Planning new debt?
How much can your business borrow?
We help your business borrow better, and it starts here. Before you sign for new debt, one question matters: do your actual numbers carry it? We model the facility you have in mind into your real financials, in the same serviceability workbook a commercial credit team would build. Free for clients of The Lending Lab, and a fixed fee for everyone else.
Why borrowing blind costs real money
- Capacity guessed from turnover or a rate-only calculator, not from the actual financials
- The new repayment stacked on top of existing commitments nobody has consolidated
- Serviceability never tested at the lender's assessment rate, which sits well above the advertised one
- The wrong facility shape for the need: long-term money for a short-term gap, or the reverse
- Multiple entities, and no single view of what the group already carries
None of these are answered by applying and hoping. They are answered by modelling the debt into your numbers first. That is what this assessment does: from $100,000 upwards, you get the covenant maths, the stress tests, your real borrowing capacity, and a written read on which facility types the numbers support. You get the answer before anyone applies for anything, and the fee is the same whichever way it lands.
Where the capacity usually is
The earnings your bank tested were not your earnings.
A capacity figure is only ever as good as the profit figure underneath it, and the profit figure in most files was prepared for the ATO. It is conservative by design, it carries costs that will not happen again, and it often includes rent on premises the business is about to buy. The assessment rebuilds it, and every adjustment is one we have seen survive a credit assessor and can evidence from a source document.
Where an adjustment will not survive, you hear it before it goes in. A submission pulled apart at credit costs you more than the capacity you were reaching for.
Which add-backs a credit team accepts, and what each one is worthYou are paying for the answer, not for a particular answer.
Every figure in the workbook is supported by source documents: bank statements, BAS lodgements, ledger detail, statements for the facilities you already carry. We never massage numbers toward an approval. If the numbers do not support the debt you have in mind, the assessment says so plainly, with the exact changes that would move it, and the fee is the same.
The deliverable
One workbook. Your debt, modelled in.
This is the same lender-style serviceability workbook we build for business acquisitions, applied to the business you already run plus the facility you are planning. It answers the question every credit assessor asks: can this business pay the new debt back, even when things get tighter?
The proposed repayments go in at the lender’s test rate, on top of everything you already carry. Covenants are tested, sensitivities are run, and the workbook shows where the limits sit. The inputs stay editable, so you and your advisors can test scenarios after we hand it over.
Free for clients of The Lending Lab
For everyone else the fees are fixed and on the page: $990 to read the facilities you already carry, $1,850 to model a facility you are planning into your actual financials, and $4,950 for the full growth modelling across best, mid and worst case. Our fees stay non-contingent, and you are free to use any broker.
Otherwise $1,850 · 5 business days
What you get
- The proposed facility modelled into your actual financials, not a template
- Repayment schedule at the lender's test rate, not the advertised rate
- Debt service with DSCR and ICR covenant testing
- Existing commitments consolidated, so the new debt is tested on top of the real position
- The reverse view: your real borrowing capacity, the maximum debt the numbers support at the test rate
- A rate sensitivity grid, tested well above today's rates
- Revenue and earnings stress tests, with a clear verdict on each
- A family tree and group map where more than one entity is involved
- A written read on which facility types the numbers support
- A debrief call with Nick, with the inputs left editable for your advisors
Not borrowing yet?
Free for clients of The Lending LabDebt Facility Review · $990 · 5 business days
The debt you already carry, read properly: every existing facility reviewed for pricing, structure, covenants and headroom, and a written view on what a restructure or refinance could do.
The facility read
The facility types your numbers can support
Different facility types are carried by different parts of your financials. The workbook tests the shape you have in mind against your actual numbers, and the written read states which structures hold up.
Term loan
Tested against free cash flow after existing commitments. The model shows whether amortising repayments hold at the assessment rate, and over what term.
Tested where the debt buys an income-producing asset. The model shows whether the earnings uplift and the asset's working life carry the repayments.
Tested against the cash cycle. The model shows the size of the gap between paying suppliers and getting paid, and what limit that gap actually justifies.
Tested against the debtor book. The model shows whether receivables quality and concentration support an advance rate that is worth the cost.
Tested where property security sits behind the facility. The model shows the servicing position; questions about the security itself stay with the lender and their processes.
This is analysis, not a credit assessment and not a recommendation to enter any credit contract. The written read states only which facility structures your numbers support. Where you want it taken to market we can do that, and where you would rather use your own broker or bank the work is yours to take to them.
The next move
Growing, not just borrowing?
Some debt is a single facility. Some debt is a strategy: another business purchase, five new trucks, a second site. The Growth Scenario Model shows what the move does to your numbers before you commit to it.
Growth Scenario Model · $4,950 · 10 business days
Your planned move modelled through best, mid and worst case over a multi-year horizon, with covenant headroom and the future capacity path in each. It includes the Debt Capacity Assessment, so the base work is never paid for twice.
Either way the workbook is yours to keep. A year on, it can be rebuilt against what actually happened, with your covenant headroom and capacity brought up to date: the Annual Partner Refresh is $850 for existing clients.
Want a rough read before you engage anyone? The free serviceability calculator runs the same arithmetic on figures you type in. It will tell you whether a facility is in range. It cannot tell you whether the earnings behind it would survive a credit review, which is the part this assessment does.
It works
Four matters where new debt was the question.
Different industries, same discipline. The numbers were modelled before the money moved.
The franchisee planning a much larger site
Operators of a franchise store wanted a second, much larger site, and a major bank had already knocked the idea back on serviceability. The case was rebuilt from the network's own sales reporting and stress-tested at a conservative rate, with roughly a 20% revenue buffer before cover broke.
The finance approved and the larger site secured. Full case study
The expansion no lender wanted to touch
An experienced operator wanted an established restaurant franchise on the Central Coast after a non-bank lender and major banks had all declined it. A group servicing workbook consolidated the business and personal position, income adopted conservatively, repayments sensitised above the offered rate.
Servicing passed with a clear surplus, and the site was acquired. Full case study
The capacity question, answered
A veterinary practice owner had been capped at $3.0m because lenders could not read his income. Line by line through the P&L, every adjustment evidenced, and the existing debt restructured to support the higher facility.
Assessed borrowing capacity rebuilt to $6.5m. Full case study
The one where the answer was no
A multi-entity family group wanted to borrow, and the consolidated workbook, family tree included, showed no servicing evident. The verdict was documented within days, with the exact changes needed before any facility could pass.
A fast, documented no, for the same fee. Full case study
More detail on all of these, on the case studies page
The veterinary matter is shared with the client’s consent; the other matters are anonymised and figures materially altered. Outcomes depend on individual circumstances and lender criteria.
How the assessment works
Send the numbers
Your last two years of financial statements, year-to-date management accounts, statements for every existing facility, and the amount and purpose you have in mind. Every adjustment we make must be evidenced, so the source documents are the raw material.
We model the debt in
The proposed facility goes into your actual financials, repayments run at the lender's test rate, covenants and sensitivities are worked through. Nick scopes your matter, reviews every finding and takes your debrief call.
The answer in 5 business days
The workbook, the written read on which facility types the numbers support, and a debrief call to walk through it. If the numbers do not support the debt, you hear that instead, for the same fee.
After the answer
Who takes it to the lender?
Sometimes us, sometimes you. It depends on the size of the facility, and the workbook is built to be used either way.
Below $500,000 property-backed, or $1,000,000 without
Under our broking minimums the workbook and the written read are simply yours. You, or your own broker, take them to the lender. There is nothing else you need to buy from us.
At or above those minimums
We can take it to market for you. Credit assistance is provided by Nicholas Clunes as a credit representative, through The Lending Lab Pty Ltd, and where a lender pays commission it is paid there and disclosed in writing. The advisory fee is fixed and the same either way, and you are free to take the workbook to any broker you like.
Two ways this can work.
Referred to us for finance? You are in the right place either way. Either we arrange it, or we prepare the file for whoever does.
Have us arrange the finance
We build the analysis, write the submission and take it to the lenders who will actually do the deal, across 40+ of them. One team from the first set of figures to settlement, and one team holding the covenants after it.
Start a finance enquiryAlready have a broker or a banker you trust?
Keep them. We will build the file to the standard a credit team expects and work directly with whoever lodges it. Same models, same documents, same standards, and we do not take the lodgement on that engagement.
See the finance documentsDebt Capacity Assessment · $1,850 · 5 business days
Fixed fee, no contingency, GST excluded. If the numbers do not support the facility you have in mind, we tell you that instead, and the fee is the same.
Common questions
Yes. Credit assistance is provided by Nicholas Clunes, Credit Representative Number 530711, authorised under Australian Credit Licence Number 387856, through The Lending Lab Pty Ltd. There are minimums on the broking: $500,000 with property security, or $1,000,000 without. Below them the workbook and the written read are still yours and you or your own broker take them to a lender. At or above them we run the facility end to end.
No. From $100,000 upwards, getting the facility type, the term or the timing wrong costs more than the assessment does. Below that, the fixed fee rarely earns its keep, and if that is your situation we say so on the scoping call rather than take the engagement.
Most of them take turnover and an advertised rate and guess. Lenders do not assess a business loan that way. A credit team consolidates every existing commitment, adjusts the earnings, then tests repayments at an assessment rate above the advertised one. Our free serviceability calculator does it that way, so it is a genuinely useful first read. What it cannot do is check whether the earnings you typed in are the earnings a lender will adopt. That is what the workbook does, from your actual financials, so the borrowing capacity it shows is the one a lender can actually see.
Then that is the answer you get, in writing, with the exact changes that would move it, and the fee is the same. We never massage numbers toward an approval; every adjustment is supported by source documents. You are paying for the answer, not for a particular answer. A fast, documented no has saved clients from expensive mistakes more than once.
Yes, it is built for exactly that. The inputs stay editable, your broker can lodge from it with any lender, and with your written consent either of them can join the debrief call. Anything with tax or structuring implications is flagged for your accountant, never advised on by us.
Yes. Your existing facilities are modelled alongside the proposed position, so the workbook shows what the consolidated numbers support. A restructure of existing debt often changes the answer; it is one of the things that took a vet practice owner's assessed capacity from $3m to $6.5m. The workbook shows the servicing position under each structure and leaves the decision with you and your broker.
Yes. That is the Growth Scenario Model: your planned move, another business purchase, new vehicles or equipment, or a second site, modelled through profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow over a multi-year horizon, in best, mid and worst case. Each case shows servicing, covenant headroom year by year, and what happens to your future borrowing capacity. It is a materially bigger build than the assessment, priced at $4,950 with a ten business day turnaround, and it includes the Debt Capacity Assessment so the base work is never paid for twice. Assumptions are agreed with you and your advisors and evidenced against your trading history.
For scoping, just the last two years of financial statements and the amount and purpose you have in mind. Once you engage us, the standard information request covers year-to-date management accounts, BAS lodgements, bank statements, statements for every existing facility, and the ownership structure where more than one entity is involved. The fixed fee assumes that request is met, and gaps are flagged before any extra time is spent.
Same workbook, different scenario. The Model is built around an acquisition: a purchase price and a target's financials. The Debt Capacity Assessment is your existing business plus a proposed new facility. Same fee, same five business days. And if the borrowing later becomes part of a lender submission, the analysis flows straight into the Bank-Ready Pack.