Business Finance
22 articles on business finance for UK limited company directors, contractors, sole traders and small businesses.
Business Finance
How UK limited companies fund plant, machinery and equipment. Hire purchase versus finance lease versus operating lease, why new-or-used changes the tax answer, refinancing kit you already own, and a worked £80k HP-versus-lease comparison tied to full expensing.
Business Finance
Confidential invoice discounting (CID) lets your company draw cash against its unpaid B2B invoices while keeping collections in-house and your customers unaware a funder is involved. It is cheaper than factoring because you run your own credit control, but lenders reserve it for companies with the turnover, covenant and systems to manage their ledger to a funder's standard. This guide sets out how CID works, what it costs in 2026/27, the eligibility bar, and how it differs from factoring, selective discounting and supply-chain finance.
Business Finance
Invoice factoring turns your company's unpaid B2B invoices into cash, with the lender advancing most of the value and running credit control on your behalf. It is fast and flexible, but the real cost sits in the service fee, the discount margin, and the termination clauses most buyers never read. This guide sets out how factoring works, what it costs in 2026/27, and how to avoid the trailing-commission and notice-period traps on exit.
Business Finance
Contract cleaning runs on weekly wages but gets paid on 45 to 60 day terms by a handful of facilities-management primes. This guide shows UK limited-company cleaners how whole-turnover factoring closes that payroll-to-payment gap, how debtor concentration and TUPE on contract wins affect the funding, and when it is the right tool.
Business Finance
Construction subcontractors do not raise ordinary invoices. They submit applications for payment, wait through a certification and pay-less cycle, suffer 20 percent CIS deducted at source, and leave 5 percent retention locked up for a year or more. That is why standard factoring usually declines construction and why a specialist construction-finance facility that understands applications for payment and retention exists. This guide, written for limited-company subcontractors, shows how the funding works, what to watch, and where the true cash is trapped.
Business Finance
Invoice finance advances cash against unpaid B2B invoices. A patient-facing dental practice earns NHS UDA contract payments and private card income, which is not a trade-debtor book, so invoice finance rarely fits. It does fit dental laboratories and B2B dental suppliers that invoice practices on credit terms. This guide is honest about which is which and where a practice should look instead.
Business Finance
Most ecommerce cash is trapped in marketplace payout holds and unsold stock, not in a debtor book, so classic invoice finance rarely fits a B2C seller. Only the B2B and wholesale slice of your sales is factorable. This guide shows a limited-company seller which part qualifies, models the release on a £1.2m book, and routes the rest to the right product.
Business Finance
Haulage runs on a brutal timing mismatch: you pay for diesel, driver wages and tolls this week, but your shipper clients settle at 60 to 90 days. Invoice finance, and transport factoring in particular, releases most of an invoice's value the day you raise it. This guide explains how it works for UK limited-company hauliers, where fuel advances fit, and why the fleet itself is a separate asset-finance question.
Business Finance
Invoice finance releases cash tied up in unpaid business-to-business invoices, but most hospitality income arrives as card or cash at the point of sale, not as a trade-debtor book. That makes invoice finance the wrong tool for a typical restaurant, pub, cafe or hotel. It fits a narrower slice: contract and event caterers, corporate hospitality firms, and wholesale suppliers to venues, all invoicing other companies on credit terms. This guide is honest about the split, works through a caterer versus a restaurant, and points card-led venues to the finance that actually suits them.
Business Finance
A manufacturing company pays for raw materials in week one, builds for ten weeks, then waits another ten for a B2B customer to settle. That order-to-cash gap ties up cash you need for the next order. This guide explains where invoice finance helps a limited-company manufacturer, the one phase it cannot fund, and how it pairs with asset finance for plant.
Business Finance
Temp desks pay contractors every Friday but wait 45 to 60 days for clients to settle. This guide shows UK recruitment companies how pay-and-bill factoring closes that structural payroll gap, why perm placement fees behave differently, and how to choose a facility that funds the wage run without swallowing the margin.
Business Finance
SIA-licensed manned-guarding companies pay officers weekly on 24/7 rotas but wait 30 to 60 days for corporate and public-sector clients to settle. That structural gap, made worse by single-client concentration and thin margins, is exactly what invoice finance is built to close. This guide shows how factoring with payroll funding works for a limited-company guarding business, what advance rate to expect, and where concentration risk bites.