Case Study: Keeping a Federal Construction Job on Schedule

A construction contractor won several federal renovation projects, each paid through progress payments with a portion held back as retainage. The cash math ran backwards: subcontractors, materials, and equipment all had to be paid as the work happened, but the government's progress payments arrived weeks later — and retainage not until the job closed out.

Carrying that gap across one project was hard. Trying to run three projects at once threatened to stall the whole operation: a single delayed progress payment could leave subs unpaid and the next phase of work waiting on cash.

The contractor opened an invoice factoring line with Encore. As each approved progress invoice went out, Encore advanced up to 90% of its value — often within 48 hours — instead of the contractor waiting out the agency's payment cycle.

Underwriting focused on the federal government's creditworthiness rather than the contractor's balance sheet, and Encore handled the Assignment of Claims paperwork. There was no fixed monthly payment and no new debt — the advances simply accelerated invoices the contractor had already earned.

With reliable cash on every progress invoice, the contractor paid subs on time, locked in material orders early, and kept all three projects moving without a single missed milestone.

Because the line scaled with invoice volume, taking on the third concurrent project didn't require renegotiating a credit limit — the funding grew with the work. Ownership stayed intact and the company built a track record for delivering on schedule.