Fund the busy season before the fees roll in

Accountancy cash flow is back-loaded. You and your team do the work, the year-end accounts, the VAT returns, the tax computations, over weeks or months, and the fee often is not raised until the job is filed and signed off. That gap between effort and billing is called lockup, and for a busy practice it can tie up a large share of annual fees in work in progress and unpaid debtors at any one time.

On top of that, your costs are overwhelmingly people. Salaries for qualified accountants, bookkeepers and trainees go out every month whether or not clients have paid, and the bill spikes when you take on temporary staff or pay overtime to clear a deadline. Software is the other fixed line, with cloud ledgers, tax and practice management subscriptions all renewing on their own cycle. Funding exists to bridge that timing gap so payroll and renewals never depend on a single slow-paying client.

Capvant is a funding marketplace, not a lender. We match your practice with a network of vetted funding partners who compete for your business, so you see real options side by side instead of chasing one bank from branch to branch. Capvant serves firms across the UK and the US. Comparing options is a soft search with no impact on your credit score; a hard check only happens if you accept an offer.

Few businesses are as tied to a calendar as an accountancy practice. The 31 January self assessment deadline drives a workload spike from November to January, the 5 April tax year end brings payroll year end and a fresh wave of planning work, and quarterly VAT and monthly RTI payroll filings keep a steady drumbeat in between. Company year ends and the nine month Companies House filing window add their own staggered peaks across your client base.

That rhythm has a cost. You often need to hire or pay overtime in the autumn, well before the January fees land in February and March, and many practices give clients longer to pay precisely when their own outgoings are highest. A facility arranged before the peak, rather than in the middle of it, lets you staff up with confidence and avoid discounting fees just to pull cash forward.

It works the other way too. The post-January lull and the summer quiet period are when income dips but salaries do not, so a flexible facility you draw down and repay around these swings can be more useful than a fixed lump sum.

The most common reason a practice raises capital is growth by acquisition. Buying a retiring practitioner's client bank, or a block of fees from another firm, typically costs around the value of one year's recurring fees, payable up front or over a short earn out, while the income arrives month by month. A term loan or working capital facility bridges that gap so you can grow the fee base without draining partner reserves.

Beyond acquisitions, funding routinely covers the cost of moving clients onto new software and Making Tax Digital ready systems, recruiting and training staff ahead of the busy season, fitting out or relocating an office, and spreading the large annual professional indemnity insurance premium. It is also used simply to smooth the gap between doing the work and getting paid, so the practice never has to choose between paying staff and waiting on a slow client.