How to manage factoring

[risto3]

We came upon an unpleasant surprise when venturing to use alternative_payee on invoices.

For reference, the following issued was filed and closed without resolution.

alternative payee on client invoice becomes new client not receiver of...

The use case is traditional Factoring

Factoring (finance)

Indicating the alternative_payee party is, in this use case, a contractual obligation (for both suppliers and by the company for the clients ‘subrogated’). In fact,

In my opinion and experience, for corporate and, importantly, fiscal reasons, the invoice and related primary invoice moves to the GL are with the original supplier/client (‘in’: party == supplier, ‘out’: party == client) as usual.

But the problem encountered is that instead of creating the normal invoice move, the alternative payee is indicated in the invoice move, which poses a number of problems.

On the invoice, the most important element is the bank account, plus some legal text concerning the subrogation.

There can be numerous moves made following the accounting life of these invoices, in particular for those on a cash-basis (where payment date by the client is the event determining whether VAT is due).

I came across this site (in French) that gives some examples of the various forms available from one such Factor, including accounting move summaries

26 novembre 2020 - L'affacturage a le vent en poupe, 8 livrets à votre...

Perhaps there needs to be others mechanisms put in place… observations?

Cheers

[risto3]

This is one example of many of the moves involved for a client invoice under subrogation to a Factor.
Other examples, for example subrograting to one or more suppliers/subcontractors are much simpler.

In all cases, the client invoice has the standard moves, the printed invoice needing eventually the mandatory subrogation text obliged by contract with the Factor indicating specifics for payment.

Only upon acceptation of the invoice by the Factor is the transfer made to the Factors account (in the French PCG typically under a special account).

The subsequent moves depend on the contract, and maybe flat fees… in this example, a 20% guarantee reserve is established, with a fixed commission. As the finance charges are typically variable, the example treats them separately from the guarantee reserve, which is established and managed in contract specific manners (either permanent or punctual).

As to specific handling, I believe that if alternative payees are set at invoice time, this permits indicating on the invoice information necessary as to the payments to be made. Draft moves to the special account(s) could also be generated.

It is worth to mention that the analogous supplier invoice with a subrogated payees is very similar to the client side, only using the first two lines of the example.

Naturally, the supplier invoice must have its initial moves on the supplier auxiliary account, but the subrogation indicated (or even notified later) can generate a delegated move to the special account such as above, maintaining maturity dates but now involving the bank information of the surrogate party.

I repeat, in no means should the auxiliary account on the initial invoice (client nor supplier for that matter) be other than the invoiced(invoicing) party, the alternative payee is necessarily a secondary move.