Glossary of Terms

Aged Debt Report

The aged debt report lists a detailed account of which customers (debtors) owe your company money, how much they owe your company, and when they are due to make payment.

Availability

The amount of funds available for you to draw down.

Approved Debt

The value of assigned invoices after deductions for disapprovals.

Assignment

The transfer of rights, interests, and title of invoices.

Audit

A routine assessment of your organisations accounts, systems and procedures.

Confidential Facility

An invoice financing facility where the debtor is not notified of the assignment of the debt to the invoice financier. Also known as an undisclosed facility.

CHOC

CHOC stands for 'Customer Handles Own Collections'. The client undertakes the credit control function, acting as an agent for the financier for a pre-agreed period after which the financier may start collection activity.

Client Statement Report

Client statements provide a snapshot of account activity to show a summary of balances for all transactions. This can be requested at any time throughout the current month or can be obtained for the complete month for any given prior month.

Collections

Payments we receive from your customers.

Concentration Limit

The percentage to which we will fund any one customer as a proportion of your total approved debt.

Contra

Where you owe money to your customer, as well as them owing money to you.

Credit Limits

Funding limits that are agreed for your customers. Invoices are funded up to this limit.

Current Account / Funds in Use

The balance outstanding to us any one time.

Customer

A business to which you have supplied goods or services to.

Data Protection

Everyone responsible for using personal data must follow strict rules called 'data protection principles'. They must make sure the information is: used fairly, lawfully and transparently. used for specified, explicit purposes. used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary. These principles are governed by GDPR.

Debt Turn / DSO

Days sales outstanding (DSO) is a measure of the average number of days that it takes a company to collect payment after a sale has been made. DSO is often determined on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, and can be calculated by dividing the amount of accounts receivable during a given period by the total value of credit sales during the same period, and multiplying the result by the number of days.

Debtor Protection

A facility that protects your business against a bad debt and protracted payment.

Disapproval

Where an invoice is ineligible for funding for aged, disputes, contras, funding limit, concentration, reserve and verification.

Disbursements

These are charges for additional services and exceptional events.

Discount Charge

This is the 'cost of the money' we advance to you. It is levied against the ‘Current Account’ at an agreed percentage above the Bank of England Base Rate.

Dispute

When a customer refuses to pay an invoice for any reason.

Debenture

A form of security document. It creates fixed and floating charges over all the assets of the entity against which security is being taken. A fixed charge applies to a specific identifiable asset, while a floating charge is dynamic in nature and generally applies to the whole of the company's property.

Factoring

A form of invoice finance. It involves the assignment of outstanding debts by our clients to us as an invoice financier so we can fund working capital requirements. We effectively purchase the debts, administer our customers’ sales ledgers, provide credit control services, and usually collect debts in our name (rather than a customer’s name). The assignment is disclosed to our customers’ debtors. This is also known as full-service factoring.

Funding Limit

The Funding Limit as agreed in your Debt Purchase Agreement. This can be changed in line with your business requirements.

Invoice financing

This is a generic description for finance provided on the principle of purchase by us of the debts owed to our customers, this is represented by its unpaid invoices. The two main types of invoice finance in the UK are factoring and invoice discounting, although there are a range of variations in between. Other terms used include receivables finance and sales finance.

Invoice discounting

This is a form of invoice finance involving the assignment of outstanding debts by our customers to us to provide cash or funding. We purchase the debts, but our customers would normally administer their own sales ledger and collect their own debts in this case. Invoice discounting can either be disclosed or confidential.

Prepayment Percentage

The maximum percentage value of your invoices that will be available for you to draw in advance.

Re-assignment

The transfer of rights, interests, and title of assigned invoices back to you.

Recourse Period

The period up to which an invoice is approved. Invoices in excess of the recourse period will be disapproved for funding.

Refactoring Fee

This is a monthly fee charged as a percentage of the value of invoices, which exceed a certain time period specified in our agreement until payment against those invoices is received.

Sales Ledger

The total of all monies due to you from your customers.

Service Charge

This is the fee charged for the administration of the sales ledger and your account with us. It is charged as a percentage of the invoices you submit to us and includes the processing of invoices, chasing of debtors (if agreed) and allocation of receipts from your customers.