Invoice finance calculator
Cash you could receive now
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An estimate to help you plan, not an offer or approval. Lenders set their own policies, costs and limits.
Quick answer
This invoice finance calculator takes the total of your unpaid invoices, an advance percentage between 50% and 90%, and the fees from a provider's quote. It shows the cash you could receive now, the balance you'd get once customers pay, the fees in dollars and the cost for every $1 advanced. It doesn't assume any rate: the cost comes only from the quote you enter.
Key points
- Enter only invoices a funder would accept: recent, undisputed and owed by other businesses
- The advance slider tests 50% to 90%; each provider sets its own figure
- Cost per $1 advanced turns any fee structure into one comparable number
- The balance arrives only when your customer pays, minus the fees
The job is finished and billed, yet the money may not arrive for a month, two months or longer. Invoice finance closes that gap by advancing most of the invoice value now and paying you the rest when your customer settles. This calculator shows how much cash that could release, what it would cost in dollars, and how to compare one quote with another.
At the slow end, waits are stretching. Covering January to June 2025, the regulator behind the Payment Times Reporting Scheme reported that big companies needed an average of 64 days to clear 95% of what they owed small suppliers, up from 58 days. That figure is from its update released in early 2026. If your biggest customers sit in that tail, the numbers below matter.
The three boxes, explained
| Input | What to enter | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Total of unpaid invoices | The face value of the invoices you’d put into the facility | Leave out disputed, very old or related-party invoices (see below) |
| Advance to test | Slide anywhere between 50% and 90% (it moves in steps of five) | Start at 80%, then try 70% to see a cautious case |
| Fees from your quote for this period | Every dollar of discount, service and admin fees for the time the invoices are outstanding | Leave at $0 if you don’t have a quote yet |
The fee box is deliberately in dollars. Providers price in different ways (a discount fee on the funds in use, a service fee on the ledger, sometimes a monthly minimum), so asking each one “what will this cost in total for these invoices over this period?” is the cleanest way to line them up.
What the four results mean
Cash you could receive now. Your invoice total multiplied by the advance percentage. This is the money that lands in your account soon after the invoices are verified.
Balance when customers pay. What’s left of the invoice value after the advance and the fees are taken out. You receive this later, once your customer pays the funder or pays into the controlled account.
Less fees. The fee figure you entered, shown back as a dollar amount. If you left it blank, the calculator prompts you to add one.
Cost per $1 advanced. Fees divided by the cash advanced, shown to three decimal places. A result of $0.025 means you pay two and a half cents for every dollar you get early. This is the single best number for comparing quotes, as long as they cover the same time period.
Worked example: a labour hire firm with $200,000 outstanding
A labour hire business has $200,000 of invoices out to three construction clients on 45-day terms. Wages go out every week, long before any client money comes in.
It asks a provider for a quote. The quote works out to $3,200 in total fees for these invoices over the expected collection period.
- Cash now at 80%: $160,000
- Fees: $3,200
- Balance when customers pay: $200,000 − $160,000 − $3,200 = $36,800
- Cost per $1 advanced: $3,200 ÷ $160,000 = $0.020
Now the owner drags the slider to 70%, because one of the three clients is a builder whose invoices include retentions. Cash now drops to $140,000. If the fees stayed the same, the cost per dollar would rise to about $0.023, which shows why a lower advance with similar fees is a worse deal than it first looks.
Want someone to look at a real quote alongside these numbers? Tell us about your debtor book and a specialist will take it from there.
Which invoices actually count?
The calculator will happily accept any total, but a funder won’t advance against every invoice. Before you type in a figure, take out:
- Invoices well past due. Many facilities exclude debts older than around 90 days from the invoice date. Check your aged receivables report.
- Disputed or partly delivered work. If the customer might argue, the funder will treat it as zero.
- Progress claims and retentions. Building and civil contractors often find these are excluded or advanced at a lower rate. Progress payment finance is built for that.
- Related-party invoices. Sales to a company you or a family member also controls rarely qualify.
- Too much from one customer. If one client is most of your ledger, a concentration limit may cap how much of their debt is funded.
Run the calculator on what’s left. That cleaned-up figure is much closer to what a provider will actually fund.
How to use cost per dollar when comparing finance
The cost per $1 is only meaningful alongside time. Here is a simple way to keep comparisons honest:
- Get every quote for the same invoices and the same expected collection period.
- Enter each quote’s total fees and note the cost per $1.
- For an overdraft or a working capital loan, ask for the total dollar cost of borrowing the same amount for the same time, then divide by the amount borrowed.
- Add any setup or exit fees, and any minimum term you’d be locked into.
Invoice finance often wins when sales are growing fast, because the facility grows with the ledger. A fixed loan can win when the gap is one-off and short. The invoice finance vs overdraft comparison goes through that choice, and factoring vs discounting explains whether your customers will know.
Banks offer debtor finance too, and a bank facility is often the sharpest priced if your business fits their criteria. If the bank wants property security you don’t have, or your ledger is too concentrated for their policy, specialist providers such as Scottish Pacific and Earlypay assess the invoices themselves rather than relying on your balance sheet.
What this calculator leaves out
It doesn’t model your customers paying late, a debtor going broke, or invoices being “recoursed” back to you after a set number of days. It doesn’t account for minimum monthly fees if your volume drops. And it treats all invoices as one pool, while a real facility tracks each one. Use it to size the opportunity, then read the quote’s terms for recourse periods, minimum terms and exit notice.
Related calculators
- Cash flow gap calculator: how big the hole is between paying out and getting paid.
- Working capital ratio calculator: what your current and quick ratios tell a lender.
- Loan cost comparison calculator: two finance offers side by side in dollars.
Your invoices are already an asset. Let’s use them.
If the cash-now figure would take the pressure off payroll or let you say yes to the next contract, the next step is finding a funder that’s comfortable with your customers and your industry. That’s where we come in.
The form asks a handful of questions and takes around a minute. Asking won’t leave a mark on your credit history. We don’t forward your enquiry to a long list of funders; one of our team reads it and rings you to talk it through. Give us your real debtor total, your main customers’ industries and your usual payment terms, and we can line up a fitting option on the first call rather than the third.
Frequently asked questions
What advance rate do invoice finance providers offer?
It varies by provider, by your industry and by the quality of your customers. That's why the calculator lets you slide between 50% and 90% rather than fixing a number. Construction and other industries with progress claims and retentions often sit at the lower end, while invoices to large, reliable payers tend to support a higher advance.
Why does the calculator ask for fees in dollars instead of a rate?
Invoice finance pricing mixes discount fees, service fees and sometimes per-invoice or minimum monthly charges, so no single rate tells the whole story. Entering the dollar total from a quote for the period your invoices are outstanding gives you a cost you can compare with an overdraft or a short-term loan.
Is a cost of $0.02 per dollar cheap?
It depends on how long you hold the money. Two cents per dollar over 30 days is very different from two cents over 90 days. Compare quotes for the same period, and compare against what the slow payment is costing you in missed discounts, late fees or turned-down work.
Will my customers know I'm using invoice finance?
With disclosed facilities (often called factoring) the provider usually collects from your customers. With confidential invoice discounting you keep collecting and customers typically aren't told. The calculator works the same way for both; the quote you enter is what changes.
Can I use invoice finance if I sell to consumers?
Generally not. Funders lend against invoices owed by other businesses or government. If your sales are mainly to the public, look at a line of credit or an unsecured working capital loan instead.