Guaranteed money, on its own timetable
The business is a private training provider in the lower North Island. It runs transition-to-work training, mainly in schools, for young people the school system doesn’t suit, with school holiday programmes on top.
Nearly all of that work is paid for by government agencies and the schools themselves. The money is guaranteed. It is also slow, and its timing is hard to predict, with the holiday programme payments on the longest cycle of all.
Most of the year’s income arrives during the school year, from March to November. Outside those months the income thins right out.
Wages don’t stop over summer
The trainers and the rest of the team are paid weekly, in the school holidays as much as in term time. When the school year ends, most of the income stops with it, while the wages carry on into the new year.
When they signed up in January 2023, the owners explained to the FundTap team that most of the income came in during the school year, and the Christmas break was always the hard part for cashflow.
Funding the invoices ahead of payday
They signed up in January 2023 and connected Xero. In an email to the FundTap team in January 2023, one of the owners explained there were wages to pay for the week the team had just worked. They funded their first invoices that month, four in all.
Their invoices go to agencies and schools: guaranteed to be paid, and slow. The owners pick the invoice to fund and know the fee before they go ahead. The agency still pays the business direct, on its usual timetable.
In February 2023 the owners asked the FundTap team whether the funding limit would still be there the next time they needed it. The limit stays in place, and nothing is charged until an invoice is funded.
The team paid through the break
With the slow invoices funded, the wages went out through the summer break. That is what they signed up for: the agencies pay on their cycle, and the team is paid on time regardless.
Their funding limit was raised in February 2023, the first of six increases as the programmes grew.
As the programmes grew
Their biggest year was 2024, with 47 invoices funded, and June 2024 the busiest month, at eight. Their funding limit has been raised six times in all, most recently in April 2026.
In all they have funded 131 invoices since January 2023, 28 of them in 2026 to September. There are no ongoing fees: they pay only on the invoices they fund, and the other invoices simply wait for the agencies to pay.
The timeline
- January 2023 Signed up over the summer break, with wages to pay and the school-year income not yet started.
- January 2023 Funded their first invoices, four that month, and the wages went out.
- February 2023 Funding limit raised for the first time.
- June 2024 The busiest month so far, with eight invoices funded.
- April 2026 Funding limit raised again, the sixth increase.
- September 2026 Funded five invoices, the most recent in the records.
In numbers
- Mar to Nov the school year, when most of the income arrives
- 131 invoices funded since January 2023
- 6 increases to their funding limit, the latest in April 2026
- 47 invoices funded in 2024, their biggest year
Sound like your business?
The government money is guaranteed, but the wages are due this week. Fund the invoice that covers payday, and let the agency pay in its own time.
Fund a specific invoice when the timing doesn’t work. Pay nothing when it does.
Invoice finance for professional services • All case studies
