This checklist is for the factor comparing platforms: the owner, operations lead or credit officer who will run a funding book on whatever gets chosen. It is not a guide for a business shopping for a factor. Vendor feature lists tend to read alike, so this one is grouped by the operating day instead, from onboarding a client through to migrating off the system you run now. Each group says what good looks like, what to ask in a demonstration, and where FactorFox covers it, using only what the product does today.
Bring your own paper. A demonstration on clean sample data tells you very little about how a platform behaves on the schedule your team argued about last month.
Onboarding
What good looks like. A client set up from its signed agreement rather than retyped from it, with lien and credit questions answered before the first purchase rather than after the third. Screening should not be a one time event that was true on the day of onboarding and never checked again.
Ask in the demonstration. Hand over an executed client agreement and watch the setup happen. Then point at a configured term and ask where it came from.
Where FactorFox covers it. FactorFox reads the executed agreement into terms, including the fees and the discount schedule, and keeps the clause each term came from attached. Lien position is checked when a party is created, through TaxRock (available). AML and sanctions screening runs at onboarding with daily rescreening thereafter (available). Debtor payment behavior drawn from the FactorFox network is available through Probity at no per check charge. Commercial credit through Creditsafe and Dun and Bradstreet is contract required: the rail is built and answers not configured until you hold a contract and keys with that vendor.
Purchase and funding
What good looks like. One book that carries recourse, non recourse and non notification, with the difference held on the individual purchase rather than on the client record. Gates run at purchase, and the machine can hold money but never release it.
Ask in the demonstration. Raise a release and try to approve it yourself. Then try the same thing from a phone, because changing surface is how this control is usually defeated.
Where FactorFox covers it. Credit limit utilization, concentration under the aggregated debtor name, eligibility, advance rate by class and facility availability all apply at purchase. Releasing a held purchase requires a named person, four eyes by default, with the reason recorded in the approver's own words, and the rule holds on every surface. The reserve is established at the moment of funding rather than reconciled later. Payment files are generated for NACHA ACH, APCA direct entry and Fedwire, all available, with release control in front of them.
Verification and fraud
What good looks like. Verification driven by exposure and deviation rather than by whoever has time, evidence captured at the moment of the run, and duplicate checks that look across the whole portfolio and not just the submitting client. Fraud signals should fire on combinations and compare the client with its own history. A bank account change should never be something a machine can approve.
Ask in the demonstration. Submit the same invoice twice under two different clients with a new invoice number on the second. Then try to dismiss a signal without typing a reason.
Where FactorFox covers it. FactorFox detects duplicates and near duplicates within a client and across the portfolio at verification, and measures invoice size and submission timing against the client's own pattern. Every dismissal is recorded with a written reason and a name. Bank account changes sit under a human only hold that can never be made advisory. The document intelligence and fraud detection pages carry the detail.
Collections and cash application
What good looks like. A worklist ordered by exposure at risk and promise history rather than by age alone, promises that lapse and reopen the case on their own, and cash applied as a proposal a person accepts. Short pays become deductions, not small write offs that nobody sees as a pattern.
Ask in the demonstration. Bring the remittance nobody could apply, the one covering four invoices with two short pays, and ask which parts the software refuses to decide for you.
Where FactorFox covers it. Collections are ranked by exposure and the obligor's promise history, cases reopen on lapsed promises, reversed payments and new disputes, and contact history is kept against the obligor across every client it touches. Remittances from a shared mailbox through Microsoft Outlook and Graph mail (controlled release) or EDI 820 (available) become proposals with the original attached, and a person's name goes on every posting. The next collections contact can be projected into the officer's Microsoft Calendar (controlled release), while the case stays the record. See collections.
Accounting and the general ledger
What good looks like. A real double entry ledger underneath the operating book, fees that accrue on the days they are earned, and reserve movements recorded with an actor beside them. The client statement should come from the ledger rather than being rebuilt beside it at month end.
Ask in the demonstration. Pick a client's reserve balance and ask to open the entries that moved it.
Where FactorFox covers it. FactorFox runs on a true double entry general ledger. Fundings, fee accruals, reserve movements and releases, chargebacks, repurchases and cash application post as balanced double entry against the client, the schedule and the obligor. Monthly minimums and wire, ACH, verification and audit fees apply under the facility terms. The client statement is generated from that ledger, and audit packets are sealed so nobody can change them afterwards. See accounting.
Client portal and white labeling
What good looks like. A portal your clients use under your name, on your own address, without a design project every time your website changes. A client should see only the products and facilities it actually holds with you.
Ask in the demonstration. Give the vendor your website address and see what comes back. Then ask whether anything can publish without you.
Where FactorFox covers it. Clients get a portal and an installable app under your brand. The Brand Studio reads your colors, typeface, logo and name from your website, proposes a draft beside a preview, and publishes only when you press Publish. FactorFox helps with the DNS record that points your chosen address at the portal. See white label client portal.
Reporting
What good looks like. A new question answered the same day without waiting for a report writer, every figure traceable to a defined measure, and shared reports that respect each viewer's permissions.
Ask in the demonstration. Ask for a report in plain words, then ask how one figure on it was calculated.
Where FactorFox covers it. FactorFox Studio takes a request in plain English, states what it understood before anything runs, and calculates every figure from governed measures with a stated definition, period and source. A shared report runs under each viewer's own permissions. Custom reports cover clients and debtors today and export to CSV, and they can be saved, shared and scheduled. See FactorFox Studio.
Integrations, with status words
What good looks like. An integration list where every row carries an honest status. "Integrates with" can mean anything from a working connector to a logo on a slide, and the difference only shows up after you sign.
Ask in the demonstration. For each integration you depend on, ask whether it works in the product today, runs with named customers ahead of general release, waits on your own contract with the vendor, or is planned.
Where FactorFox covers it. FactorFox publishes an integration register with five status words: available, controlled release, contract required, planned and ecosystem. QuickBooks Online and Xero are available and require your own vendor credentials, and neither is ever written to. Federated sign in through Microsoft Entra ID is available. Briefings, signals and approvals in Microsoft Teams are controlled release. Creditsafe and Dun and Bradstreet are contract required. Plaid is planned, and nothing about it is described as working.
Security and controls
What good looks like. Controls a reviewer can watch refuse something, rather than paragraphs in a policy document. Clear answers on how tenants are kept apart, who can see your book, and which certification is actually held.
Ask in the demonstration. Ask for the certification position in writing, then ask to see the record of support access to your environment.
Where FactorFox covers it. Each customer's data is kept separate from every other customer's. Support access is requested, scoped, time limited and recorded, with the record visible to you rather than only to FactorFox. Connector tokens are encrypted at rest and never logged. A SOC 2 program is in progress, FactorFox holds no certification today, and its security page says exactly that.
Migration
What good looks like. A vendor that tells you what will not move before it tells you what will. A conversion is not a data copy, and the reconciliation should happen before you are asked to rely on the new book.
Ask in the demonstration. Ask what your current system never stored, and at what point the new book is reconciled against the old one.
Where FactorFox covers it. FactorFox tells you what moves cleanly, what needs a decision from you, and what your current system never stored in the first place, and it reconciles against your existing book before you are asked to trust anything. If you ever leave, export is a supported operation, and the audit history and sealed packets come with it.
For the purchase side of the day in more depth, see invoice factoring software. For the wider set of questions worth putting to any vendor, including us, see how to choose.