Invoice finance in the construction industry
Any business which operates in the construction industry or any business which invoices stage payments as part of a contract knows how difficult it is to obtain funding . Some banks maybe prepared to offer some form of overdraft however as soon as you mention contracts to most factoring and invoice discounting companies they will run a mile. The good news is that there two finance companies providing invoice finance against applications in the construction or any industry involved in stage payments. Depending on your own particular circumstances XL business finance will help you find the most appropriate invoice finance company.
However the two finance companies are very different indeed. One is a bank owned finance company and the other is an independent finance company. The independent company is in our opinion the leading finance company in this sector and will fund uncertified application. It also understands that actual payments against application maybe slightly different from the money received and it also understands that VAT and PAYE may have been deducted. In our experience finance via the bank maybe a bit hit or miss. Their headline prepayment might be higher however they will have a very strict funding limit therefore as the business grows it might be difficult to obtain increased funding. As this is one of the big banks the level of service tends to be a bit hit or miss and not all the account managers understand contractual invoicing. If payments are slightly different they will put the cash to a suspense account because it doesn’t exactly match leading to disallowed credit limits and further reduction in funding.
I addition not all their account managers will pay against uncertified applications preferring to pay against certified invoices which can delay payment further!!!