In 2025, the Polish factoring market achieved a turnover of nearly 520 billion zlotys. According to data from the Polish Factoring Association (PZF), this represents an increase of 10.4 per cent. Furthermore, the sector financed as many as 31.5 million invoices during this period.
As a result, given such a massive scale, profitability depends on the efficiency of the process. However, the factoring process is exceptionally document- and decision-intensive. Consequently, the main bottlenecks occur during invoice verification and risk assessment. Furthermore, the decisions themselves and the monitoring of payments also pose challenges.
That is why we have set out below the areas where automation delivers the quickest return on investment. Importantly, this change does not require the replacement of the current system.
Factoring is a process driven by documents and decisions
31.5 million invoices a year is not just a statistic. It represents a sequence of steps repeated 31.5 million times: receipt of an invoice, verification, linking to the contract and credit limit, financing decision, payment, monitoring and settlement of repayment. Each of these stages, when carried out manually, takes time and introduces the risk of error; and as volumes increase, the workload scales linearly with the number of staff. It is precisely this repetitiveness that makes factoring one of the best candidates for automation across the entire financial sector.
The four most common bottlenecks
Receipt and verification of invoices. Invoices are received via various channels and in different formats, and the process of checking them and linking them to the relevant contract is often carried out manually. This also serves as the first line of defence against fraud, which is why the industry is developing common mechanisms for the exchange of information between factors and banks.
Counterparty risk assessment. The decision requires data to be gathered from a number of sources – payment history, debtors’ databases and credit limits. Compiling this information manually prolongs the time taken to reach a decision and makes it difficult to ensure consistency in the assessment.
Funding decisions and limits. The rules governing the allocation of funding and limits are usually hard-coded into the factoring system. Changing them can be a slow and opaque process, especially when the logic is embedded in the old core system.
Settlements and repayment monitoring. Matching payments to invoices, sending notifications, and soft debt collection – these are all minor, repetitive tasks that can easily pile up.
Where does automation deliver the quickest return on investment?
The quickest return on investment comes from automating the processes involving the highest volume of manual work. This mainly concerns the receipt and verification of invoices, including anti-fraud measures.
Another strong contender is decision orchestration. It acts as an automated process layer. It independently collects data from various sources and applies predefined rules. It then guides the case through the subsequent stages. The analyst no longer needs to switch between systems manually.
Automation does not require the factoring system to be replaced
The key shift in perspective is the same as in other financial processes: to automate, you don’t need to replace the core system. A process layer such as Flowee BPMS wraps around the existing factoring system—it receives invoices digitally, performs verification and decision-making, integrates data sources, and monitors case status, leaving the engine where it is. It’s the same logic as in the “strangler fig” modernization method: we modernize the process without tearing down the system.
Prerequisite – understanding the rules and the risks involved
Decision rules, limits and exceptions are usually embedded in the old system. To automate them securely and integrate them with the rest of the process, they must first be identified. This is achieved through a process inventory and the reconstruction of the system documentation (S*.doc). Without this, automation is carried out blindly, and any non-standard cases end up having to be handled manually.
What does a factoring company gain?
The result is faster decision-making and payment, a lower risk of fraud and errors, and the ability to handle a growing volume of invoices without having to expand the team proportionally. In a market that has returned to double-digit growth and where traditional credit is increasingly being replaced by SMEs, this is the difference between keeping pace with demand and stifling it through manual verification.
