Supplying kitchens and care homes
The business is a fruit and veg wholesaler in regional New South Wales. It buys fresh produce through the markets and delivers it to restaurant kitchens and aged care homes across the region. Produce doesn’t keep, so the buying never stops.
The markets run on short terms, and the business pays its suppliers within the month. Its own customers are slower. The restaurants pay at the end of the month after the invoice, and the care homes often take longer than that.
The care home invoices have an extra step. Each delivery has to be signed off by the home’s head office before it’s paid, and if the kitchen is slow to send the invoice up, the payment waits with it.
“...it’s got to get approved by their head office before they will pay it.”
From a call with the FundTap team, April 2026
Between the markets and the kitchens
That’s the gap the business lives in. Every delivery is paid for at the markets long before the kitchen that received it pays. Stack up a few weeks of deliveries and the business is carrying close to two months of produce it has already paid for.
On a call with the FundTap team, the owner described it plainly: the market suppliers want paying within the month, while the restaurants and care homes think they can take closer to two months.
The care home payments are the hardest to plan around. The money arrives in chunks, when head office catches up, with gaps in between.
“...it might be a delay, then we get a chunk and then delay again...”
From a call with the FundTap team, April 2026
Funding the delivery invoices
When they signed up in October 2023, the owner told the FundTap team a large new contract had just come in and they wanted to be able to pay the suppliers for it.
They connected Xero and funded their first delivery invoices in October 2023, 15 of them that month. The business picks which invoices to fund, the ones waiting on a head office or a slow kitchen, and sees the fee on each before it commits. The restaurants and care homes pay the business directly, on their usual terms.
Most of it happens by email, which suits the owner.
“...I never ring and talk to anyone. It’s always just quite easy on the emails.”
From a call with the FundTap team, April 2026
Saying yes to the big contract
With the delivery invoices funded, the suppliers for the new contract could be paid on the markets’ terms, and the contract could be taken on without waiting for its first invoices to be paid.
The business grew into it. Their funding limit was raised in January 2024, and again as the deliveries grew. In 2025 they funded 2,592 invoices, their biggest year, and October 2025 was the busiest month at 343.
Tighter terms with customers
The owner has tightened up the customer side too. The price a customer gets now depends on how they pay.
What’s left on terms is what they fund, when a market bill lands before a kitchen pays. Their funding limit was raised again in August 2026, and in September 2026 they funded 170 invoices. Since October 2023 that adds up to 4,879 invoices, and the invoices they don’t fund cost nothing.
“...if you pay on time, you get this price right. You don’t pay on time, you get that price structure...”
From a call with the FundTap team, April 2026
In a public review, the owner called it quick and simple, and said connecting their accounting software was easy.
The timeline
- October 2023 Signed up with a large new contract won and the suppliers for it to pay.
- October 2023 Funded their first delivery invoices, 15 that month.
- January 2024 Funding limit raised for the first time as the contract deliveries grew.
- October 2025 The busiest month so far, with 343 invoices funded.
- August 2026 Funding limit raised again, the sixth increase.
In numbers
- 21 days to pay the market suppliers for fresh produce
- 4,879 invoices funded since October 2023
- 6 increases to their funding limit as the deliveries grew
- 343 invoices funded in October 2025, the busiest month
Sound like your business?
The markets want paying this month and the kitchens pay when head office gets round to it. Fund the delivery invoices that are holding you up and keep the produce moving.
Fund the next order without waiting on the last one.
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