Case Study: Mobilizing an IT Subcontractor on a New Task Order
A representative example of how an IT subcontractor mobilized a new federal task order — onboarding engineers and making payroll — before its first invoice cleared.
Illustrative example. Figures are representative and not tied to a specific named client.
The challenge
An IT services firm landed a subcontract role on a federal task order under a large prime. Winning the work was the easy part. To perform, the firm had to quickly onboard cleared engineers, set up tooling, and start covering payroll — all before it could submit a first invoice, and well before the prime would pay on Net-60 terms.
As a subcontractor, the firm was squeezed twice: it had to wait for the government to pay the prime, and then for the prime to pay it. That pay-when-paid gap put the new task order out of reach without outside cash.
The solution
The firm set up an invoice factoring line with Encore before ramping up. Approval came within 48 hours, underwritten against the strength of the receivables rather than the subcontractor's limited balance sheet.
Once work began and invoices went out, Encore advanced up to 90% of each invoice's value, replenishing the cash the firm fronted to mobilize. There was no fixed monthly payment and no equity given up — just fast access to earned receivables to bridge the Net-60 wait.
The result
The subcontractor onboarded its team on schedule and never missed payroll during the critical mobilization window. The task order went from a risky stretch to a profitable, well-staffed engagement.
With dependable cash flow, the firm went on to pursue additional subcontract roles it would previously have had to decline, turning a single task order into a growing federal IT practice.
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