How It Works
After activating your account, getting started with C2FO is easy. Learn how C2FO can help you manage your cash flow and meet your business goals.
C2FO Glossary
Available AR
AR stands for accounts receivable. In the C2FO platform, Available AR is the total value of your approved invoices available for early payment.
Clearing
Your offer is sufficient to receive approval for early payment with today’s market.
Discount
Amount applied in exchange for early payment.
Division
The name your customer has assigned to each vendor number for your company.
DPE
Days Paid Early. Average number of days your payment could be accelerated.
Eligible
The invoice is eligible for early payment. You can make an offer to get paid early.
Excluded
You have chosen to exclude specific invoices. These will not be included with your early payment offer.
Included
You have chosen specific invoices to include in your offer for early payment.
Ineligible
An invoice (for a number of reasons) is not eligible for early payment.
Matched vs. Unmatched Adjustments
Adjustments are credits against an invoice due to various credit terms, often for returns or damaged goods.
A matched adjustment is when a credit must be taken out of a specific invoice, per your customer's preferences.
An unmatched adjustment is when a credit can be relieved with any invoice, and is not tied to one specific invoice.
Not clearing
Your offer is insufficient to earn approval for early payment with today’s market.
Offer
Maximum discount rate you are willing to offer in exchange for early payment.
Participation
Indicates whether you have an active offer for that division.
Pay Date
Date that your customer will initiate early payment if your offer is accepted. Normal float time applies.
Invoice Central
Your customer has partnered with us to provide an invoice management platform to all eligible suppliers. Invoices are usually reflected on the C2FO platform once your customer has finished the matching process and no dispute has been opened. Therefore, this system will not allow you to upload invoices yourself.
Compared to other portals you might be used to, C2FO allows you not only to view scheduled invoice payments but also to request early payment on those invoices whenever you decide it would be beneficial.
On average, new invoices can be available up to 15-30 days after being received by your customer’s Accounts Payable team.
Yes. When you log in to your account, you will be able to download a version of your available invoice(s).
C2FO does not control which and how many invoices are uploaded on the Early Payment programme. If you already have pending invoices, the best thing to do would be to reach out to their accounts payable department to see if they can add you to the programme. Once your customer has uploaded your first invoices, you will receive an automated email notification.
Invoices on the C2FO platform will no longer be available for the Early Payment option if the payment date is too close (up to 6 days before the original due date). Also, if the invoice is overdue, it will not show on the C2FO platform, as anything overdue drops off as a fail-safe so you cannot offer discounts on anything already due.
Account / Supplier Details
As a technology partner, we do not have an account number as such. The best way would be to log in to your C2FO account so you can view your available invoices with the respective invoice ID. Here is the link to login: Access – C2FO.
There are two reasons why you may receive a password reset email:
C2FO requires a new password every 90 days
Someone may have noticed your account was locked and proactively sent you the email
As we aim to secure the information on C2FO in the best way possible, we want to make sure only the right people have access to the tool. One of the best ways to guarantee this level of security is to update the password regularly.
For your safety, please help to ensure that the email has the correct C2FO domain (@c2fo.com), and do not click on any link provided or provide any information unless you know the sender.
As a technology partner for your customer, C2FO will never ask for you to provide any bank details or sensitive information. With this facility, all invoices are uploaded on the system by your customer, and payment still comes directly from them.
After Registration
Once you log in on the portal, you can review eligible invoices (including the Original Pay Date that your customer has scheduled to pay you) and decide invoice by invoice whether early payment would be beneficial. You can then request early payment in exchange for offering a discount to your customer.
Most of the time, your customer does not have your invoices loaded, but you will get an automated email notification as soon as those are available to you. While invoices may be approved and posted in their ERP system, if they are not marked or flagged to be included in the daily invoice file, they will not be available on the C2FO platform for discounting. At this stage, feel free to explore the portal yourself.
Requesting Early Payment
The discount you offer is completely up to you. Because C2FO is a marketplace, your offer may or may not be approved for early payment based on market conditions.
Yes. Testing an offer on the platform does not immediately communicate anything to your customer, but you will receive immediate feedback whether your customer would accept it or not. Offers are submitted once per day at 5 p.m. (UK Time) so this gives you plenty of time to test out the platform without committing to anything.
Watch the video below for step-by-step guidance on requesting early payment on the C2FO app.
Making an Offer
Log in to C2FO to access your account. Click on the green “Explore Opportunity” or the white “Build your offer” button to begin.
You first will choose to create a Recurring or a One-Time Offer to have your invoices paid earlier.
For this example, we're setting a One-Time Offer. To do this, you would select which customers you want to speed up terms for on these invoices.
One-Time Offers give you specific rate guidance. You have three choices made available.
You Choose: an option that allows you to name your rate and will give you a range of rates that are likely to clear the market.
Trending Rate: this option shows a rate that is likely to be awarded based on the market trends, but it is not guaranteed.
Express Accept: this option guarantees early payment on those invoices at the rate displayed.
For this example, we will use the “You Choose” option and place an offer for a 0.4% discount that is likely to clear the daily market.
Once you select your rate, you will be moved to the final offer review screen. You have the option to make any final adjustments using the pencils on Total AR, Your Rate, or Invoices Included before submitting.
An Active Offer is an offer you are going to submit as a request for early payment. You can take a look at the Offer Activity tab on your main dashboard to review or amend your request. Offers are submitted once per day at 5 p.m. GMT.
This means if you have new invoices made eligible by your customers on the C2FO platform, they will be considered for early payment at the rate you have set. If you would rather participate on an as-needed basis, you can simply log in and withdraw your offer via the Offer Activity tab.
Some customers have one single award/payment date every week. For example, if the award date is Thursday, payment will be initiated on the following Monday. This means that if a request for early payment has been approved on the C2FO platform, the status of your request will stay “Pending” until the weekly award/payment date.
You may make an offer on C2FO at any time. However, offers are transmitted to your customers only once per day, at the Daily Market Clear time at 5 p.m. GMT. You have until then to make any changes to your offer.
Entering an offer before that time will simply allow you to see whether your customer would accept your offer. The countdown clock on the home screen lets you know the time remaining until the next market clear time.
Receiving Early Payment
You should now be able to see your “award file” with the details of which invoices are being paid early, the discount applied, the new payment date and other relevant information. To access this information, you can simply visit the “Offer Activity” tab on the C2FO platform.
Following your recent participation, you should see a short survey pop-up asking you to provide an overall rating of this service. Your feedback is highly valued, and we would like to thank you in advance for taking a minute to share your thoughts on your first experience with us.
You would be able to see and download your “award file” with the details of which invoices are being paid early, the discount applied, the new payment date and other relevant information by visiting the “Recent Award” tab or “History” tab on the C2FO platform.
New Pay Date is the date that your invoice(s) will be paid should you choose to accelerate. The date is updated regularly until your invoices have passed the due date. You will find the information about the payment date directly on the portal under “Original Due Date.”
When your request for early payment has been accepted by your customer, you will receive the payment on the next pay date listed – this can be as little as 24 hours.