You’ve decided that factoring is a great way to get paid faster and improve cash flow. Selecting CFI as your factoring partner, is the first step. Once you have been onboarded, you will be assigned your own Account Manager (AM). Someone at your company (you, your accounts receivable manager or your bookkeeper) will become good friends with your AM.
Why? Because typically you will deal with them on a regular basis as they help you through the factoring process and get you the cash you need. You will regularly send them invoices and documentation, they will coordinate ongoing funding, they can help you reconcile your books and will provide you with information you need.
In short, you will communicate with your AM regularly. The relationship between you and your account manager will become critical to a good factoring experience.
How can you ensure the relationship works well, meets expectations (for both parties) and delivers the expected benefits? Our account management team has some suggestions and tips.
Paperwork is Critical
Getting access to your money quickly is critical. CFI can only provide you with funds after we have verified the invoices you have submitted. The verification process starts with having a complete set of documentation supporting the invoice. For many industries, the invoice itself is only part of the paperwork. In order to verify an invoice, you need to provide CFI supporting documentation required by your customer. Without the supporting documentation your customers won’t verify the invoice and therefore CFI can’t purchase the invoice. Submitting all the appropriate paperwork with your invoices will make the funding process go a lot smoother and quicker. Appropriate paperwork means:
- Any information your customer would need to pay the invoice. For various industries this includes (but is not limited to):
- Staffing – timesheets, often times signed off by your customer
- Trucking – All pages of the bill-of-lading (BOL), and any lumper/detention receipts (unloading, waiting)
- Oil/Gas – weight tickets
- Additional documentation should be submitted when the invoice is submitted and your AM will guide you on what to submit.
- All documentation must be legible – not blurry, no hidden or redacted lines
It’s easier and quicker to receive invoice verifications if all the supporting documentation is submitted with the invoice. If an AM has everything, he or she may not need to contact your customer for verification and, if they do, they may only need to contact your customer one time to complete the verification process, which means you’ll get paid faster for that invoice.
Your Account Manager Can’t Read Your Mind
Managing expectations is a large part of the communication process, and both parties need to understand the expectations of each other. Tell your account manager what you need, want, and expect, and your account manager will do the same for you.
Be Proactive
Managing expectations is a large part of the communication process, and both parties need to understand the expectations of each other. Tell your account manager what you need, want, and expect, and your account manager will do the same for you.
Communication
- Who should be our primary day to day contact at your company? Do you prefer to communicate by email, phone calls, or text messages?
Funding Expectations – how often and when would you like us to send you money?
- Do you want to receive funds every time an invoice is purchased and payment is received? Or would one or two times per week be best?
- Do you need funding on a specific day of the week or month? For example, the day before you run payroll.
Reporting – what reports do you need and when do you need them?
- Many reports can be accessed in our client portal. If you need additional reporting let us know what information you require and we will see what reporting we can create to meet your needs.
- Many reports can be set to automatically be emailed to you.
The Process Takes Time and Timing is Important
You need your funding quickly and once your account is set up the process typically flows smoothly. But approving the credit of your new customers can slow this funding process. Credit checks on new customers take time – we review your customers for credit worthiness to help ensure they can and do pay their invoices on time. The more you communicate with your AM the faster the funding process runs.
Ask Us Questions
If you don’t understand something, please let us know.
- Don’t understand why certain documentation or supporting paperwork is necessary? Ask for us to explain why.
- Don’t understand your statements or reports? Ask your AM to explain them.
- Don’t understand how our website works or where to find documentation of the payments your customers made? Ask your AM to train your team on the website.
Your account manager will become intimately familiar with your business. He or she serves as a resource for you and your team and wants to be there to support you.
Additional Tips
- Call your account manager’s direct phone number, not our 888#. We value your time and want direct contact between you and your account manager without you having to talk to an operator.
- Bookmark the link to our customer portal where you can access all the information on your account.
- Review your paid invoices and reconcile your books often. Pull the collections report (from our online portal) daily or at least weekly. If you wait until the end of the month to reconcile invoice purchases and payments it is harder to know if something has been missed or if a mistake has been made.
What if you experience problems?
If you experience any challenges or issues our management team is always available to help. You can reach out to our Portfolio Manager Mari Dezham. Her email is mdezham@commercialfund.com and her phone number is 385-212-3656. She has been with CFI for over 15 years and is an excellent resource for resolving challenges.
Our goal is to make funding of your business quicker and more efficient. If there are challenges to this, we need to know. If there are things we can do to improve please let us know. We try to make improvements as often as we can.
Our business is built on relationships and your account manager should be considered part of your team. Our customers are part of our Commercial Funding Inc. family, and we want to be part of yours.
After all, it’s your money. Smart and fast.
