Sound Familiar?
You Turned Down the Order Because You Couldn't Float the Payroll.
The client wants twelve more contractors starting Monday. You can recruit twelve — that part you're good at. What you can't do is carry $95,000 of payroll every two weeks for the eleven weeks it takes their AP department to pay the first invoice. So the order gets sized down, or slow-walked, or passed to the agency across town who had the capital and not the candidates.
If payroll were never the constraint — how many of the orders you've sized down in the last year would you have staffed in full?
Bobby’s Take
Staffing is the cleanest financing problem I see, and the one most often solved with the wrong product. The business isn't short of demand or short of recruiters — it's short of the float between paying people and getting paid for them. That's a receivable, and a receivable is financeable. What doesn't work is a daily-debit advance against a service business with no card volume; the repayment shape doesn't match the cash flow it comes out of. Finance the invoice, size a line to the volume behind it, and the ceiling every agency owner knows the exact height of simply stops being there. So: what's the first order you'd staff in full?
Bobby Friel, Founder, Basecamp Funding · 20+ years in banking and finance
The Real Problems
The Real Problems on Your Desk — and What Solves Each One
| What it costs you | What solves it | Typical range | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll before the client pays | Contractors paid weekly or biweekly; clients pay net-45 to net-90. | Payroll funding / staffing factoring | $250K–$5M+ | 1–3 days |
| Growth widens the gap | Every new placement increases the float you carry, so success tightens cash. | Working-capital line sized to volume | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| A large contract award | Winning a big account means staffing it before a single invoice bills. | Purchase order financing | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| The bank wants hard assets | A staffing firm's balance sheet is people and invoices, not collateral a bank recognizes. | Receivables-based underwriting | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Client concentration | One account is most of your book, and every lender flags it. | Facilities structured around concentration | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Burden costs beyond wages | Workers' comp, payroll taxes, and benefits land before the invoice does. | Working capital covering full burden | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Acquiring a competitor's book | A retiring owner's desk or client list needs capital faster than a bank moves. | Acquisition financing / stack | $250K–$5M+ | Weeks |
Larger facilities available when revenue, receivables quality, and story qualify.
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The Numbers That Matter
The Float Is the Business Model
Net-45 to net-90
typical client payment terms in commercial staffing, against contractor payroll that runs weekly or biweekly.
Staffing industry payment-terms benchmarks, 2026
~1.3×
the payroll you front for every dollar of wages once employer taxes, workers' comp, and benefits are counted.
Employer burden estimates, 2026
Every placement
adds float. Growth is what tightens cash in staffing, not what loosens it.
Basecamp Funding underwriting files
Capital Stacking
One File. The Payroll and the Growth Behind It.
Most agencies need two things at once: the receivable financed so this Friday's payroll clears, and a facility that keeps up as placement volume climbs. A bank prices the whole request against the riskiest thing it sees — a service business with no hard collateral and one big client. A marketplace splits it: the invoice financed by the lender who underwrites receivables, the operating gap covered by the lender who underwrites cash flow, both stacked into one number.
The ceiling every agency owner knows the exact height of — removed, not raised.
How a $1.2M staffing facility gets funded
Need more than the receivable alone? The remainder stacks — for the full structure, see commercial financing.
Agencies We've Funded
Staffing Companies We've Funded
Representative scenarios — illustrative, anonymized figures, not specific client transactions.
Funded, In Detail
Structures We’ve Funded in Staffing
Real transactions, written up in full — the structure, the numbers, and the timeline.
Start Here
Find Your Structure in 60 Seconds
Move the slider for your estimated range, then answer three quick questions to lock it in. No documents to start. Soft-pull review — no score impact.
What Happens When You Start
Estimate Your Capital Range
Slide to your annual gross revenue. We size capital off your top line — not your credit score.
Estimated Capital Range
A conservative range based on 10-15% of annual revenue — many businesses qualify for more with strong receivables or assets behind them. Lenders return real term sheets once they see your file.
60 seconds · No obligation · Estimate only
What an operator hears every week
“A staffing agency isn't limited by demand or by recruiting. It's limited by how much payroll it can carry before the invoices come back.”
Bobby Friel · Founder, Basecamp Funding
Why Us
Why Staffing Firms Fund Here Instead of at a Bank
The Real Cost
What Has the Ceiling Already Cost You?
Every agency owner knows the exact height of their ceiling, because they hit it every payroll cycle. If it weren't there — what's the first order you'd staff in full?
Structure Your Capital Plan →Avoid These
5 Funding Mistakes That Cost Staffing Firms the Most
A staffing firm has invoices, not card volume. An advance repaid on a daily schedule doesn't match the cash flow it comes out of, and the mismatch shows up fast.
Every placement adds float. A limit set to this quarter's volume becomes the ceiling by the next one — size it to where the desk is going.
Payroll taxes, workers' comp, and benefits land with the wages. A facility covering gross wages alone leaves you short every cycle.
Concentration is normal in staffing and it gets structured around — but only if it's on the table from the start. Discovered later, it kills the file.
The award comes with a start date. A facility already in place is the difference between staffing it in full and quoting half.
Put It to Work
Use Your Capital For
01Contractor payrollSee howLess“How much payroll are you carrying right now against invoices that haven't paid?”
Receivables financing that turns each client invoice into cash in days.
Structure this02Full employer burdenSee howLess“What do payroll taxes, comp, and benefits add on top of the wages you front?”
Working capital sized to the real cost of a placement, not the wage line.
Structure this03A new contract awardSee howLess“What would you need on day one to staff the account you just won?”
Purchase order financing for the ramp, before the first timesheet bills.
Structure this04Opening a new deskSee howLess“Which vertical would you open a desk in if the first two quarters were funded?”
A term structure for recruiters, tooling, and the ramp to billing.
Structure this05Entering a new marketSee howLess“What city or specialty is sitting there because the float looked too big?”
Working capital for the expansion, with the receivables facility following the billings.
Structure this06Acquiring a client bookSee howLess“Whose retiring desk or client list would you buy if capital weren't the obstacle?”
Acquisition financing structured on the combined billings.
Structure this07Recruiter headcountSee howLess“How many more roles could you fill with two more recruiters on the floor?”
Capital for headcount ahead of the billings it produces.
Structure this08Back-office and ATSSee howLess“What is your applicant tracking system costing you in placements it can't keep up with?”
Financing for the infrastructure, deductible in year one.
Structure this09Absorbing longer termsSee howLess“What happens when your best client moves from net-45 to net-75?”
A facility that absorbs the change instead of passing it to your contractors.
Structure this10Bridging a slow collectionSee howLess“What covers payroll when one large invoice sits past terms?”
A revolving line so a single slow payer isn't a payroll emergency.
Structure this11Seasonal volume swingsSee howLess“How much capacity do you need at peak that you don't need in February?”
Draw at the peak, repay as it passes — capacity you only pay for when used.
Structure this12Consolidating expensive positionsSee howLess“What would cash flow look like with the high-cost advances rolled into one facility?”
Consolidate now; once payment history is built, better terms follow — get funded first, optimize later.
Structure thisFunding by the Size of the Need
Funded at Every Stage
One application, competing specialist lenders — and a file underwritten on receivables funds in days, whether the need is $250K or $20M+.
How It Works
From Qualifier to Funded in Five Steps
No paperwork avalanche. No bank lobby. No guessing.
Qualify
A few questions about the business, right here. No documents to start.
Application
A soft credit pull and a quick document review to pre-underwrite the file.
Matched to the Right Lenders
The specialist lenders who fund your business - the right lender on each piece.
One Advisor, Real Term Sheets
Your advisor brings back real term sheets, not estimates, and walks the structure.
Structured & Funded
Accept the structure that fits, sign digitally - funded in days, not months.
For the application, have ready
Under two years in business, or the returns show a loss? We can structure on bank statements alone.
Full Transparency
What Kills Your Qualification — and What Doesn't
Most lenders won't tell you this up front. We will.
By Specialty
Funding by Staffing Specialty
Every desk — funded around how its billings actually land.
The structure follows the receivable: who the client is, how they pay, and how fast the desk is growing.
Recommended Products
The Products Staffing Firms Fund With
Matched to how the billings actually land — and stacked into the full number when one isn't enough.
Accounts Receivable Financing
Client invoices advanced in days — the core payroll funding structure.
Working Capital
Full employer burden and the gap that widens as you grow.
Purchase Order Financing
Staff a new contract award before the first timesheet bills.
Business Line of Credit
Draw each billing cycle, repay as the invoices clear.
Term Loans
A new desk, a new market, or the ramp behind either.
Business Acquisition
Buy a retiring competitor's client book.
FAQs
Staffing Financing — Questions Agency Owners Ask
It's financing structured against your client invoices so contractor payroll doesn't wait on the client's payment terms. You bill the client as normal; the facility advances against that invoice in days, and settles when the client pays. The receivable is the collateral, which is why it works for a business with no hard assets.
Factoring advances against specific invoices as they bill, so the capacity moves with your billings automatically. A working-capital line is a limit you draw against for any operating need — including the employer burden a straight invoice advance may not fully cover. Most agencies past a certain size run both.
Usually yes. Client concentration is normal in staffing and gets structured around rather than declined — the underwriting looks at that client's own credit and payment history. What causes problems is concentration discovered late in the file rather than disclosed at the start.
That's the point of financing the receivable rather than taking a fixed loan. As placement volume rises, so do the invoices behind it, and the facility scales with them — without a new application or a renegotiated limit each time.
The full employer burden runs well above gross wages, and a facility sized only to wages leaves you short every cycle. Working capital is layered alongside the receivables advance so the whole cost of a placement is covered, not just the paycheck.
Once the facility is set up, most advances land within one to three business days of billing. Initial approval is faster than a bank's — the file is receivables-first, so it's your client invoices and bank statements rather than two years of returns.
Purchase order financing covers the ramp — recruiting, onboarding, and the first payroll cycles on a new account — before there's an invoice to advance against. Once billing starts, the receivables facility takes over.
No. A soft-pull review has zero impact on your FICO. A hard pull only happens if you choose to move forward with a specific lender's offer.
The Operator's Guide
Staffing Financing, the Way the Billings Actually Land
Why the gap widens exactly when things go well
Staffing runs on a timing mismatch that never closes on its own. You pay contractors weekly or biweekly. Your clients pay on net-45, net-60, sometimes net-75, and the clock doesn't start until the invoice goes out. Every placement you add pushes more money out the door before any of it comes back — which means growth tightens cash instead of loosening it. That's not a sign of a weak business. It's the shape of the model.
A bank reads that shape badly. It wants collateral, and a staffing firm's assets are people who go home at five and invoices that haven't paid yet. So the answer is usually no, or a limit small enough to be beside the point. The lenders who fund staffing underwrite the receivable instead: who the client is, how reliably they pay, and how fast the billings are growing.
Finance the receivable, then size the line to the volume
The clean structure is two layers. Accounts receivable financing advances against client invoices as they bill, so payroll clears on your schedule rather than the client's. A working-capital line sits alongside it for the part an invoice advance doesn't reach — payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and the ramp on a new account. Purchase order financing covers a large award before there's anything to bill against. Every layer scales with the billings behind it, which is why the ceiling stops being fixed.
What doesn't fit is a daily-debit advance. A staffing agency has invoices and no card volume, so a product repaid on a fixed daily schedule takes money out on a rhythm the business doesn't earn on. If you're weighing one, that's the conversation to have first. Start the review — a few minutes, soft-pull, no score impact.
Keep Reading
Where Operators Go From Here
The rest of the map — the products, the industries, and the two calculators worth running before you talk to anyone.
Commercial Financing
Structuring the full transaction — several products stacked into one number, from $1M to $20M+.
Business Acquisition Loans
Financing an acquisition on the buyer's numbers — partner buyouts, competitor purchases, retiring owners.
Working Capital
Capital sized to an operating gap — payroll, inventory, a slow season — approved on cash flow.
Line of Credit Calculator
What a draw actually costs, and how it compares to a lump-sum advance on the same money.
Equipment Financing Calculator
Monthly payment, total cost, and the Section 179 deduction on a financed machine.
Healthcare Practice Financing
Reimbursement-gap lines, practice acquisitions, and equipment for insurance-billing practices.
Restaurant Financing
Build-outs, second locations, and seasonal payroll for operators the bank calls high-risk.
Case Studies
Real structures with real numbers — 18 funded transactions, each written up in full.
