Eight conversations that are really finance conversations

Most finance referrals start as something a client says in passing. Here are the eight worth acting on. If three or four look familiar from the last month, that is normal.

1. “Cash is tight this quarter.”

Usually: a timing gap, not a profitability problem. Receipts land after the payments do. Often fundable as: an overdraft, a line of credit, invoice finance or a short-term facility. Do next: send the scenario before it becomes an arrears problem. Overdrafts and lines of credit.

2. “Should I buy the truck before June 30?”

Usually: a tax timing question with a finance structure hidden inside it. Watch: chattel mortgage, lease and rental each change who owns the asset, how GST is treated and what the balance sheet looks like. Clients choose on the dealer’s rate and find out at tax time what they signed. Do next: compare the three structures, and send it through before the dealer’s paperwork comes out.

3. “The lease is up and they want more.”

Usually: the moment a business considers buying its premises instead of renewing. Often fundable as: owner-occupied commercial property finance. Do next: commercial property finance, and check the deposit position early.

4. “We need another two machines.”

Usually: a growth signal being funded out of the trading account. Often fundable as: equipment or asset finance, new or used, dealer or private sale. Do next: asset and equipment finance.

5. “We’re on a payment plan with the ATO.”

Usually: a working capital problem wearing a tax hat. Worth knowing: an arrangement is not automatically a decline, but it changes which lenders will look and how the file has to be presented. Do next: send the scenario early. The later this one is raised, the fewer options exist.

6. “Revenue is up but we’ve never been tighter.”

Usually: growth outrunning working capital. The business is funding its own expansion from cash flow. Often fundable as: a revolving facility sized to the trading cycle rather than a term loan. Do next: why working capital applications get declined covers what lenders look for.

7. “The bank has repriced our commercial loan.”

Usually: a facility expiry or a review, and the rollover offer is the trigger. Worth knowing: refinancing is about whether the numbers clear the costs, not about a lower headline rate. Do next: refinancing a commercial property loan.

8. “The bank said no.”

Usually: not about the numbers. About which lender saw the file, how it was presented, and what the bank statements showed that the financials did not. Worst next move: the same file at the next bank. Do next: send it through before the client shops it themselves.

What to Do With One of These

Send the scenario. What the client wants to do, roughly how much, the security if there is one, and the position as you know it. An indicative outcome usually comes back within a day, and it comes back to you.

Under the bare referral exemption you pass a name, contact details and a brief description of what the client needs, and nothing else. No product, no lender, no rate, no amount, no structure, and no eligibility opinion given to the client. That is not a limitation on the referral, it is what keeps it a referral.

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General information only, not personal credit advice. Results are indicative only and do not constitute a formal finance offer or approval. DeMarque Group Pty Ltd trading as DeMarque Finance is authorised Credit Representative 522568 under Australian Credit Licence 384704.