Cash flow calculator
How long does your cash wait, and what does bridging it cost?
You are already waiting 30 to 60 days for the ISP to pay. This tool shows what the days before the invoice goes out add on top, and what it costs if you factor to cover them. Your numbers, stated assumptions, no advice.
Your numbers
Total billed to ISPs and primes in a typical month.
Operating cash on hand. The chart starts here.
Work done and not yet paid, invoiced or not. The chart starts here too.
Your office lag: closeout assembly, as-built tally, invoice build, submission.
Days the ISP or prime has to pay after the invoice is accepted.
Used only to show the factoring fee as a share of what you keep.
On the invoice face value. Check your agreement; many factors bill in 10 or 15 day steps.
The share paid up front. The rest is held in reserve until the customer pays.
What the wait costs
From your balances today, 3 months out
Starting from your balances, the two bank lines separate by the cash released. That gap is available for the bottom line.
Cash for the bottom line, 3 months
The gap between the two bank lines on the chart.
Assumptions this arithmetic makes
- Billings are spread evenly across the month, so cash waiting equals monthly billings times days waiting divided by 30.
- The factoring fee is charged per invoice, on its face value, for every 30 days the factor holds it, prorated. Real agreements use tiers, minimums, and 10 or 15 day steps, so treat the fee lines as an order of magnitude.
- The "Invoice on day one" column changes one thing: the invoice goes out one day after the work is complete. Payment terms, late days, and the factor's rate are unchanged.
- The factoring lines price your whole factored book: billings times the share you factor, outstanding for the customer's clock. Invoicing on day one releases the office-lag cash once, and that cash replaces factored face worth the release divided by the advance rate. The fee and reserve on that face stop. All factoring lines are zero if you do not factor.
Not financial advice and not a factoring offer. This is arithmetic on the inputs above. Your factor's agreement and your customer's contract govern the real numbers.
How to read this
Two clocks run on every job. The customer's clock starts when the invoice is accepted and runs for the payment terms plus however late they pay. Your clock runs before that, from the day the crew finishes to the day the invoice goes out. The customer's clock is in the contract. Yours is in the office.
The first row adds the two. The second turns that wait into money: if you bill a fixed amount every month and each dollar waits a given number of days, that much cash is always outstanding. The third row is the part of it that is waiting on you, not on the customer. The release figure is that slice, minus the one day the target column still allows.
Factoring does not shorten either clock. It rents you the money while the clocks run, and the rent is charged per invoice, on its face, for every 30 days the factor holds it. That is why the yearly fee on a whole book is a large number even at a small rate. Invoicing faster does not make any one factored invoice cheaper. What it does is release the cash the office lag was tying up, and that cash replaces part of what you were renting. The calculator prices the whole book and the part that stops. If you do not factor, leave the box unchecked and the fee lines disappear.
The lever you control
Terms are the ISP's. Late payment is the ISP's. The office lag is the one number in the row that a contractor can move without a negotiation, and it is usually the one nobody has measured. Ask what date the crew finished the last five jobs, and what date each invoice went out.
The lag is rarely one delay. It is a closeout package being assembled from phones and text threads, a printed as-built being tallied by hand, quantities being re-keyed into the invoice, and a review that finds a mismatch and sends it back. The closeout package checklist covers the first, and map to invoice covers the rest: when the marks the crew made are the tally, the invoice is ready the day the marks are complete.
What we would look at on a fit call
- Your measured lag, job by job, not the number that feels right.
- Where the days go: closeout assembly, as-built tally, invoice build, portal submission, rejections.
- Whether progressive billing on construction work is possible under your contracts and not being used.
- How much of your factoring volume exists to cover the office lag rather than the customer's terms.
None of that is a package. The Operations Audit maps the lag on your real jobs and hands you the roadmap, and you keep it either way.
Questions contractors ask
- Does invoicing faster lower the factoring fee on an invoice?
- No. The factor's fee runs per invoice, on its face, from the day it buys the invoice until the customer pays, and that clock is set by the customer's terms. Invoicing faster releases the cash your office lag was tying up, and that cash replaces part of the invoice face you were running through the factor. The calculator prices the whole factored book and the part that stops.
- Why is the office lag the number to focus on?
- Payment terms belong to the ISP or prime and rarely move. The days between the crew finishing and the invoice going out belong to you. On net 45 terms, two weeks of office lag adds about a third to the wait, and it is the only part of the cycle you can shorten without a negotiation.
- Is this financial advice or a factoring offer?
- Neither. It is arithmetic on the numbers you enter, with the assumptions listed above. Factoring contracts vary in how fees accrue, in minimums, and in reserves. Your factor's agreement governs. Use the result to decide what to look at, not as a projection of savings.
Where do the days go between the crew and the invoice?
Would it be a bad idea to bring these numbers to a 30 minute fit call? No pitch. We will tell you whether an Operations Audit is a fit, and you keep the roadmap either way.
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