Agency management company de Poel says recruiters are flocking to sign up to be paid five days earlier than usual under a new initiative.

Matthew Sanders, director of de Poel, told Recruiter that after recently to the 800 agencies who work with the firm, 40 “were extremely positive” while 30 were “interested” and said ‘can we talk about it?’”

Normally agencies who supply staff through de Poel receive payment eight days after the client pays Poel. However, Sanders says that under its early settlement initiative, agencies will be paid within 72 hours of de Poel invoicing its client.  

In return for being paid ‘early’ Sanders says de Poel charges agencies between 1% and 2.5% of the value of the invoice.

Sanders says that de Poel will “at some point” have to borrow money to fund the increase in interest in the initiative, as it cannot fund it from its existing cash flow.