Big clients, long engagements
The business is a risk consultancy in Canterbury, advising large organisations on business risk.
An engagement can run for a long stretch. Where it can, the consultancy now asks for a deposit up front.
The big clients pay on their own terms, which means the end of the month following the invoice.
End of the month following
A deposit helps, but not every client agrees to one, and it only ever covers part of the job. The rest sits in the invoice until the client’s payment run at the end of the next month.
When they signed up in March 2025, the owner told the FundTap team they had changed their terms to take a deposit where they could, but the long engagements and the end-of-month-following terms still showed up in the cashflow.
That’s the shape of consulting for big institutions. The work is done and invoiced well before the money lands, and the business’s own cashflow has to cover the gap.
Set up before it was needed
Their broker introduced them to FundTap, and they signed up in March 2025 with nothing yet to fund. The point was to have it ready before the next big invoice went out, not after.
Before signing up, the owner asked the FundTap team to take them through the fees and the terms. Nothing is charged until an invoice is funded, and there’s no lock-in, which suited a business setting up ahead of need.
“We don’t have any invoices just yet that need funding, but will initiate everything once required.”
From an email to the FundTap team, March 2025
Keeping the big engagements
The first invoices came through later in March 2025, two of them, and five were funded across 2025 in all. Each time the fee showed before they committed, and the clients paid the consultancy on their usual payment runs.
That let the consultancy keep taking the long engagements on the big clients’ terms. The invoice they chose was funded, and the terms with the client stayed as they were.
FundTap in the cashflow calendar
There was nothing to fund in 2026, and so nothing to pay.
In an email to the FundTap team in August 2026, the owner explained they were building a cashflow calendar for the company and wanted FundTap written into it. Their funding limit was raised that month, so the next long engagement has more room behind it.
For a consultancy that plans its year around big clients and their terms, that’s the right place for it: in the calendar, ready for the invoice that needs it.
The timeline
- March 2025 Introduced by their broker and signed up, with no invoice needing funding yet.
- March 2025 Funded their first invoices, two that month.
- July 2025 Funded the fifth invoice of 2025, the most recent so far.
- August 2026 Building a cashflow calendar with FundTap in it; their funding limit was raised.
In numbers
- Month end following the invoice: when the big clients pay
- 5 invoices funded in 2025, between March and July
- 2 invoices funded in March 2025, the first month
- 1 increase to their funding limit, in August 2026
Invoices funded each month, as a table
| Month | Invoices funded |
|---|---|
| March 2025 | 2 |
| April 2025 | 0 |
| May 2025 | 1 |
| June 2025 | 1 |
| July 2025 | 1 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 0 |
| November 2025 | 0 |
| December 2025 | 0 |
| January 2026 | 0 |
| February 2026 | 0 |
| March 2026 | 0 |
| April 2026 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 0 |
| June 2026 | 0 |
| July 2026 | 0 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 0 |
Sound like your business?
The engagement ran long and the client pays at the end of the month following. Fund that invoice if the timing doesn’t work, and nothing if it does.
Fund a specific invoice when the timing doesn’t work. Pay nothing when it does.
Invoice finance for professional services • All case studies
