Purchase Order & Contract Finance Ireland: Fund Big Orders (2026)

Picture the biggest order of your life landing in your inbox. A retailer wants €200,000 of stock. The margin is healthy, the customer is rock solid, and then it hits you.

You have to pay your supplier upfront. And you do not have €140,000 sitting in the account to buy the goods.

That is the trap. Turning down profitable work because you cannot fund the stock is one of the most frustrating spots a growing business can be in.

Here is how to get out of it. We fund these deals every week, and below we walk you through how purchase order and contract finance works in Ireland in 2026, how it differs from invoice finance, what it costs, and how lenders decide whether your big order is one they will back.

What Purchase Order and Contract Finance Actually Is

In plain terms, it is short-term funding that pays your supplier for the goods you need to fulfil a confirmed order.

The lender does not hand you cash to spend as you like. Once you have a signed purchase order or contract from a creditworthy buyer, the lender pays your supplier directly.

Then the goods get made and shipped, you deliver to your customer, and the lender is repaid when your customer settles the invoice. It is a form of revenue-based lending tied to one specific transaction rather than a general facility.

So the point is simple. You have won the work, you just cannot afford to buy the stock. The profit on that one order is big enough to justify paying a fee to unlock it.

Contract finance is the same idea applied to a service or supply contract rather than a one-off order. We see it a lot where a firm wins a tender and has to fund labour and materials before the first payment milestone lands.

Need flexible, ongoing headroom instead of order-by-order funding? A business line of credit may suit you better. But for one large, discrete order, the PO finance structure is usually cheaper and cleaner.

Purchase Order Finance vs Invoice Finance

This is the bit that trips people up, so let us be clear. The two products fund opposite ends of the same trade cycle.

PO finance funds the goods before you deliver, when you have an order but no stock. Invoice finance advances cash after you have delivered, when you have raised the invoice but the customer has not paid yet.

Think of it this way. PO finance solves "I have won the order but cannot afford to buy the stock". Invoice finance solves "I have delivered the goods but I am waiting 60 days to get paid".

We see plenty of wholesalers and importers run them back to back on the same deal. PO finance buys and ships the goods. Then the moment you invoice the customer, an invoice finance facility repays the PO lender and frees up your margin before the customer actually pays.

Used together, they close the entire gap between placing a supplier order and banking the cash.

How Purchase Order Finance Works Step by Step

It is more structured than a standard loan, because the lender is stepping into the transaction alongside you. Here is how it runs when we set up PO finance for a business.

1. You receive a confirmed order. A creditworthy customer sends you a signed purchase order or contract for goods you do not yet hold. You obtain a firm quote from your supplier for the cost of producing or supplying them.
2. The lender assesses the deal. They check your customer's creditworthiness, confirm the order is genuine, and vet your supplier's ability to deliver. This is a transaction assessment, not a two-year accounts review.
3. The lender pays your supplier. On approval, the lender pays the supplier directly, often up to 80% or 90% of the supplier cost, sometimes via a letter of credit on an import deal so the goods are only released once shipping documents are in order.
4. The supplier produces and ships the goods. You take delivery, or the goods ship straight to your customer, and you fulfil the order exactly as agreed.
5. You invoice your customer. Once delivered, you raise the sales invoice on your normal terms, commonly 30 to 60 days.
6. The lender is repaid and you keep the margin. When the customer pays, the lender recovers what it advanced plus its fee, and the profit on the order is yours. On a longer trade cycle, an invoice finance line often bridges the final wait so you are not left short.

What It Typically Costs

PO finance is priced per transaction, not as an annual interest rate. It costs more than a term loan because the lender is carrying transaction risk on a short cycle.

Expect roughly 2% to 4% of the funded amount for every 30 days the money is outstanding.

Let us run the numbers on a real-shaped deal. The lender advances €140,000 of supplier cost and your customer pays in 45 days. A fee around 3% per 30 days works out near €6,300.

So you are trading roughly €6,300 of cost against the full margin on a €200,000 order. If your margin is 30%, you are giving up a slice of a €60,000 profit to make the deal happen at all.

That is the calculation that matters. The fee looks steep as a percentage, but it is cheap against the alternative: turning the order away.

Who Purchase Order Finance Suits

This is not a general working capital product. It fits a specific shape of business with a specific problem, and these are the ones we fund most.

• Wholesalers and distributors who land an order far larger than their normal run and cannot fund the stock from cash flow.
• Importers buying from overseas suppliers who demand payment upfront or against shipping documents, long before the Irish customer pays.
• Manufacturers who win a big production order and need to fund raw materials and components before the first unit ships.
• Contractors and suppliers who secure a tender or supply contract and must fund materials and labour ahead of the first payment milestone.

The common thread? A confirmed order or contract, a reliable end customer, a healthy margin, and a genuine cash gap between paying the supplier and being paid.

If your margin is thin, or the order is speculative rather than confirmed, this is the wrong product. We will tell you that straight.

What Lenders Actually Look For

Here is the thing most people get wrong: the decision hinges on your customer, not on you.

Because the lender is repaid when your buyer settles the invoice, the end customer's creditworthiness is the single most important factor. A signed order from a large retailer, a State body or an established plc gets funded far more readily than the same order from a shaky start-up, whatever your own accounts look like.

The lender will credit-check the buyer and want comfort that they pay on time.

Next comes the confirmed order itself. The lender needs a genuine, signed purchase order or contract with clear quantities, prices and delivery terms. Not a verbal nod or a hopeful forecast.

They will also vet your supplier closely. If the supplier fails to produce or ships late, the whole deal and their advance are at risk. So a proven supplier with a track record matters as much as a strong buyer.

Then the usual Irish checks apply:

• Revenue square, with VAT and PAYE returns filed and either paid or under an agreed instalment arrangement. A current tax clearance cert is the cleanest way to prove it.
• A clean Central Credit Register file, or any past arrears clearly back under control.
• CRO filings up to date if you are a limited company.

None of this outweighs a weak buyer. But a mess here will still sink an otherwise fundable order, so tidy it up before you apply.

How the Lenders Differ

• Specialist trade and PO finance houses: the natural home for this product, comfortable with import letters of credit, overseas suppliers and one-off large orders, pricing on the strength of the buyer and supplier rather than your balance sheet.
• Invoice finance providers: many will bolt a PO finance facility onto an existing invoice finance line, funding the stock first and then advancing against the invoice, which gives you one lender across the whole cycle.
• Pillar banks (AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB): slower and more conservative on transaction finance, better suited to established firms with a trading history and security, but the cheapest option when your deal qualifies.

What to Prepare Before You Apply

Get your file together before you talk to anyone. Here is what we ask a client to bring:

• The signed purchase order or contract from your customer.
• A firm written quote from your supplier.
• Evidence of your margin on the deal, so the lender can see the profit that justifies the fee.
• Recent management accounts and bank statements.
• A current tax clearance cert.
• Any history you have of trading with this customer and this supplier before.

The stronger you make the buyer and supplier look, the more of the supplier cost the lender will advance and the finer the fee. Your paperwork is doing real work on the price, so do not skimp on it.

Final Thoughts

PO finance is not the cheapest money you will ever borrow, and it is not meant to be. It exists for one job: to turn an order you cannot afford into a profit you get to keep.

The moment you stop reading the fee as a cost and start reading it as the price of a deal you would otherwise walk away from, the maths gets a lot simpler.

Remember what the lender is really buying: a strong buyer, a reliable supplier and a confirmed order. Line those three up, get your paperwork in order, and the rest tends to follow.

So the next time an order lands that is too big to fund, do not reach for the decline. Run the margin, and let the deal pay for itself.

Frequently Asked Questions