Recruitment is one of the clearest examples of a profitable business that can still run short of cash. If you place contractors or temps, you pay them weekly — sometimes daily — while the client who hired them pays your invoice on 30, 60 or even 90-day terms. Every new placement widens that gap before it ever earns you a margin. Credicorp lends to recruitment agencies constituted as UK limited companies or LLPs, where the borrowing is for business purposes.
The timing gap that defines the sector
The faster you grow, the harder the squeeze. Win a large new contract and you are funding several weeks of contractor wages, employer National Insurance and pension contributions up front, long before the first client invoice clears. Permanent-placement fees help, but they are lumpy and can be clawed back, so they rarely smooth the weekly payroll run on their own.
- Covering contractor and temp payroll before client invoices settle
- Funding the working-capital step-up when you take on a bigger account
- Smoothing employer NI, pension and PAYE obligations against uneven receipts
- Bridging the gap while a slow-paying client is chased
How funding bridges it
Two products suit the recruitment cash-flow shape. Credicorp Flex is a revolving facility: you draw to cover a payroll run, then repay as client payments arrive and the limit frees up again for the next cycle. That rolling pattern fits an agency that runs the same mismatch week after week. Credicorp Slice instead provides a single defined amount for a one-off shortfall, such as the upfront cost of staffing a single large contract. The rate and term that apply are the ones set out in your offer, agreed before you commit.
For a closer look at the pure wage-timing mismatch — the issue at the heart of agency funding — see funding payroll between customer payments.
No personal guarantee from directors
The loan is to the agency, not to you. Credicorp takes no personal guarantees from directors, so your home and personal savings do not stand behind the company's borrowing. We assess the company's affordability and prospects rather than your personal balance sheet. You can read how this works in is Flex secured or do I need a guarantee and in our guide to funding without personal guarantees.
Use it as a bridge, not a crutch
Funding payroll across a genuine timing gap is sensible working-capital management. Relying on it every cycle to cover margins you are not actually earning is a warning sign worth addressing through tighter contract pricing or faster client collection. If you are unsure which pattern your agency is in, our team can talk it through before you apply.
The basics
We lend to UK limited companies and LLPs only, never to sole traders or individuals. Credicorp is an exempt business lender operating outside the FCA consumer-credit regime, so the Financial Ombudsman Service and FSCS protection do not apply. If anything is unclear, your account team can talk it through before you sign.
See also: Can an accountancy practice borrow from Credicorp?, Funding equipment and plant costs, Financing materials and stock purchases.