get 80-90% of the value of the outstanding invoices upfront. If the factor can collect all of the invoice amounts due, it will typically charge a factoring fee that is a percentage of the total of the invoice amounts. Any remaining balance (over what you’ve already received) will then be transferred to you.
Factoring Doesn’t Remove Your Risk
The factor usually won’t assume all the risk for collecting unpaid invoice amounts. Ultimately, you will still be responsible for collection efforts if the owner or the contractor you’re working with doesn’t pay. This could mean owing the factoring company for advances you’ve received if payments are late or not collected.
In addition, similar to when you take out a loan, the longer it takes the factor to collect on the invoices it purchases from you, the higher the fees it charges.
How Factors Secure What They Advance
Factors will typically file a UCC financing statement against the invoices they purchase from you. This means that if you’ve already pledged your accounts receivable – for example, as collateral for a line of credit or a short-term loan – you may have difficulties factoring invoices that are already pledged. It can take some effort and discussions with existing lenders to segregate invoices that the factor is purchasing from you from other accounts receivable that may already be pledged.
What many factors won’t do is fully step into your shoes and take all of the collection risks for the invoices they purchase from you. Those who provide this kind of “non-recourse” financing will charge more since the factoring company assumes all of the payment risks. This is why it’s so important, even if you regularly use factors to help with cash flow and have had good results in the past, to make sure that you are in a position to protect yourself if it turns out the factor isn’t able to collect all or part of what you’re owed from an owner or contractors.
Protecting Your Factored Receivables
At Emalfarb Law and National Lien and Bond, we have been helping our construction industry clients protect their ability to collect from owners and contractors for decades. We have a nationwide network of experienced attorneys who, like us, are dedicated to helping you ensure you’re in a position to get paid for your work or materials you provide for construction projects of all types. There are two main aspects to protecting yourself: first, having a system in place to protect yourself, and second, using that system. We can help with both.
Setting Up a Compliance System
Preparing a project data sheet for each new job can help you make sure you have the information you need to properly secure your right to get paid for each job you work on or provide supplies for. At Emalfarb Law and National Lien and Bond, we help clients craft effective project data sheets that collect relevant information about each new job so that they can make sure they are taking the proper steps to secure their receivables.
Project data sheets gather a wide range of information about each project, information you probably already have in one place or another. Compiling it in one document helps enormously when it comes to making sure you take the proper steps at the proper time to secure your receivables.
Using Your Compliance System
The next step, once the information has been gathered, is to use that information effectively. Emalfarb Law and National Lien and Bond can help here, too. We’ll make sure that you are aware of the particular requirements for mechanics liens and other forms of payment security for your particular project. These requirements can vary considerably from one state to another and from one project type to another, which is where we come in – helping you file what you need to file where and when you need to file it.
Emalfarb Law and National Lien and Bond are Here to Help
Whether or not you’re exploring working with a factoring company to help you with your cash flow, Emalfarb Law and National Lien & Bond are ready to help you take the steps you need to protect your receivables. From mechanics lien filing requirements for your project to collecting on a payment bond, to negotiating with a slow-paying owner or contractor, to filing a collection lawsuit, our experienced construction law attorneys understand what it takes to protect your rights and get you paid.
At Emalfarb Law and National Lien & Bond, we’ve helped thousands of industry clients recover more than $9 billion in claims from projects all across the country. Our nationwide network of experienced and dedicated construction law attorneys are on call to help you collect what you’re owed, no matter where your project is located. Call Emalfarb Law and National Lien and Bond today at (800) 432-7799 or use our contact form to set up a free consultation to learn more about how we can help you get paid.