There comes a time in everybody’s life when we need professional help. Dealing with an accountant or commercial lawyer is often the best way to protect your interests, but paying your invoice may be a challenge.

Working with professionals often means large bills. When you’re paying for their time and expertise, the hours add up quickly. This could even prevent you from accessing the professional advice you need.

To avoid that, fee funding, which is like funding for legal fees, offers an easy way to pay your bills in smaller chunks. In this article we’ll discuss the benefit of fee funding and how it works for both firms and their clients.

What is Fee Funding?

Fee funding is a type of short-term loan that helps people access the services of professionals such as accountants and lawyers. When an accountant or lawyer issues a bill, the client can use fee funding to pay the invoice upfront, and break their repayments down across a more manageable period.

Most fee funding products are targeted at both firms and clients. Firms can sign up to a fee funding service, effectively allowing them to offer an alternative payment option to clients. Clients can also access fee funding services directly, allowing them to pay their invoices if they don’t have the cash to pay the full amount upfront.

How Fee Funding Benefits Your Business

If you offer professional services (such as accounting or legal advice), your customers can use fee funding to pay their invoices. This has several key benefits for your business:

1. Receive Upfront Payment

If your work generates large invoices, it often takes time to get paid. Whether you’re waiting for lump sums or putting clients on payment plans, it may be weeks or months before you see the full amount you are owed.

This can be a serious impediment to day-to-day cash flow. Fortunately, while clients may not have the money to pay an invoice in full, fee funding can help!

With a fee funding service, your firm receives full payment upfront, allowing you to carry on business as usual.

2. No Cost to Your Business

Fee funding is effectively a type of short term loan. While your clients will pay a small amount of interest and fees, the service is typically provided to your firm at no cost. That makes fee funding a fantastic tool for expanding your brand without having to pay an arm and a leg!

3. Grow Your Business

Growing your business is one of the most challenging aspects of operating a firm. It becomes even more difficult when you need to wait for clients to pay large invoices over extended terms.

The major benefit of fee funding is that it puts money in your pocket now. That allows you to cover your expenses, but it also offers the opportunity to grow your business. If you are looking to explore new markets, attract new customers, or expand your service offering, the additional cash provided by fee funding can help you get there!

4. Strengthen Client Relationships

Bill shock can be a major issue when it comes to building strong relationships with clients. While clients value your services, having to pay invoices can leave a sour taste in their mouth, which can negatively affect your business.

Offering a fee funding option improves your chances of building a positive relationship with clients. That dramatically increases repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals. This ultimately feeds back into the business to improve income and cash flow, reduce marketing costs and provide the capital you need to expand the brand.

5. Expand Your Client Base

Professional services often attract large invoices. That can prevent many people from seeking the advice they need. By providing fee funding as a payment option, you’ll be able to service more clients, rather than just clients that can afford your services upfront.

This allows you to expand your client base and continue growing your business. And that’s not only good for you, it’s a major win for the clients you’re able to help along the way.

The Benefits of Fee Funding for Clients

There are plenty of reasons for professional services firms to use fee funding. But the benefits don’t stop there. Fee funding also benefits clients by allowing them to access the support they need without attracting large, upfront bills.

Using a fee funding service to pay for legal or accounting advice is a great way to manage your own money. If you can’t afford to pay the full value of an invoice upfront, a fee funding service can break the repayments down into smaller, more manageable chunks. That’s good news for your month-to-month budget, and it means you can access professional services whenever you need help.