Factoring companies specialize in profiting from the purchase of invoices from another business. A business will sell its outstanding accounts receivable for a discount to another company that intends on collecting. Factoring companies differ from other financial organizations that perform loans in that it directly purchases a financial asset instead of basis the loan on credit worthiness. The company selling its invoices gets an influx of capital immediately as the factoring company acts as a quick loan firm. The factoring company then collects on the outstanding debts and makes a profit from a fee charged to the original company.

Three parties are needed for this method of business to function: the company selling the invoices, the factoring company buying the invoice and issuing the loan and the firm that the factoring company from which the factoring company collects.

The entire process allows a company to grow in conjunction with their sales. As soon as an enterprise makes a sale and has an invoice drawn up, it can sell that invoice to factoring companies and raise capital to reinvest in their business. They do not have to wait to collect money from their client. This means that the company can safely move onto their next big client without fear of where the revenue for meeting the client's needs will come from. These third party transactions are commonplace in modern business.

Factoring companies are those businesses that purchase invoices from another business for the purpose of collecting on those transactions and making a profit. The factoring company issues a loan to the company based on the value of the financial asset rather than the credit worthiness of the company. It then takes the outstanding accounts receivable revenue it collects and returns the overage minus a fee. This assists the company receiving the loan on a variety of levels. First, it gives the company immediate capital which it can utilize to gain further business. Second, it doesn't have to deal with the third party in collecting from the invoice.

Unlike a traditional bank or investment loan, factoring requires three parties in order to handle the transaction. The company that sells the invoices is the primary. The factoring company acts as a secondary, collecting the money from the invoice. The business that is making a payment on its invoice is the third party.

This entire process facilitates the growth of the original company in many ways. It allows them to grow their business roughly at the rate of attaining new clients. Once a deal is closed and an invoice is created, the company can move onto its next order of business and not deal with collecting on the transaction. In effect, they can leave that to the factoring company. Many modern firms leverage the talents of factoring companies to help speed up the time it takes to do business. Cash flow is the primary concern of most businesses that have a need to investigate factoring. As an alternative to traditional financing, factoring is the quickest, most unintrusive approach.