Why we say no — and what changes our answer

We publish this because a decline that is never explained is just a wasted week. Four reasons account for most of the applications we do not fund, and three of them describe a moment rather than a business. Here is what each one is, and what changes the answer.

1. The repayment does not fit the revenue

The most common decline by a distance, and the least interesting. Servicing is what sizes a facility — not the value of any security, and not what the business would like to borrow. If the weekly repayment on the amount requested would take a share of revenue the business cannot spare in a soft week, the facility is too big.

What changes it: usually the number. A smaller advance over the same term often services comfortably where the original did not, and we will say so rather than simply decline. It is worth asking what size does work before assuming the answer was no to everything.

2. The pressure is structural, not temporary

Short-term finance bridges a gap with a visible end — an invoice that lands in March, a peak that clears by June. It does not fix a business whose costs have exceeded its revenue for two quarters and are still climbing. Six months of statements make the difference between those two obvious, and lending into the second one does the business harm.

What changes it: evidence that the trend has turned, or a purpose that changes it. A signed contract, a renegotiated lease, a cost taken out. Two months of statements showing the new shape is worth more than any forecast.

3. Dishonours, or a stack of existing facilities

A dishonour or two across six months is ordinary. A pattern of them says every repayment is already landing on an account with nothing behind it. Similarly, several short-term facilities running at once — each with its own weekly debit — usually means the business is refinancing pressure rather than funding anything.

What changes it: time and a clean run. Three months without dishonours, or consolidating what is already there rather than adding to it, changes the file materially.

4. We cannot verify the business, or the purpose is not a business one

We have to know who we are dealing with. An ABN that does not match the trading entity, a director we cannot identify, or a structure nobody will explain will stop an application regardless of how well it services. And the finance has to be for a business purpose — that is not a formality, it is the thing that puts these facilities outside consumer credit regulation.

What changes it: documents, usually. The first is fixable in an afternoon. The second is not fixable at all, and we would rather be direct about that on the phone than three days later.

What changes our answer

A decline here is dated, not permanent. We keep a note of what the file was missing, and a business that comes back in a quarter with three clean months and a smaller number is a different application. It is worth asking, when we say no, exactly which of these four it was — the answer tells you what to work on.

If you want to know where you sit today, check your eligibility. It does not affect your credit file, and a decline at that stage costs you four minutes rather than a week.