Where the pressure develops
Importers and exporters often face a gap between paying suppliers and freight costs, moving goods and ultimately collecting from customers on credit terms.
Sector focus
Bridge supplier, shipping and customer-payment timings across cross-border trade.
Importers and exporters often need to pay suppliers, shipping or duty costs before goods are delivered and before customers settle the resulting invoice.
What helps the assessment
Purchase orders, supplier terms, shipping documents, customer orders, duties and gross margin. Clear information reduces avoidable delays and makes an initial fit discussion more useful.
What the facility must achieve
The facility needs to match the timing of the underlying commercial cycle and provide a credible route to repayment.
Sector-specific discussion
Bring the customer terms, expected funding cycle and any existing finance arrangements to the call.
Common questions
Questions to consider before applying
Can import costs be funded before goods arrive?
Potentially, where the supplier, logistics, duties, customer order, margin and repayment route can be verified and the transaction meets underwriting requirements.
Can invoice finance support the sale after delivery?
It may support eligible invoices after goods are delivered and accepted, creating a linked purchase-to-collection structure.
What information matters most in assessment?
Confirmed purchase and sales orders, supplier terms, shipping details, duties, gross margin, customer quality and insurance or inspection arrangements may all be relevant.
Sector funding detail
When import/export funding is likely to work.
The commercial pressure is simple: supplier, shipping and duty costs arrive before UK customers settle. The right facility depends on evidence, debtor quality and how repeatable the gap is.
What lenders want to see
- confirmed demand exists before goods are purchased
- supplier payment timing is the constraint
- the repayment route is a sale invoice or contracted order
Documents that speed review
- supplier pro forma invoices
- customer purchase orders
- shipping documents where available
- margin and landed-cost summary
Products to consider
- Trade finance
- Invoice finance
- Selective invoice finance
Practical context
Import and export funding has a timing problem of its own.
Cross-border businesses often pay suppliers, freight, duty and import VAT before the customer invoice is due. That creates two separate questions: how the purchase is funded before delivery, and how the receivable is funded after an accepted sale. Treating both as the same cash-flow gap leads to the wrong structure.
A useful review therefore looks at Incoterms, shipping evidence, currency exposure, customs timing, supplier concentration and the point at which title and customer acceptance pass. Invoice finance may support eligible UK or export receivables; trade finance may be more relevant where the main pressure is the supplier payment before goods are sold.
- Map the cash requirement from supplier deposit to customer receipt.
- Separate foreign-exchange risk from credit risk.
- Keep bills of lading, customs records, purchase orders and delivery evidence aligned.
Sector underwriting
What the funding assessment needs to understand.
Sector familiarity is useful only when it translates into the right evidence, eligibility rules and risk controls.
Cash-flow pattern
Supplier payment, freight and duty before the UK buyer pays
Evidence to prepare
Purchase order, supplier verification, pro-forma invoice, shipping, insurance, Incoterms, currency and landed margin.
Common blockers
Changed bank details, unverified suppliers, freight volatility, title uncertainty and thin margin.
Practical funding fit
Check eligibility Structure follows the point at which value becomes evidenced.
The verified trade-finance case proceeded only after payment instructions and revised transaction economics were checked.