Whole Book vs Selective Invoice Finance UK 2026

Whole book invoice finance (also called whole turnover) funds 100% of your sales ledger under a single committed facility. Every qualifying invoice is automatically eligible for advance, the provider relies on the diversification of your debtor book, and pricing is given as a single service charge usually 0.3-1.0%.

Selective invoice finance (also called single invoice finance, spot factoring or pay-as-you-go) lets you pick which individual invoices to fund. There is no commitment to put any minimum value through the facility, and you typically pay a higher per-invoice fee in exchange for that flexibility, usually 1.5-4.0% of invoice value.

Whole book is significantly cheaper per pound advanced. Service charges typically run 0.3-1.0% on whole book versus 1.5-4.0% per invoice on selective. The trade-off is commitment: whole book requires you to put all qualifying invoices through the facility (usually with a 12-month minimum contract), while selective lets you fund only the invoices you choose with no minimum.

For businesses with steady predictable invoicing, whole book is roughly 3-5x cheaper. For businesses with occasional cash gaps, selective can be cheaper overall because you only pay when you use it.

Most UK whole book invoice finance providers require minimum annual turnover from £100,000 (Skipton), £750,000 (Close Brothers and Aldermore) or £1m (HSBC). Whole book confidential invoice discounting typically requires £500,000+ turnover with established credit control. Selective invoice finance has lower thresholds, Hydr, Triver, and Sonovate accept individual invoices from businesses with no minimum annual turnover, requiring only that each funded invoice meets credit and concentration criteria.

Yes. Selective invoice finance, single invoice finance, spot factoring, pay-as-you-go invoice finance, and on-demand invoice finance all describe the same product: per-invoice funding with no commitment to put further invoices through the facility. Some providers brand it differently, Hydr calls it digital invoice finance, Triver positions it as embedded funding for accountancy software users, and Sonovate uses contractor finance for the recruitment sector, but the underlying product mechanics are identical: choose which invoice to fund, get an advance against just that invoice, repay when the customer pays.

Whole book invoice finance suits established UK SMEs with predictable B2B invoicing, ongoing working capital needs, and a clear case for sustained funding (typically advancing 50%+ of debtor book consistently). It works best for sectors with regular invoicing patterns: manufacturing, wholesale distribution, recruitment, transport, construction, professional services, and engineering. The lower cost per pound only pays off when you are putting most of your ledger through the facility most of the time, if you only need cash occasionally, the 12-month commitment and minimum service charges can be more expensive than selective.

Selective invoice finance suits businesses with irregular cash flow needs, growing businesses uncertain about long-term funding requirements, businesses with one or two large customers whose invoices represent the bulk of cash flow risk, businesses below the typical whole book turnover threshold, or businesses wanting to test invoice finance before committing. It is particularly common in seasonal sectors (event production, hospitality supply, agriculture), project-based services (consultancy, construction subcontractors), and recruitment agencies funding temp or contract payroll on a per-placement basis.

Yes. Many UK businesses start on selective invoice finance to test the product, then upgrade to whole book once their working capital need is sustained and predictable. The economics tip in favour of whole book once you are regularly funding 30%+ of your ledger or putting £100,000+ per quarter through selective invoices.

Switching providers usually involves a parallel-running period where the new whole book facility takes over the ledger; some providers (Close Brothers, Bibby) will buy out an existing selective facility to streamline the transition.

Whole book is the standard format for confidential invoice discounting (the most common UK invoice finance product by value). The provider relies on having visibility over your full ledger to manage credit risk while keeping the arrangement private from customers.

Selective confidential discounting exists but is rarer, usually offered only to larger businesses with strong credit control where the provider will take on individual invoices on a confidential basis. Most selective facilities are disclosed factoring (the customer is notified) rather than confidential.

Best whole book providers: Close Brothers (individually priced, from £750k turnover, FTSE 250 bank), Skipton Business Finance (from £100k turnover, building society backed), Bibby Financial Services (no published rate or minimum, largest UK independent), Aldermore (from £750k turnover, no published rate, confidential discounting standard). Best selective providers: Hydr (digital-first, no minimum turnover), Triver (embedded with accountancy software), Sonovate (recruitment-only spot factoring), and Ultimate Finance (offers both whole book and selective with an advance rate of up to 95%).