Hazelford Funding, a small-business funding service in Lebanon, Tennessee, helps accounting practices, tax preparers, consultants, IT firms and engineering offices in Wilson County, TN request lines of credit and working capital for the gap between payroll and client payments, and term loans for office moves or new hires. Partners review receivables, bank statements and revenue history before making their own decisions.
| Consulting employers, Wilson County, TN | 87 (NAICS 5416), County Business Patterns 2023 |
|---|---|
| Accounting and bookkeeping firms on payroll | 56 (NAICS 5412), CBP 2023 |
| Consulting businesses without payroll | 609 no-payroll firms in the 2024 NES file |
The receivables-led cash cycle
An accounting firm, a management consultant or an IT services shop has few physical assets. What it has is people and invoices. Staff are paid on a fixed schedule while clients pay on 30, 45 or 60-day terms, and large engagements often bill in milestones. The business can be profitable and still short of cash for weeks at a time.
For accounting firm financing in particular, the cycle has a calendar shape: staffing rises ahead of tax deadlines, while some fees arrive after filing. Consultants and IT firms see the same pattern around project starts. Hiring ahead of a contract is a defined reason to ask.
Professional services in Wilson County, TN
| Type (NAICS 2017) | Employers | Employees | Share under 5 | No-payroll firms, NES 2024 file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consulting firms, NAICS 5416 | 87 | 282 | 80.5% | 609 |
| Accountants and bookkeepers, NAICS 5412 | 56 | 528 | 67.9% | 252 |
| IT and systems design, NAICS 5415 | 51 | 174 | 88.2% | 200 |
| Architects and engineers, NAICS 5413 | 39 | 1,309 | 69.2% | 124 |
These are small firms: 80.5% of consulting employers and 88.2% of computer services employers had fewer than five employees in 2023 (County Business Patterns 2023). Nonemployer counts come from a separate program and year (Nonemployer Statistics 2024) and are shown alongside, not added. In ZIP 37087, the main Lebanon, TN ZIP, there were 24 accounting and 22 consulting employers in 2023 (ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023).
Which funding fits a professional firm
| Need | Funding shape |
|---|---|
| Staff paid while client invoices sit unpaid | Line of credit |
| Hiring ahead of a signed engagement | Working capital |
| Office move, build-out or larger lease | Term loan |
| Servers, workstations, plotters | Equipment financing |
A line of credit is the natural fit for recurring receivable gaps, because the firm can draw when invoices are out and pay down when they clear. Working capital suits a single hiring push with a clear start. Office moves are covered in using a business loan for office space in Lebanon, TN.
Small business loan for a consulting business
A business loan for consulting work is judged on the strength of the client base. Partners like to see contracts or statements of work, a receivables aging report and bank statements showing regular deposits. Concentration matters: for example, a firm with one client paying 70% of fees reads differently from one with twenty smaller clients.
Business loan for an IT company
IT and computer services firms often carry hardware and software costs on behalf of clients before billing them. If the firm resells hardware, part of the need may fit inventory or equipment financing; the services side fits a line of credit.
CPA firm financing: what partners review
- Receivables aging and the firm's largest clients.
- Recent bank statements and the last full year's revenue.
- Engagement letters or contracts for new work.
- Existing loans, including any practice acquisition debt.
Illustration only: a four-person bookkeeping practice in Lebanon, TN adds two seasonal staff at a combined $9,000 a month for three months. Most of the extra fees arrive in the two months after the deadline. The gap is roughly $27,000 at its widest, and it closes on a predictable date. That shape, a known gap with a known end, is what a line or working capital request should describe. The figures are an example only.
Engineering and architecture firms carry the biggest payrolls
Among the four professional groups on this page, architectural and engineering firms stand apart. Wilson County, TN had only 39 of them as employers in 2023, yet they employed 1,309 people and paid $78.7 million in annual payroll (County Business Patterns 2023), more than the $67.1 million paid by accounting, consulting and computer services firms combined (our sum of the three CBP rows). A larger payroll on project billing means larger gaps when a client or a public agency pays slowly.
For these firms, the request often pairs a line of credit sized to two or three payroll cycles with equipment financing for plotters, survey instruments, drones and workstations. Partners will want to see the project backlog and the billing terms on the largest contracts.
Payroll service firms
Bookkeeping and payroll service firms fall under the same accounting code (NAICS 5412). Funding is for the firm's own costs, such as staff and software, and never for clients' payroll or tax deposits handled in trust.
Payroll per person across four professional codes
Dividing each County Business Patterns 2023 row gives payroll per employee of roughly $59,544 at accounting and bookkeeping firms, $68,457 at consulting firms, $93,948 at computer systems design firms and $60,107 at architecture and engineering firms in Wilson County, TN (our arithmetic). The figures mix part-time and full-time staff, so treat them as a sense of scale rather than a wage survey.
Those numbers explain why one hire changes a small firm's file. A consulting practice averaging about 3.2 employees per firm that adds a single analyst raises its payroll by a large fraction at once, while billing for the analyst's work may not arrive until a project milestone.
A consulting firm's request, laid out
- The contract or statement of work that creates the need.
- The billing schedule: monthly, milestone or on completion.
- The hire or subcontractor cost, by month, until billing starts.
- Accounts receivable aging for current clients.
With those four items, a working capital or credit line request is easy for a partner to follow.
Related pages
Other professional services, including insurance agencies, law firms and real estate offices, are on the industries page. The Lebanon, TN page has the county's figures across every sector, and term loans cover the larger office projects.
