2 min read
What invoice finance does
Invoice finance — which includes invoice discounting and factoring — advances your company a proportion of the face value of outstanding invoices, typically 70–90 %, before your customers pay. When the customer settles, the funder deducts its fee and remits the balance. The facility grows automatically as your turnover grows, because the security is the debtor book itself.
This makes invoice finance well-suited to B2B companies with extended payment terms (30–90 days) whose cash outflows — wages, supplier invoices, rent — cannot wait for customer payment. The cost is usually expressed as a service charge on turnover plus a daily discount rate on drawn funds. Figures below are illustrative and not a quote.
What a term loan does
A term loan provides capital that is not tied to the performance of a specific asset. It suits situations where the funding need is not caused by slow-paying customers: a machinery purchase, a premises deposit, a management buyout, or growth into a new market. The loan sits on the balance sheet as a liability and is repaid on a fixed schedule regardless of trading activity.
Because a term loan is not self-liquidating in the way invoice finance is, lenders scrutinise the company's ability to service the debt from operating cashflow, and may require personal guarantees or a charge over assets. See secured vs unsecured borrowing for more on security requirements.
Which to choose
If your company has strong, creditworthy customers but suffers because they pay slowly, invoice finance is likely the more efficient solution — it scales with your sales and avoids adding fixed debt to your balance sheet. If your need is a one-off capital requirement unrelated to debtor timing, a term loan is usually cleaner and may be lower cost over the full term.
- Slow-paying B2B customers → invoice finance
- Capital expenditure → term loan or asset finance
- Rapid growth requiring working capital → consider both in combination
- Consumer-facing business with card turnover → merchant cash advance may be relevant
Frequently asked questions
Does invoice finance affect my relationship with customers?
Under invoice discounting the arrangement is typically confidential — your customers pay you as normal. Under factoring the funder manages your sales ledger and collects directly, which customers will be aware of. Which model is appropriate depends on your customer relationships and internal credit-control capacity.
Can a company use invoice finance and a term loan at the same time?
Yes, and it is common. Invoice finance addresses the timing gap in the working capital cycle, while a term loan funds a parallel capital requirement. Lenders will assess total leverage, but the two products are not mutually exclusive.
Funding for UK limited companies
Credicorp lends to your company, not to you personally — short-term working capital with no personal guarantee. See what your business could access.