Advance Network lane

Profitable on paper. Empty on Thursday.

A cash-flow problem is a timing problem, not a profit problem — and the two need completely different answers. Borrowing to fix a timing gap works. Borrowing to fix a margin problem buys you about four months.

Send a brief → Run the Smart System first

Free. You are never invoiced. Specialist. This lane only goes to brokers who write it weekly.

If any of this is your week

The money exists. It is just in somebody else’s account until the 30th.

“Wages are Wednesday and the big invoice clears the week after.”The classic gap. Nothing is wrong with the business — the calendar just does not line up.

“We are already paying three lenders every week.”Stacked facilities are the single most common reason a strong turnover file gets declined.

“Six months of the year are quiet and every lender treats that as decline.”Seasonality is normal. What a lender tests is whether the quiet months cover their repayment.

The deciding factor in this lane

The deciding factor here is almost never turnover. It is what is already being debited.

Two businesses with identical revenue get opposite answers depending on how many facilities are already running and how often they debit. That is the number an assessor looks at first, and the one most people never think to mention.

How many facilities are debiting, and how often?Three weekly debits against one monthly repayment is a different file to the same dollars owed once a month.

Was the last financial year representative?A one-off — a lost contract, an insurance payout, an illness — is the most common thing that needs explaining, and there is usually nowhere on a form to say it.

Is the last 3–6 months your quiet season or your busy one?Answering with off-season figures understates turnover by half in some industries, and drags everything downstream with it.

What percentage of your revenue is one customer?Concentration above roughly a quarter of the ledger starts changing the answer, regardless of how good that customer is.

Tool 01 in the Smart System asks these directly, so the answers are already in your brief before a broker rings. That is most of the difference between a first call that goes somewhere and one that starts from scratch.

Two things worth trying before you borrow — both free

Ask your biggest slow payer for a shorter term in writing. Not a discount, just a term. It works more often than people expect, and it costs nothing but an awkward email.

Check what the ATO would charge. If part of the pressure is a tax bill, an ATO payment arrangement is sometimes cheaper than the finance you would use to clear it — and sometimes much more expensive. Do the sums with your accountant before you move the debt, because the tax treatment of the interest differs on each side.

If either of those solves it, you do not need a facility, and that is a better outcome than a cheap one.

Get these together first

What a lender in this lane will ask for

Having these ready is worth more than a better pitch. It is also the difference between an answer this week and an answer next month.

Twelve months of bank statementsNot six. Seasonality only shows up across a full year.

An aged debtor listingWho owes you, how much, and how late.

An aged creditor listingWho you owe, so the picture is not half a picture.

Every current facilityLender type, balance, repayment and how often it debits.

ATO positionBalance, whether there is an arrangement, and whether it has been met.

Your best and worst monthAnd what caused each — that is the story a lender needs.

Who this lane goes to

Usually a Non-Bank Navigator.

Matched from the Advance Network when your brief is a cash flow file. See what the five kinds of broker actually do →

Working capital Invoice and debtor finance Overdraft and line of credit Consolidating stacked facilities Seasonal structures ATO-related pressure

What we hold them to: they write files like yours every week, not occasionally. They read your brief before the first call. They will tell you “not yet” and say what would change it. And no lender has paid to be on their panel or in our Network — there is nothing to buy.

Send a cash flow brief

Tell us the situation in your own words.

A few lines is enough to start. Nothing goes to a lender and no credit check is run from this form — sending it starts a conversation, not an application.

Keep learning

Finance Field Guide

See how this product sits on the lending ladder, what a credit assessor is actually testing, and how the answer changes by business type. Open the field guide →