The Payment Gap That Defines the Trade
Contracting is a business of delayed payment. You complete the work. You submit the invoice. You wait thirty, sixty, sometimes ninety days for the check. The MCA funder does not wait. The funder debits daily, from an account that receives revenue on an entirely different schedule, and the gap between when you earn the money and when the funder takes it is the gap in which this crisis lives.
If this week’s MCA payment is not going to clear, the four steps below should be completed before the debit attempts.
Contact the Funder and Request a Temporary Adjustment
The first step is the call you do not want to make. Contact the funder’s servicing department (not collections, if you can avoid it) and explain that a revenue gap, caused by the timing of receivables, will result in a short‑term payment shortfall. Request a temporary reduction or pause. The funder may agree. The funder may refuse. The record of your request, made before the payment bounced, establishes good faith and, in a subsequent dispute, demonstrates that you did not abandon the obligation. You attempted to manage it.
Accelerate Your Receivables
The second step is operational. Review your outstanding invoices. Identify any that are past due or approaching due date. Contact those clients directly and request expedited payment. A contractor who calls a general contractor or property owner and explains that an invoice payment, even a partial one, is needed this week is not demonstrating weakness. They are managing cash flow, which is what every business does when inflows and outflows are misaligned. If you have retainage due, explore whether a partial release is available. Every dollar that arrives this week is a dollar the funder cannot claim you did not have.