Not borrowing yet?
The debt you already carry, read properly.
Most owners know what their facilities cost to the nearest rate and very little else. This puts every one of them in a single schedule: what it costs, what it is secured against, what it is tested on, and what a restructure would actually change.
What usually goes unchecked
- Facilities taken out years apart, on terms nobody has compared since
- An overdraft priced on a line fee against headroom that is never drawn
- Equipment finance carrying balloons that fall due in the same quarter
- Covenants in an agreement signed at settlement and not read since
- Security spread across assets that no longer need to carry it
- A rate that was competitive when it was written and has not moved since
None of it is anyone’s fault. Facilities accumulate one decision at a time, each sensible on the day, and nobody is paid to look at the whole position afterwards. Your bank sees only its own lending. Your accountant sees the interest line. This looks at all of it at once, which is the only way the structural problems show up.
The fee does not move with the answer.
The review is a fixed fee, quoted before it starts and payable whether the answer is to move the debt or leave it exactly where it is. If the position is already good, the review says so, and that is the end of it. We are a brokerage as well, so where the answer is a new facility and you want us to arrange it we tell you in writing that a lender may pay commission to The Lending Lab Pty Ltd on it. You are equally free to take the review to your own broker or bank, and the fee is the same either way.
The deliverable
Every facility in one schedule.
The debt you carry, set out the way a credit team would set it out before it decided anything: priced properly, tested against its own covenants, and mapped across the dates that matter.
The written view covers what a restructure or refinance would change, and what it would cost to do. It stops short of naming a lender or a product, deliberately.
Free for clients of The Lending Lab
$990 · 5 business days
What you get
- Every facility set out in one schedule: limit, balance, rate, term, repayment type and expiry
- What each one actually costs, including the fees the rate does not capture
- The covenants attached to each facility, and how much headroom sits on them today
- The security taken against each, and whether more is pledged than the facility needs
- Balloons, expiries and review dates mapped across the next three years
- A written view on what a restructure or refinance would do to the position, and what it would cost
- A debrief call with Nick, and the workbook left editable for you and your advisors
How the review works
Send the facilities
Loan and facility agreements, recent statements for each, and your last financials. Where an agreement is missing we work from the statements and say which terms could not be confirmed.
We read the position
Each facility priced properly, the covenants worked against your actual numbers, the security mapped, and the expiries laid across a timeline. Nick scopes the matter and reviews every finding.
The answer in 5 business days
One schedule, a written read on what a restructure would change, and a debrief call. If the position is already well structured, the review says so and you have spent $990 finding out.
Then the other direction
Planning to borrow rather than review?
This reads the debt you have. The next question is usually what the numbers will carry on top of it, and that is a different piece of work.
Debt Capacity Assessment
A facility you are planning modelled into your actual financials at the lender’s assessment rate, on top of everything you already carry, with covenants tested and sensitivities run. $1,850 · 5 business days.
Want a rough read before engaging anyone? The free true cost of finance calculator works the effective rate on an overdraft or invoice facility, and the covenant check tests the ratios commonly set. Both run on figures you type in. Neither reads your own agreements, which is the part this review does.
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 documentsCommon questions
No. It sets out what you carry, what it costs and what a restructure would change. It stops short of naming a lender or a product, because the review is sold as a read on your position rather than as a sales document for the thing we would arrange next. If you decide to move, we can take it to market from there and we tell you in writing that a lender may pay commission on it. If you would rather take it to your own broker, that is entirely normal and the fee is the same.
They answer opposite questions. This reads the debt you already carry: pricing, structure, covenants and headroom, across every facility. The Debt Capacity Assessment tests a facility you are thinking about taking, modelled into your financials at the lender's assessment rate. Owners frequently want both, and the review is usually the one to do first, because it changes what the second one is modelling against.
Not as part of this engagement. The review is a read on your position and what you take to your banker is your decision. Negotiating a variation or a refinance is separate work on a separate fee, and we do it where you want us to. Credit assistance is provided by Nicholas Clunes, Credit Representative Number 530711, authorised under Australian Credit Licence Number 387856, through The Lending Lab Pty Ltd.
Then you know, in writing, and the fee is the same. You are paying for the answer, not for a particular answer. A position that is already well structured is a useful thing to have evidenced before your next conversation with a lender.
It is better with them, because the covenants and the review dates live in the agreements rather than the statements. Where one is missing we work from what you have and mark clearly which terms could not be confirmed, rather than guessing at them.
General information only. Not credit advice, not a credit assessment, and not an offer of finance. Lending decisions rest with the lender and depend on your circumstances and their criteria.
Want a straight read on your deal?
Book a free call with Nick. Bring the numbers you have, and we will tell you the right service level and the fixed fee. No obligation.