Funding for your situation
How to fund the materials, labor and mobilization for a large contract before the first payment arrives.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
Winning the contract is the good news. The bad news is the payment schedule: materials and labor go out in week one, and the first draw may be thirty to sixty days away. Funders understand this shape. A signed contract and a clean payment schedule are what make the request easy to read.
Merchant Fund Express is a funding marketplace: you apply once, and the file is matched to the structure that fits it. The sections below show what this situation usually costs, how a funder reads it, and what to prepare.
These are the same factors described on revenue and deposit requirements and time in business. Merchant Fund Express walks you through how your own file reads before you apply.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Materials for the first phase | $42,000 |
| Labor and payroll until the first draw (5 weeks) | $30,000 |
| Bonding, insurance and permit costs | $8,500 |
| Mobilization and equipment rental | $11,000 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $9,000 |
| Cash needed before the first payment | $100,500 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $130,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $5,000. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $140,000 (about $32,308 a week), that is roughly 15% of weekly deposits. Your own offer states the real repayment amount in dollars; run your numbers on the factor rate calculator before you accept anything.
Source: worksheet by Merchant Fund Express. Illustrative only: these figures are not an offer, and real amounts depend on your file and the funder.
Ordered before the first invoice.
Payroll does not wait.
Front-loaded and often required to start.
Getting people and tools to the job.
A complete file is what makes a same-day decision possible. If something is missing, tell us and we will work around it.
Applying with Merchant Fund Express is a single application. We review it the same day on a complete file, explain what the numbers say in plain terms, and fund typically the next business day after signing. Nothing here affects your credit score to check.
Options include working capital sized to the up-front costs, a line of credit to draw by phase and invoice factoring once invoices exist.
It supports the file by showing demand and timing. Funding is typically sized on your deposits and existing obligations.
That is the gap the funding is built to bridge, and the payment schedule shows how long.
The minimum FICO is 500, and better credit means better products and terms. See credit score requirements for how the tiers work.
Merchant Fund Express gives a same-day decision on a complete file. Applying takes a few minutes and will not affect your credit score.
