UNLOCK VALUE FROM YOUR UNPAID INVOICES

What is invoice financing?

Cash flow doesn’t always run smoothly – sometimes customers are slow to pay. You may have a lot of invoices out, but the money may not have come in yet. Invoice financing solves that problem. When you send out an invoice, we pay you part of the money within 24 hours. We pay the rest when the customer pays the debt, less any discount fees.

It gives you extra flexibility, making sure your cash flow doesn’t limit your business growth. If you get discounts by paying your suppliers early, it could mean you save money as well.

How does it work?

• You supply goods or services to your customer and raise an invoice.
• You upload the invoice electronically onto your ledger with Metro Bank Invoice Finance – that’s us.
• We advance you an agreed percentage of the invoice (the prepayment rate).
• Either we chase payment from your customers, or you do – read on for more about the options.
• Once the customer pays the invoice, the money gets banked with us and allocated against the ledger.
• We pay the balance of the invoice to you, less fees.

Want to know how Invoice Finance could improve your cashflow? Contact us now

The two options for Invoice Financing:

You do the chasing – 100% confidential, and great for established businesses with credit control systems in place

• You invoice, chase and collect payment from customers using your usual processes.
• You allocate the money against the sales ledger and bank the cash via a trust account.

We do the chasing – Great for new businesses, we’ll do the hard work of making sure your invoices get paid.

• We send customised statements and letters to your customers.
• We save you time by chasing payment on your behalf.
• We collect and allocate customers' payments to your account.

Requirements for invoice financing

• We can fund anyone from a start-up to a PLC – we don’t need your first year’s accounts.
• Your invoices must be for business-to-business sales.
• It requires clean non-contractual debts. A non-contractual debt is a debt that doesn’t have any clauses in the contract that mean the customer could claim back the money or not pay at all – for example, in the construction industry where someone is not happy with the completed work and doesn’t pay the full bill.

How much does it cost?

There are two types of fees:

• You pay interest only on the money we advance to you. It’s charged in a similar way to an overdraft, called a discount fee
• You also pay a service fee. This will depend on the type of service you choose