Guide
Broker exposure: how much open invoice per broker is too much
Nobody hands you a credit limit for a broker. You set your own. Without one, a single slow payer can end up holding more of your cash than you notice.
In short
- Exposure is the total of unpaid invoices you hold against one broker.
- Set a cap per broker as a share of one month of operating cost. The share is your call. The example below uses 25%.
- Read exposure with age. $9,000 that is 10 days old is a different risk from $9,000 that is 50 days old.
- Past the cap, slow new loads, ask for faster pay, or both. Your contract decides what you can ask for.
Hook. In the example fleet, 1 broker holds 44% of all open invoices, and 118% of the cap. Every single invoice from it is under $4,000, so none of them looked big.
Count by broker, not by invoice
Invoice lists sort by date. Exposure sorts by who owes you. Group the open invoices by broker and add them up. That total is money you have earned and cannot spend.
The figure shows three brokers against one cap line. Two sit under it. The third crossed it with invoices that each looked harmless. The invoice aging tool builds the same list, and the invoice aging page explains the age buckets.
A cap starts a conversation, not a verdict. The point is to look before the next load is booked, not after the third missed payment.
Set and use a cap in five steps
List open invoices
Every unpaid invoice with broker name, amount and invoice date.
Group by broker
Add the amounts per broker. Count invoices and note the oldest.
Set the cap
One month of operating cost times a share you choose. Write the share down.
Add age
Mark any broker whose oldest invoice is past the terms in your rate con.
Decide the action
Over the cap, or over the cap with an old invoice: pause, ask for faster pay, or both.
What each level can mean
| Level | What it looks like | Possible action |
|---|---|---|
| Under 75% of cap | Few invoices, all inside terms | Keep booking. Re-check weekly. |
| 75% to 100% | Several invoices, oldest near terms | Check how this broker has paid before. Book with care. |
| Over cap | Exposure above your own limit | Pause new loads or ask for faster pay on the next one. |
| Over cap, oldest past terms | Late and large at once | Send a dated reminder. Read broker not paying. |
Worked example EXAMPLE VALUES
Example data. An invented fleet with $48,000 of operating cost a month and a cap share of 25%. The cap is $12,000 per broker. Eleven open invoices, grouped below.
| Broker | Invoices | Exposure | Oldest | Share of cap | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broker A | 3 | $7,350 | 33 days | 61% | Under cap |
| Broker B | 4 | $10,900 | 31 days | 91% | Close to cap |
| Broker C | 4 | $14,200 | 51 days | 118% | Over cap |
| All three | 11 | $32,450 | 51 days | 270% | n/a |
Broker C holds $14,200 of $32,450 open. Broker A, with 3 invoices and a similar age profile, sits at 61% of the cap. The cap did its job: it turned a pile of normal looking invoices into one clear flag. The 25% share is only an example. A fleet with a large cash reserve may pick a higher one.
Where it goes wrong
- Counting by invoice. Ten invoices of $3,000 are $30,000 owed by one name.
- Ignoring age. A big exposure inside terms is normal. A small one far past terms is not.
- One cap for every broker. A broker with a long clean record may earn a higher one. Write the reason down.
- Never re-running it. Exposure changes every week. Put it in the weekly review.
The formulas
Your cap share is a rule of your own. It is not an industry standard.
Check before you hold a load
Refusing or holding a booked load can have contract consequences. Read the rate con and any broker agreement first. If you factor, ask your factor how it treats many invoices from one broker.
We do not give legal, tax or financial advice. Your contracts come first.
Questions
What cap share is right?
No share is right for everyone. Pick one that you could survive losing for a month, then adjust with experience.
Does a factored invoice count?
Check your factoring agreement. Some factors set their own limits per broker. Ask them.
Is a late broker always a bad broker?
No. Check the pattern across invoices. The trust timeline and broker vetting help.
How often should I check?
Weekly is enough for most small fleets. Daily if one broker is near the cap.
Related: broker vetting, broker payment delay, bad broker cost, 13 week cash flow, all guides.
See what your last 20 loads show.
One short form. We reply by email with the next step, and a one-page report follows. Free, no obligation.
Mon-Fri, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (Raleigh, NC). Voicemail is answered the next business day.