Merchant Cash Advance in Laredo, TX: Waiting on Invoices at the Border

The largest inland port on the border

Laredo is the county seat and largest city of Webb County, on the north bank of the Rio Grande across from Nuevo Laredo. The 2020 census counted 255,205 residents. Its economy is primarily based on international trade with Mexico, and it is a hub for land, rail and air cargo, which makes it the largest inland port on the Mexican border.

A trade economy produces a certain kind of small business: haulers, equipment and supply shops, warehouses, and the restaurants, hotels and shops that serve the people working around them. It also includes oilfield service and supply businesses, because South Texas work runs through the same roads and yards.

Why the money arrives late

1. The work is done first. A load is delivered or a service ticket is signed.
2. The paperwork travels. Documents move between the customer, a broker or an accounts-payable desk.
3. The invoice waits in a queue. Larger customers pay on their own schedule.
4. Costs keep arriving meanwhile. Fuel, driver pay, insurance and repairs do not wait for the check.

That sequence is the real reason owners here look at an advance: it can be sized to bridge the weeks between finishing the work and being paid for it.

An illustration, with invented round numbers

Suppose a small hauling company has $18,000 of fuel and driver pay going out each week while a $45,000 invoice sits unpaid. These numbers are made up to show the timing, and they are not our terms or typical results. The company may be profitable on paper and still be short for two payrolls. An advance sized to the invoice, and repaid as the receivable clears, is one way owners handle that. The test is whether the unpaid invoice comfortably exceeds the full amount you will repay.

Questions to settle before you sign

• What is the total I will repay compared with what I receive?
• How is repayment collected, and how often?
• What happens in a week when a customer pays late?
• Are there fees at the start or the end?

Long-haul trucking has its own cash-flow realities, and we make no promise of funding for any specific trade. Local operators can also compare equipment financing, a line of credit and term loans.

A note on timing and paperwork

Trade and hauling invoices often wait on documents as well as on a customer's calendar. Keeping your own records complete, and knowing which unpaid invoices are oldest, makes it easier to size a request to a real receivable instead of a guess. Write down the customer, the amount and the date you expect payment before you apply.

More for Laredo

Trade-specific pages cover import and export, customs brokers and freight forwarders and warehousing and cross-dock. If your credit is a worry, read about funding with bad credit. We fund $25,000 to $5,000,000 and funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours. Sole proprietors can apply. Apply in about five minutes.