Factoring fee calculator.

How this calculator works

Factoring is priced “per 30 days” for a reason: most factors quote a headline rate that assumes the broker pays within the standard net-30 window, then prorate the rate daily for invoices that pay faster or slower. A 3% rate on a 30-day invoice and a 3% rate on a 60-day invoice are notthe same cost — the second one is twice the fee in dollars, because you’ve tied up the cash twice as long.

The five inputs the calculator uses:

• Invoice amount — face value of the load you hauled. The factor never advances more than this number.
• Rate per 30 days— the factor’s headline rate. Industry median for owner-operators sits around 3%; spot factoring runs 4 – 5%, long-term contract factoring 1.5 – 2.5%.
• Advance rate — the percent the factor wires to you within 24 hours of invoice upload. The rest is held back until the broker actually pays.
• Days outstanding — calendar days from upload to broker payment. Most brokers pay 25 – 45 days; the slow ones stretch to 60+.
• Recourse vs non-recourse— recourse means you owe the factor back if the broker doesn’t pay. Non-recourse means the factor eats that loss in exchange for a 0.5 – 1% premium on the rate. The calculator surfaces this as a UI note rather than auto-modifying the rate, so the comparison stays apples-to-apples and you choose the markup consciously.

The math under the hood: fee = invoice × rate × (days ÷ 30); advance = invoice × advance%; hold-back = invoice − advance; effective annualized rate = (fee ÷ advance) × (365 ÷ days) × 100. That last formula is the one carriers should tattoo on their forearms.

Why effective annualized rate matters

A 3% factoring rate doesn’t look like much next to a 12% APR line of credit. Until you annualize it. A 3% fee on a 30-day invoice with a 95% advance is roughly a 38% effective APR on the cash you actually had at risk — comparable to the high end of working-capital loan pricing, and meaningfully more expensive than a bank line for a carrier who qualifies for one.

That said, effective APR is the right number for comparing, but the wrong number for shaming factoring. Factoring isn’t a loan — there’s no debt on your balance sheet, no personal guarantee in most cases, no minimum payments. The fee comes out of the broker pay, not your operating account. For new authorities that can’t qualify for a line yet, or for carriers running brokers with 60-day pay cycles, factoring is the only realistic tool that bridges the cash-flow gap. The right framing isn’t “is factoring expensive” — it’s “is the cash-flow speedup worth the spread.”

The 0.5 – 1% non-recourse premium is, in this frame, cheap insurance for carriers hauling for one or two concentrated brokers. One broker default on a recourse contract can wipe out a quarter of fee savings. Run the numbers on both lines.

Limitations

• No broker credit pull. Real factors screen broker creditworthiness before funding an invoice. The calculator assumes the broker will pay — which is the default outcome, but not universal.
• No contract-specific fees. ACH fees, same-day-funding upcharges, fuel-advance fees, lockbox fees, and monthly minimums are not modeled. Read the contract.
• Linear daily proration assumed. Some factors tier rates in 15-day or 30-day blocks (a 31-day invoice pays the 60-day rate). Ask the factor how their proration works.
• Reserve release timing varies. Most factors release the reserve within 1 – 2 business days of broker pay; some hold for 5 – 10 days. Cash-flow modeling should add a buffer.
• Not a quote. Real terms come from a contract. This is a planning tool.