Shearing for the farms, paid by the job
The business is a farm contractor in the top of the South Island, running a shearing gang. The gang goes from farm to farm, shears the mob, and the farmer gets an invoice for the job.
The farmers aren’t slow payers. The terms are short and the money comes in on them.
What moves is the work itself. Shearing runs with the farming calendar, flat out in the season and quiet between, and the invoices follow that curve.
The quiet season meets payroll
The gang’s wages and the bills don’t follow the curve. They fall due in the quiet weeks the same as in the busy ones, and a shearing gang expects its pay on time.
In July 2025, the owner told the FundTap team the work came in peaks and troughs, and a quiet one had run into payroll.
Funding the invoices already out
They signed up in July 2025 and funded five shearing invoices that month, the ones already out to the farmers. Each one was for a job finished, with the farmer’s payment still to come.
The fee is on screen before they say yes, and the farmers pay the business as they always have.
A gang kept together for the season
What they wanted, the owner said, was simply to get through payroll and the dips that follow a quiet season. That’s what the funded invoices did. The gang was paid, the bills were covered, and the gang was still on the board when the season turned.
A contractor who can pay the gang through the dip can take the bookings when the farms come calling. The work has built since: eight invoices funded in 2025 and 17 so far in 2026.
The season sets the pace
In all, 25 invoices have been funded since July 2025, and their funding limit was raised twice in July 2026.
The farmers’ money still arrives with the season. When it covers the gang and the bills, there’s no invoice to fund and no fee to pay. In the dips, the business picks the shearing invoices that are out and brings that money forward.
The timeline
- July 2025 Signed up after a quiet season ran into payroll.
- July 2025 Funded five shearing invoices already out to the farmers, and the gang was paid.
- July 2026 Two increases to their funding limit in the same month, with the work building.
- August 2026 Funded five shearing invoices as the work built towards the season.
In numbers
- 25 shearing invoices funded since July 2025, in the stretches the season left a gap
- 17 invoices funded so far in 2026, up from eight in 2025
- 2 increases to their funding limit, both in July 2026
Invoices funded each month, as a table
| Month | Invoices funded |
|---|---|
| July 2025 | 5 |
| August 2025 | 3 |
| September 2025 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 0 |
| November 2025 | 0 |
| December 2025 | 0 |
| January 2026 | 0 |
| February 2026 | 1 |
| March 2026 | 5 |
| April 2026 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 0 |
| June 2026 | 1 |
| July 2026 | 5 |
| August 2026 | 5 |
| September 2026 | 0 |
Sound like your business?
The gang still needs paying through the quiet stretch, and the farmers’ money comes in with the season. Fund the shearing invoices that are already out and keep the gang together.
Fund the big seasonal invoice without waiting on the buyer.
