Working Capital for General Contractors in New York

The cash conversion gap

Between the day you spend on a job and the day you are paid for it is a stretch of time. Call it the cash conversion gap. For a GC working on commercial and trade projects, that gap is long: materials are bought before work starts, crews are paid weekly, and the owner pays after review.

Working capital is general operating funding meant to cover that stretch.

Narrowing the gap on your own

• Bill promptly and clearly, with documentation that makes approval easy.
• Negotiate the payment schedule at the bid stage, before the work starts.
• Track retainage as a real receivable so it does not disappear from planning.
• Order materials in line with the schedule rather than all at the start.

Even with good habits, a gap remains, and that is where funding comes in.

Sizing the amount

1. Add up payroll, sub payments and materials for the next eight weeks across all active jobs.
2. List the payments you expect and when, discounting anything that depends on approvals.
3. Plan for one expected payment to arrive late.
4. Compare the gap to our range, which starts at $25,000.

Scope

This page covers commercial and trade work. Residential remodeling is a restricted category with at least one funder and is not something we promise to fund.

What we need

Here is what to expect from us. The range is $25,000 to $5,000,000. We look at about three months of business bank statements, consider FICO scores from 500, and skip tax returns. The application takes around 5 minutes with a soft credit pull, and funding can come in as little as 24 hours. Sole proprietors are eligible to apply.

A worked example, for illustration only

A GC is managing three commercial jobs with weekly payroll of $22,000 and two subs waiting for payment. If an owner delays a $90,000 payment by a month, the GC needs to cover roughly four weeks of costs. The figures are round and illustrative, not a quote and not a typical outcome.

Three things funders notice on a GC's statements

• Deposit pattern: a few large deposits with gaps between them are normal for project billing.
• Payments out to subs and suppliers: these show how busy the business is.
• Consistency: regular activity matters more than one big month.

That is why we look at about three months of statements rather than a single snapshot.

When working capital is the wrong move

If the underlying issue is that jobs are bid too low, or that the project owner is not going to pay at all, funding only delays the discovery. Before taking on any funding, check that the work you are carrying is profitable and that the payment is genuinely coming. A short, well-defined bridge is a good use of working capital. An open-ended hole is not.