™
Working capital for
commercial cleaners.
Cleaning is a payroll business that bills in arrears — wages every week, client invoices that clear a month or two later, and a new contract that wants staffing up before it pays a penny. Short-term finance bridges those gaps, and on every product the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. For an incorporated commercial or contract cleaning business, it does one thing: short-term working capital to keep the wage run met and the next contract moving.
Few trades carry a cash-flow shape as tight as contract cleaning. The operatives are paid weekly or monthly whether or not the client has settled, while the offices, schools, retail units and sites you clean pay on 30 or 60-day terms. An office-cleaning firm funds a month of wages before the invoice for that month clears; a company that has just won a larger site pays for uniforms, training and the first weeks of labour before billing begins. This page looks at how a Business Bridging Loan, Credicorp Flex or Credicorp Slice tends to be used to bridge those gaps, so you can picture the fit before you apply.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director who signs. That means no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance. When you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Why cleaning companies run short on cash
It is rarely about the margin on a contract. It is about the timing of money in and money out — and in cleaning, payroll never waits for the client.
Payroll falls due before invoices clear
Cleaning is labour first and foremost. Operatives are paid weekly or monthly, and they are paid whether or not the offices, schools or retail units they clean have settled their invoices. With commercial clients commonly on 30 or 60-day terms, a cleaning company can be a full month or two of wages out of pocket on work it has already completed and billed.
Staffing up for a new contract
Winning a larger site is good news that costs money up front. Mobilising a new contract means recruiting and vetting operatives, issuing uniforms, training a team and covering their first weeks of wages — all before the first invoice for that contract is even raised. The bigger the win, the wider the gap before it starts to pay for itself.
Machines, materials and consumables
A scrubber-dryer, a set of vacuums, a steam cleaner or a fresh store of chemicals, cloths and consumables is a capital outlay that lands in one go. When kit fails or a new site needs equipping, you cannot service the contract without it — and you would rather not pull the whole cost straight out of the month’s float.
One slow payer stalls the wage run
Commercial clients do not always pay on time, and a single late settlement on a big account can leave a cleaning company short for the Friday wage run across every other site. The work is done; the cash to pay the people who did it is stuck upstream. That is exactly the gap short-term finance is built to bridge.
The kinds of funding that fit a cleaning business
Three plain-English shapes of short-term credit. The detail and the live terms sit with the lender — here is how each tends to be used across the contracts.
A Business Bridging Loan — a fixed sum for a known cost
A single lump sum into the company account, repaid over a short, fixed term. It suits a one-off, time-boxed gap you can name: mobilising a confirmed new contract, a floor machine or set of vacuums you need on site, or a month of payroll on a big account where the invoice date is already in the diary. You know the figure, and you can see the client payment that will clear it coming in.
Credicorp Flex — a line you draw on through the month
A revolving facility the company can dip into and repay as cash flow turns. For a cleaner running several contracts that invoice on different dates — some just billed, some a fortnight from payment — it smooths the wage run without taking out a fresh loan each time. You pay only for what you draw, not the whole limit.
Credicorp Slice — spread a single supplier bill
Got a chunky bill for chemicals, consumables or a piece of equipment you would rather not pay in one hit? Slice settles it in full today and lets the company repay over a few weeks for a flat fee. The supplier relationship stays sweet, the kit and materials are on site, and the cost is fixed before you commit.
We don’t publish rates or terms on this page on purpose — they live with the lender so you always see the current figures. Check the live product pages on credicorp.co.uk before you apply.
The company borrows — not you
In a trade where the director often runs the rotas and signs the wages, this is the part worth slowing down on.
Plenty of cleaning-company owners have been asked, by a bank or a broker, to put their home on the line for a working-capital facility. A personal guarantee or a charge over the family house turns a business cash-flow gap into a personal risk — and in a sector where one lost contract or one slow-paying client can swing a quarter’s numbers, that is a heavy thing to sign.
Credicorp is built differently. The agreement is between Credicorp and your company — the Ltd, LLP or PLC that holds the contracts and the bank account. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The company stands on its own trading position, which is exactly how it should be when the money is funding the company’s payroll and kit.
This is the flip side of the lender’s model: because Credicorp lends only to bodies corporate, it sits outside consumer credit entirely. The full regulatory position is set out on the lending and regulation page, and on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk/lending-and-regulation.
How it can play out — a worked example
A made-up, clearly anonymised business — not a real customer — just to show the shape of the timing problem.
Picture a contract cleaning company — call it a UK limited company with thirty operatives across a dozen office and retail sites. It wins a new contract to clean a large business park: good margin, a managing agent it trusts, but the work needs a team of eight recruited, vetted, uniformed and trained, plus a scrubber-dryer and a stock of consumables, before the first monthly invoice can even be raised.
The new operatives are paid weekly from day one. The uniforms and the floor machine are paid for up front. The managing agent’s first invoice, once submitted, will be settled on 60-day terms. On paper the contract is comfortably profitable; in the bank account, the company is funding roughly ten weeks of mobilisation and wages before a penny of it comes back — at the same time as meeting the ordinary Friday wage run across every existing site.
Rather than turn the contract down or lean on the director personally, the company bridges the gap with short-term finance against its own trading position — covering the mobilisation, the kit and the early wages — and repays as the client invoices arrive. Same contract, same margin; the difference is simply that the cash was there when the team needed paying. The figures and the right product for a situation like this are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Cleaning services funding — common questions
The questions cleaning-company owners ask most. For anything beyond these, the lender’s team can help.
Can my cleaning company borrow without a personal guarantee from the director?
Yes. Credicorp lends to the company — a UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to the director who signs. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The agreement sits between Credicorp and your business.
Payroll falls due before our client invoices clear. Can funding cover that gap?
That timing gap is the single most common reason contract cleaners look at short-term finance. Cleaning operatives are paid weekly or monthly, while commercial clients often settle on 30 or 60-day terms. A Business Bridging Loan or Credicorp Flex can cover the wage run now and be repaid as the client invoices land. The specifics are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
We have won a new contract and need to staff up before it starts. Is that something funding fits?
Yes. Winning a larger site or a new contract usually means hiring and kitting out a team — and paying their first weeks of wages, uniforms and consumables — before the first invoice is even raised. Short-term working capital lets the company cover that mobilisation cost and repay once the contract is billing.
Can we use it for machines and materials — scrubber-dryers, vacuums, chemicals?
Those are all working-capital uses. A floor machine, a set of vacuums, a stock of chemicals and consumables, or replacement kit for a depleted store are known, one-off costs with a clear payback in the contracts they service. A fixed-term Bridging Loan often fits a single equipment buy; the lender confirms what suits your case.
Are you a bank, and is this regulated consumer credit?
No. Credicorp is an exempt business lender, not a bank and not a consumer-credit firm. It lends only to bodies corporate under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, so this is business credit, not a regulated consumer credit agreement. It is not for sole traders or for borrowing in a personal name.
Where do I actually apply?
This site is the Creditcorp brand front door and does not take applications. Applying, drawing down and managing the account all happen on the operating lender, credicorp.co.uk. You can compare the products and start an application there.
More general answers live on the learn hub and the Creditcorp FAQ, the tools help you size a gap before you borrow, and the how-it-works overview walks through the whole journey from first look to funds in the bank.
Related sectors
If your work overlaps these trades, their pages may fit the cash-flow shape too.
- Facilities management — the same payroll-led, invoice-in-arrears squeeze across multiple sites and service lines.
- Construction & trades — materials and wages out first, staged payments and retentions a long way behind.
- Professional services — another people-first business funding salaries while client invoices sit on long terms.
Or head back to the full industries overview to browse every sector. For company, trade-mark and legal detail, the group site is creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Keep the wages met and the contract moving
Whatever the cost you’re funding, applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.