Cash flow is tight in construction. Payments come slowly, and that makes it hard to sustain a business – not as grow it. To combat this dilemma, there are several legal tools available, such as prompt payment laws, mechanics lien laws, and retainage laws, to mention a few. There are several business-oriented tools available, too. One tool is construction invoice factoring. Factoring is an intimidating topic, but at its core, it couldn’t be simpler.

What is Construction Factoring?

Construction factoring allows a subcontractor to borrow against their receivables. Factoring is a procedure by which businesses (in construction – typically subcontractors) obtain cash advances for his or her invoices. When factoring a building invoice, a building company will assign its invoice to the factoring company. In exchange, the factoring company provides the construction company cash on the spot.

How do you Factor Construction Invoices?

First, construction invoice factoring requires a party providing work will follow a factoring construction company to factor their invoices. Typically, a factoring company will agree to pay for out 70-80% of the value of the invoice to the subcontractor before payment could have otherwise been received. Then, the bill becomes the factoring company’s burden to collect. Once that factoring company is taken care of the subcontractor’s work, the factoring company will probably pay the subcontractor that remaining 20-30% without the factoring company’s fee.

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Types of Construction Factoring

Generally, there are two primary approaches to factor construction invoices – spot factoring and contract factoring.

Spot Factoring

Spot factoring refers to a “one-off” situation. When spot factoring, building business is factoring a specific invoice to float the cash they need right then. Spot factoring might create a sense where the company generally doesn’t have a lot of cash flow problems factoring construction, but a specific event or situation job causes a hiccup with financials. Spot factoring construction invoices are commonly higher priced than contract factoring, and this is designed to get a company out of a bind.

Contract Factoring

Through contract factoring, cash is likely to be provided in exchange for every single progress payment, much in precisely the same way as spot factoring (but on a bigger scale). Generally, the rate that the factoring company charges should go down when a larger number of invoices have been in play. When utilized for your life of the contract, factoring construction invoices can assure steady cash flow for the duration of the job. Each time an invoice for a progress payment goes out, the construction company can obtain practical most of the cash at an earlier date.

Why Do Construction Companies Factor Their Invoices?

Construction payments come slowly. By factoring invoices, construction companies can obtain compensation for some of their invoice 20, 30, even 40 days sooner than they’d otherwise. Plus, so long as a subcontractor’s factoring company gets paid completely, the subcontractor is only going to lose a comparatively small percentage of the invoice when it’s all said and done.

Let’s look at some of the specific reasons that make construction factoring worthwhile for a few construction businesses.