Equipment finance calculator

What will this machine actually cost me each month, and what am I left owing at the end? Those are the two questions every owner asks before signing for equipment finance. This calculator answers both from your own figures, without guessing at a rate. You bring the price and the lender’s quoted cost; it does the arithmetic and shows the trade-off a balloon creates.

Five inputs, in the order a dealer will ask for them

1. Equipment price before GST. The ex-GST figure from the dealer’s quote or invoice. The default is $120,000.
2. Deposit or trade-in. Cash you put in, or the agreed value of the item you’re trading. Enter 0 if you’re financing the lot.
3. Balloon at the end. A slider from 0% to 40% in 5% steps. The calculator applies this percentage to the full price, not to the price minus your deposit. Some lenders express the balloon against the amount financed instead, so check which basis your quote uses and adjust the slider to match the dollar figure.
4. Term. From 12 to 84 months, in whole years. Lenders usually like the term to finish well inside the working life of the asset.
5. Total finance cost from your quote. All the interest plus all the fees, added up across the whole agreement. Most quotes show this as the difference between the total of all payments and the amount financed.

How the results are worked out

Result	The sum behind it
Monthly repayment	(amount financed − balloon + total finance cost) ÷ number of months
Amount financed	price − deposit or trade-in
Balloon due at the end	price × balloon percentage
Total paid including balloon	all monthly repayments + balloon + deposit

Notice that the last line always equals the price plus the finance cost you entered. That’s deliberate. It shows that a balloon only moves money from the monthly column to the end of the term; it never makes the equipment cheaper.

Same machine, three balloons

Take the default figures: a $120,000 machine, $10,000 deposit, 60 months and an $18,000 quoted finance cost. Holding the cost still purely to isolate the effect:

Balloon	Balloon owed	Monthly repayment	Total paid
0%	$0	$2,133	$138,000
20%	$24,000	$1,733	$138,000
40%	$48,000	$1,333	$138,000

In real life the bottom row would cost more, because the lender is owed more for longer and its quote would rise. So when you’re testing balloons, ask for a fresh quote at each level and type in the new cost. The monthly saving is real; it just comes with a bill at the end and usually a higher total.

Worked example: a tipper truck for an earthmoving business

An earthmoving contractor is buying a tipper for $185,000 before GST. The dealer gives $25,000 for the old truck. The lender quotes a 48-month chattel mortgage with a 30% balloon, and the quote shows $31,000 of total finance cost.

• Amount financed: $185,000 − $25,000 = $160,000
• Balloon: 30% × $185,000 = $55,500
• Monthly repayment: ($160,000 − $55,500 + $31,000) ÷ 48 ≈ $2,823
• Total paid including balloon: about $216,000, which is the $185,000 price plus the $31,000 cost

The owner checks two things before signing. First, can the business carry $2,823 a month in a wet month when the trucks sit idle? Second, will a four-year-old tipper be worth at least $55,500 when the balloon falls due, so it can be refinanced or sold to clear it? If either answer is shaky, a smaller balloon or a longer term is worth pricing.

If you’d like a second opinion on a dealer’s quote, send us the details and a specialist will go over it alongside you.

GST, tax and the paperwork around equipment

GST credits. For a chattel mortgage or hire purchase, a GST-registered business generally claims the GST on the purchase through its BAS rather than spreading it over the term. Under a lease, GST is charged on each rental instead. That’s why the calculator starts from the ex-GST price. The ATO explains which treatment fits each arrangement (see the sources below).

Depreciation. If your aggregated turnover is below $10 million, the instant asset write-off covers items costing under $20,000 each. Something the size of that tipper is depreciated through the simplified pool rather than written off at once. Your accountant can tell you which applies in the year you buy, and it may affect whether a finance lease or a chattel mortgage suits you better.

Security. With most equipment finance the lender registers its interest on the PPSR. That’s normal, and it’s why lenders can say yes to asset-backed deals more readily than to unsecured ones: the asset does most of the work.

Where the calculator stops

It doesn’t know your lender’s maximum balloon or term for that asset, whether payments are made in advance or in arrears, or any fees charged outside the quoted cost. It assumes monthly repayments, so convert if your lender quotes weekly or quarterly. It also can’t judge the item: lenders treat a near-new excavator from a mainstream brand very differently from a 15-year-old custom-built machine.

Banks finance plenty of equipment and are often the cheapest choice for established businesses with clean financials. If yours has said no, or the asset is used, specialised or bought privately, the non-bank market is wide. Profiles such as Angle Finance and Flexicommercial show how specialist lenders approach it.

Related calculators and guides

• Business loan repayment calculator: repayments at weekly, fortnightly or monthly frequency.
• Break-even calculator: add the new repayment to your fixed costs and see how many extra sales it needs.
• Leasing vs buying equipment: when owning wins and when renting does.
• Finance for buying machinery: the purpose-first view of the same decision.

Got a machine in mind? Let’s get it on site.

A good equipment deal comes down to matching the asset, its age and your trading history with a lender that likes all three. That match is what we’re here for.

Our enquiry form is short and takes about sixty seconds. Sending it has no effect on your credit rating. We keep your enquiry in-house instead of firing it off to dozens of funders, and one of our team reads it properly before picking up the phone to you. Tell us the true price, the age of the equipment and what you can put down, and we can head straight for whichever lenders suit that kind of asset.

Start the equipment finance conversation →