Invoice Finance Brokers

Invoice-based lending needs to be carefully considered. Enness will talk you through all the elements you will need to think about and understand to get the most out of this type of borrowing.

Invoice financing is not a way to circumvent issues that have arisen from clients that consistently pay late. Likewise, invoice-based lending doesn’t provide a mechanism to cover bad debt by shifting it around your P&L. Although this type of lending unlocks working capital, your business will need to be on solid footing from a financial perspective for it to be an option. Lenders will work with you through your working capital cycle to ensure they support your financing requirements relative to your debtor book position

Your lender will want to see solid proof that you are borrowing against invoices that you reasonably expect to be paid within your usual payment terms. You will need to:

• Provide financial statements and evidence that your business has no issues collecting money owed to you through invoices
• Demonstrable evidence that your clients and customers pay on time
• Showcase that you rarely have disputes around invoices raised. Lenders will look to ensure that amounts aren’t regularly contested, invoices aren’t written off, and there isn’t pushback on services performed/products delivered to clients in terms of quality, overspend, etc.

If you have a book of bad debts or clients who regularly default on their payment terms, these are typically excluded from your facility.

When it comes to invoice-based financing, the devil is in the detail. When it comes to invoice-based financing, companies with solid finances, industry track record and good debtor book management are naturally more attractive to lenders. Usually, this is because they haven’t presented lenders with a compelling or completely watertight case for borrowing.

How a finance request is presented is key to obtaining this type of facility and Enness have many years experience of successfully presenting detailed analysis and compelling evidence to obtain the most competitive terms for our clients.

Most businesses can benefit from invoice financing, regardless of whether you supply goods or services. There are several excellent lenders in the market, although many of these primarily service small and medium-sized businesses. These lenders often offer relatively small loans, presented as package deals with set rates and terms and no room for negotiation.

If you need a high-value loan against your invoices, you will most likely need access to niche lenders. In this part of the market, mainstream lenders may not have a desire to provide significant loans: they are limited by how much they can lend and may not offer you as much as you need. Mainstream lenders also tend to prefer to spread their loans over several borrowers to mitigate risk rather than lending more to fewer businesses. As a result, you may discover it is hard to find a lender that can cater to your needs and offers you a flexible deal.

Speed will also be a key consideration. Invoice-based financing is a short-term solution, but it is usually sought when you need to resolve a working capital issue quickly. You may need capital to pay employee salaries, pay off a debt or leverage an unexpected opportunity. Working with a broker like Enness who can unlock liquidity and keep a deal moving in the timeframe you need will be critical for your success when you are against the clock.

Using a specialist lender is often the best way to secure high-value finance invoicing. There are several options at the top of the market, but many of the players that operate in the space require introductions or don’t offer direct contact routes – you will need to have a referral. With access to more than 500 lenders, Enness will be able to source and negotiate the best invoice finance deal for your business. 

Enness specialises in brokering high-value invoice financing, a specialist and niche part of the market given the risks and complexity involved in these types of transactions. There is no minimum finance invoicing loan amount Enness brokers, but you will usually need to be in the market to borrow several hundred thousand pounds.

Clients usually turn to Enness when:

• You want to borrow several hundred thousand pounds against your invoices
• You want to borrow a significant amount, but you have a particularly complex transaction or a situation that mainstream lenders in the space can’t or won’t cater to (i.e., you raise significant invoices against a small client base, or you work in a very niche industry)
• You need access to working capital quickly and need to source and negotiate rates and terms in the minimum timeframe 

Enness will always start by understanding your needs. There are different ways to go about invoice financing, and some options may be better for your business than others. As well as the best terms and the best rates, Enness will be thinking about what financing package will be most beneficial to you and how it should be structured.

Enness can deliver negotiated options for your perusal within just a few working days. With access to more than 500 global lenders and with an ability to source, negotiate and close transactions in the minimum timeframe, Enness can help you unlock working capital in just a few days. As well as negotiating the deal, your broker will also be on hand to remove roadblocks, keep all parties focussed on closing the deal on time and acting in your best interests at every stage in the process.

In much of the market, lenders prefer borrowers to opt for an "all or nothing" approach. In other words, to be eligible, all your invoices need to be put forward to the lender who will let you borrow against them. With Enness helping you access the right lender, invoice financing will be much more flexible and suited to the needs of your business. If needed, Enness will negotiate that only certain invoices are used for an invoice financing facility: that might be a specific business line, certain clients or invoices that are more than a certain amount.