Payment terms are a habit of a trade. A carrier invoices per load and is paid per load. A manufacturer invoices against a purchase order and waits for a receiving department. A cleaning contractor invoices monthly for work performed every night.
Those habits decide how receivables build up, how quickly they can be verified, and what a funding provider will ask to see. The guides below describe each trade on its own terms, including the cautions that come with it.
The guides
- Trucking and freight: Load by load invoicing, proof of delivery and brokers who settle on their own cycle.
- Staffing: Weekly payroll against monthly client invoicing, and approved hours as the evidence.
- Construction: Progress claims, holdbacks and a payment chain that starts with the project owner.
- Manufacturing: Purchase orders, receiving records and quality holds on delivered goods.
- Wholesale and distribution: Stock bought up front, sold on terms, and reduced by retail deductions.
- Oil and gas services: Field tickets, rate sheets and seasonal work concentrated into short windows.
- Commercial cleaning: Monthly contract billing across many sites, with thin margins and steady costs.
- Government contractors: Purchase orders, receiving reports and documentation checked line by line.
What they have in common
In every trade, a provider is buying an invoice that a business customer is obliged to pay, so three questions come up repeatedly. Was the work completed and accepted? Is the amount undisputed? Can the customer pay?
The trade changes how those questions are answered. In freight, proof of delivery answers the first. In staffing, approved timesheets do. In construction, a certified progress claim does. Where the evidence is missing, the invoice stops being an asset and becomes a negotiation.
Where the arrangement fits
Whatever the trade, the structure is chosen separately. Read factoring types for the difference between recourse and non-recourse, selective and whole-ledger arrangements, then look at the location guides for the provincial context, including how security is registered where your business operates.