For accountants
A commercial broker who will never ask you for a letter.
Your client needs finance to buy, expand or refinance. You want them looked after by someone who will do the work properly, stay out of your compliance relationship, and never put their evidence problem on your letterhead. That is the whole offer.
Why this exists
None of the usual options quite work
When a purchase lands on your desk mid-deal, on a vendor's timeline, in whatever week you were already having, the work is real but the timing rarely is.
Send them to their bank.
One lender, one credit policy, one answer, and nobody in the room whose job is to argue the case. If it is declined, your client has a credit enquiry and no explanation, and the next lender can see the first one looked.
Send them to a broker you do not know.
You get the call when it goes sideways, and somewhere around week three you get the other call: could you just write a short letter confirming the business can service it. Now it is your PI on a number you did not prepare.
Work up the numbers yourself.
You could. The question is whether it fits the week you are already having, at a fee the client expects fixed, with your name on the conclusion. And a rebuilt earnings schedule still is not a credit submission.
We built our practice to be the fourth option: the referral that is safe to make. The work comes back lender-ready, your client gets approved, and the win lands on your relationship, with the transaction handled, the client back with you, and every tax question flagged your way.
Why we are safe to refer to
We do not do compliance. Ever.
No tax, no BAS agent services, no bookkeeping, no audit, no financial statements, and it is in our terms rather than only on this page.
- Your client comes to us for the transaction and back to you for everything else
- A referral generates compliance work for your practice; it never takes any away
- On referred matters we do not pitch, cross-sell or accept finance mandates, per section 7 of our terms
- The scope is defined and the fee fixed, on the site, confirmed in writing before engagement
- Nick scopes every engagement, reviews every finding and takes every debrief call
The file also speaks your language. Before broking, Nick spent years as a business banker with a study background in accounting and finance, and he is a Xero Certified Professional, comfortable working from your client’s live file rather than from exports.
What their clients say
5.0 from 60 Google reviews
“Nick as a broker is part of my dream team for not only residential but especially commercial lending and has been nothing short of brilliant. Always calm under pressure and gets the job done. Very proactive and knowledge far superior to other brokers I've worked with.”
Rachael · Commercial lending
“Nick is an absolute gun at his job. I've been through many brokers over the years, and he is by far the best I've worked with. His knowledge in the commercial space is second to none, and the way he handles the process is completely seamless.”
P · Commercial finance
“Nick is super professional and highly competent in his craft. He guided me with credible lending options and advice during my commercial property purchase journey. Highly recommended.”
ADS Rawal · Commercial property
5.0 from 60 Google reviews for Nicholas Clunes, as at August 2026. Reviews are published by the reviewers on Google and are reproduced here as written.
The letter
We will never ask you to write one.
You know the request. The submission is thin, the lender wants comfort, and the broker asks whether you could put something on your letterhead confirming the business can service the debt, or that the add-backs are genuine, or that trading has continued in line with the last financials.
It is a request to transfer the evidence problem to you. You did not build the serviceability model, you have not seen the facility terms, and the assessment rate the lender will actually use is not in front of you. What you are being asked to sign is somebody else’s analysis, on your professional indemnity, under time pressure, for a fee you are not charging.
We do not do that, and it is not a courtesy. It is that we do not need to. The earnings are rebuilt from bank statements, BAS lodgements and the general ledger, the adjustments are evidenced line by line, and the serviceability is modelled at the lender’s assessment rate rather than the quoted one. The case is made in the submission, where it belongs, and our name is on it.
What we will ask you for is documents: financials, the ledger, a tax portal extract. What we will not ask you for is an opinion on a number we prepared. If a lender wants a fact confirmed that only you hold, we will tell you exactly what is being asked and why, and you are free to say no without it costing your client the deal.
And every tax or structuring question the transaction throws up comes back to you flagged, never answered by us.
Why the file is different
Built on our own tooling, not on a template.
Most commercial submissions are a cover letter, a spreadsheet and three years of financials. Ours are generated on Commercial PowerHub, the lending platform we built in-house, which produces:
- The earnings analysis, rebuilt from source documents
- Serviceability at the lender's assessment rate, not the quoted one
- Covenant headroom, tested against the actual numbers
- Sensitivity on the levers that move the answer
All from the same models rather than assembled by hand each time, which is why the figures reconcile and why a credit team can follow them. It is also why we come back to you once with a complete document request rather than four times across six weeks, which is the part of a referral that actually costs you time. You do not have to take our word for any of it: the calculators on this site run the same arithmetic, free and without a form.
What your client gets
- Earnings rebuilt from source documents: bank statements, BAS lodgements, general ledger. Not the vendor's adjusted P&L
- Add-backs tested line by line; owner wages, related-party rent and missing capex put back in
- A written report and working model, a debrief call, and 30 days of follow-up questions answered
- A number built the way a commercial credit assessor reads one, so the analysis and any finance submission tell the same story
Clients planning new borrowing rather than an acquisition can be referred for a Debt Capacity Assessment: the proposed facility modelled into their actual financials before anyone goes near a lender, with every tax and structuring question handed back to you.
For clients you already look after year to year, the Annual Partner Refresh sits naturally alongside your annual accounts cycle: once the year’s figures are settled, we refresh the model and the finance-facing documents so the client is ready for the next facility, the next purchase, or the next lender conversation, without you having to build any of it.
What you get
Your client back.
With the transaction handled and a clean handover note covering everything with tax or structuring implications. Flagged for you, never advised on by us. The structure, registrations and onboarding work the acquisition creates comes straight back to your practice.
A named contact, not a portal.
You can call Nick directly before, during and after the engagement. On several engagements we have gone line by line through the P&L with the client and their accountant together. You know the history; we know what a credit team does with the numbers.
Full conflict transparency.
We are a brokerage, so here is exactly where we stand rather than a claim to be above it. The advisory fee is fixed and payable whatever the analysis concludes, including when it concludes the deal should not proceed. Where a lender pays commission on a facility, it is paid to The Lending Lab Pty Ltd, it is not payable on every transaction, and the amount is not ascertainable when we quote. All of that goes in writing at engagement. Your client is free to take the analysis and use their own bank or any broker, at the same fee.
How a referral works
Four steps, then the client comes back to you
1
You introduce
Or the client contacts us and names you. Either way, you are recorded as the referring accountant.
2
Scoping call with Nick
Free, no obligation. Straight advice on whether the work is worth doing at all. Sometimes it is not, and we say so.
3
Fixed fee in writing
Within two business days of seeing the financials, straight off the standard schedule on our pricing page. The schedule is the same number for everyone.
4
Report, debrief, handover
Work performed, report delivered, debrief held. You are welcome on the call. Then the handover comes back to you for structure, registrations and ongoing compliance.
Every other due diligence referral you could make is a competitor. We are the one that isn’t.
Two ways to send a client
Refer for finance, or pick the services
Refer your client for finance and we make sure the whole matter is taken care of, or choose exactly which pieces you want done. Combining several services on the same matter attracts a bundle discount.
Pathway 1: Refer the client for finance
One referral, and the whole matter is taken care of.
Refer your client for the finance and we look after the rest. We run the lending across 40+ lenders and wrap every service the matter needs around it: the diligence, the documents, the modelling, so nothing falls between advisers. Where a broker introduced the client, the lending stays with that broker.
Start a finance referralPathway 2: Pick the services you need
Choose exactly what you want done, one service or several.
Point us at the specific work: financial due diligence, finance documents, a business plan, a debt capacity read, or any combination. Each is fixed-fee off the schedule on this site, and combining multiple services on the same matter attracts a bundle discount, quoted in writing at scoping.
See the full fee scheduleRead first, pay later
Written from the credit side, and free. The professional services guide is the one your own practice sits in, and the one to hand a client whose firm is the asset.
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.
Common questions
No, and the incentive runs the other way. We do not do compliance: no tax, no BAS agent services, no bookkeeping, no audit, no financial statements. Your client comes to us for the transaction and goes straight back to you, along with the structure, registrations and onboarding work the acquisition creates. A referral to us generates compliance work for your practice. It never takes any away.
Earnings rebuilt from source documents such as bank statements, BAS lodgements and the general ledger, not the vendor's adjusted P&L. Add-backs tested line by line, with owner wages, related-party rent and missing capex put back in. A written report and working model, a debrief call, and 30 days of follow-up questions answered. Anything with tax or structuring implications is flagged for you, never advised on by us.
From the schedule on our pricing page, by transaction value, confirmed in writing before engagement. The fee is not contingent on the deal proceeding or on what the analysis concludes, so the fee your client hears at scoping is the fee they pay, and no surprise lands back on you.
Yes, and it is often the strongest setup. On several engagements we have gone line by line through the P&L with the client and their accountant together. You know the client's history; we know what a credit team will do with the numbers. You are welcome on the debrief call, and the handover note back to you lists every tax and structuring question the transaction raised.
We arrange it. Credit assistance is provided by Nicholas Clunes, Credit Representative Number 530711, authorised under Australian Credit Licence Number 387856, through The Lending Lab Pty Ltd. Our advisory fee is fixed and payable regardless of whether finance is approved, so the analysis is paid for whatever it concludes, and where a lender pays commission on a facility it is paid to The Lending Lab. Your client is free to take the analysis and use any broker they like at the same fee. What we do not do, ever, is compliance, tax or bookkeeping.
Send us the scenario before you commit your client to anything. Bring a live deal or a recent decline, and the first one gets a no-cost read from Nick on whether we can add anything, and which pieces your client actually needs.
Book a call