01Construction and trades
Funding for construction and trades.
Minimum average deposits
Contractors are paid in stages, months after the work starts and often long after the materials are bought. That gap is the single most common reason a profitable trade business runs out of cash, and it is what most funding in this sector is actually for.
02How the money arrives
What your statements actually show.
Underwriting reads your bank account, not your industry. Knowing how revenue reaches the account in this sector is what makes the difference between a file that is understood and one that is misread.
- Revenue shape
- Progress billing and net terms. Payment arrives against draws, milestones or invoices, usually from a small number of general contractors, developers or commercial clients. Card volume is close to zero.
- How it reads to a funder
- Large and irregular. A statement can show two deposits in a month and eleven the next, and neither is a warning sign here: it is the draw schedule. Files get declined by underwriters who read that pattern as volatility rather than as how the sector is paid, which is why it is worth explaining up front rather than leaving to be discovered.
- Seasonality
- Real in cold and wet climates, where ground works and exterior trades stop for a stretch of the year. Interior and service trades run flatter. Retainage held back until completion pushes a slice of the year's revenue past the end of the job.
03What it funds
What the money is usually for.
Not a list of everything money can do. These are the things owners in this sector actually come to us for.
- Payroll and subcontractors between draws, when the crew is owed before the client pays
- Materials bought up front on a job that bills in arrears
- Taking a larger contract than current cash would support
- Equipment, plant and vehicles, where the asset itself can carry the funding
- Bonding and insurance costs that fall due before the work starts
Amounts run from $15,000 to $20,000,000, sized against what the account takes in rather than against what the money is for.
04Strength
What strengthens the file here.
The general list is on the qualification page. These are the things that carry particular weight in this sector.
Reads well
- A visible draw schedule, so the shape of the deposits has an explanation attached
- Work in hand: signed contracts and an order book that outlast the repayment term
- More than one paying client, rather than a single general contractor carrying the whole business
- Retainage tracked and evidenced, so the receivable is not invisible
05Friction
What complicates it.
None of these is an automatic no. Each one changes what is available, and each one is better raised by you at the start than found in the statements later.
Milestone billing that reads as volatility
The most common cause of an avoidable decline in this sector. Deposits are lumpy because payment is staged, not because trade is unstable. Send the draw schedule with the statements and the file is read correctly the first time.
One general contractor carrying everything
Client concentration is scrutinised hard here, because if the payer is slow the whole repayment is slow. Two or three real clients change the picture more than a higher total does.
Liens already against the receivables
Equipment finance and prior funding often carry a blanket lien over receivables that owners do not realise is there. It has to be resolved before a second position is possible, and finding out early costs nothing.
A fact that arrives with an explanation is worked with. The same fact found in the statements is a surprise, and surprises cost you terms.
06Which product fits
Not every sector wants the same instrument.
We arrange four. These are the ones that tend to suit construction and trades, and why. Which one is right for you is decided on your file, not on your sector.
Rates published
Merchant cash advance
Works where deposits are lumpy but consistent across a quarter. The weekly debit has to be sized against the slow weeks, not the draw weeks.
How it worksQuoted per file
Bridge financing
The natural shape when the gap has a date on it: an approved draw, a completed stage, a contract that settles next month.
How it worksQuoted per file
Asset-backed capital
Plant, vehicles and machinery are real security, and they usually reach further than the statements alone would.
How it worksFind out where your file stands.
The application takes about fifteen minutes and asks for 3–6 months of business bank statements. If something on this page describes your business, say so at the start: it is the difference between a file that is read correctly and one that is read twice.