Unsecured business loan calculator

“How much will they lend me?” tends to come up before anything else when an owner looks into an unsecured business loan, and the honest answer starts with your bank statements. With no property behind the loan, online and non-bank lenders lean heavily on the money flowing through your business account. This calculator copies that approach so your first lender conversation starts from a believable range, plus a clear read on whether the repayments would sit comfortably.

Why turnover drives unsecured lending

When a lender can’t fall back on a house or a warehouse, it looks at what’s coming in. The Reserve Bank’s 2018 research on small business finance found banks were reluctant to lend without real estate as collateral, and that owners struggled to borrow more than about $100,000 unsecured from them for day-to-day trading. The same paper noted online lenders offering short-term unsecured cash flow finance through streamlined applications. Today many of them read bank statement data directly rather than waiting on financial reports.

That’s still how much of the market works. A lender connects to your business account, averages your deposits, looks at how steady they are, notes any dishonours and counts your existing repayments. The result sets the ceiling. This style of assessment is often called bank statement lending.

The six inputs, one by one

1. Average monthly turnover. Deposits into your business account averaged over the last 6 to 12 months. Use genuine sales receipts only: transfers from your savings account, loan advances and a one-off insurance payout will be stripped out by any lender, so leave them out here too.
2. Months trading. How long the business has been running under its current ABN.
3. Existing loan repayments per month. Everything you already pay: other business loans, equipment finance, a merchant cash advance, a vehicle loan used for the business.
4. Multiple of monthly turnover to test. A slider from 0.25× to 2×, in quarter steps. A cautious lender might offer around half a month’s turnover; a generous one, for a strong business, might go higher than a full month. Run both ends.
5. Total cost of finance you’ve been quoted (optional). The interest and fees over the whole term, in dollars, from a real offer. Leave it at zero if you don’t have one yet.
6. Term. Between 3 and 36 months on the slider, which reflects how short unsecured loans tend to run.

How to read what comes back

Indicative borrowing range. The top of the range is your turnover multiplied by the multiple you chose. The bottom is a quarter-month of turnover less than that (never below a quarter of one month). So at 1× with $60,000 monthly turnover, you’d see $45,000 to $60,000. Both ends are capped at $500,000, which is the typical ceiling for unsecured business loans.

Repayment per week. Only appears once you enter a quoted cost. It takes the top of your range, adds the quoted cost and spreads the total over the term in weeks. Using the top of the range is deliberate: it shows the heaviest version of the loan.

Repayments as a share of turnover. Your new repayment (worked out monthly) plus your existing repayments, as a percentage of monthly turnover. If this climbs above about 20% and you’ve entered a cost, the note warns that cash flow may get squeezed and suggests a longer term or a smaller amount.

Trading history check. Twelve months or more reads “comfortably established”. Six to eleven months reads “many online lenders start here”. Under six suggests property-backed options may suit better.

Want someone to look over your figures before you apply anywhere? Run them past our team. Enquiring leaves your credit file untouched.

Worked example: a café owner tests two scenarios (illustrative)

A suburban café has traded for 18 months under the same ABN. Card and cash deposits average $85,000 a month. The owner already pays $3,500 a month on a coffee machine and kitchen equipment lease, and wants funds for a second espresso bar inside a shopping centre.

Scenario one: cautious. Multiple 0.75×, quoted cost $11,000, term 12 months.

Output	Result
Indicative borrowing range	$42,500 – $63,750
Repayment per week	$1,438
Repayments as a share of turnover	11.4%
Trading history check	Comfortably established

At 11.4%, total repayments are modest compared with what’s coming in. Most lenders would see that as comfortable.

Scenario two: stretching. Multiple 1.5×, quoted cost $22,000, term 9 months.

Output	Result
Indicative borrowing range	$106,250 – $127,500
Repayment per week	$3,833
Repayments as a share of turnover	23.7%
Trading history check	Comfortably established

Now the share has gone past the one-fifth line and the calculator flags it. Nearly a quarter of every dollar coming in would be committed to lenders ahead of wages, rent or stock. The owner has three levers: borrow less, stretch the term towards 18 or 24 months, or fund the fit-out with equipment finance so the unsecured loan covers only working capital.

What the calculator can’t see

Turnover is the starting point, not the whole story. Lenders also weigh:

• How steady the deposits are. Two big months and ten quiet ones average out the same as twelve even months, but they don’t look the same to a credit team.
• Dishonours and overdrawn days. A run of bounced debits can lower an offer or end the conversation. See business loans with dishonours on your bank statements.
• Stacked online loans. If you already have two or three short-term loans running, lenders get cautious fast. Our page on existing online loans and stacking explains the options, including consolidating them.
• Credit history, ATO debt and industry. All of these move the multiple up or down.
• Guarantees. “Unsecured” means nothing is registered over property, but most lenders still ask for a director guarantee.

Banks are worth a look first if you have a solid track record: their pricing is often the sharpest in the market. If the bank has said no or wants property you’d rather not offer, the online and non-bank market is broad. Lenders such as Prospa are built around exactly this kind of turnover-based assessment.

When property makes more sense

If the range looks too small, or you’ve traded under six months, an unsecured loan may not be the right tool. Where you hold equity in your home or a commercial building, the loan size can usually grow, the term can stretch out for years and the dollar cost tends to shrink. The secured vs unsecured business loans page weighs both sides fairly, and the second mortgage calculator shows what your equity might support.

Related calculators

• Business loan repayment calculator: repayments at any frequency from a quote.
• Business borrowing power calculator: borrowing capacity based on profit rather than turnover.
• Factor rate calculator: convert a factor rate offer into a dollar cost.

Turning a range into an actual offer

The calculator gives you a ballpark. A real offer depends on who’s reading your statements, and some lenders are a much better fit for your industry and history than others. Finding that fit is our job.

Filling in the enquiry takes roughly sixty seconds. Sending it doesn’t trigger any credit enquiry, so there’s nothing to worry about on that front. You won’t find your details shopped around to a crowd of lenders either. A specialist here goes through what you’ve sent and gives you a call, usually to ask a couple of sensible questions and explain what’s on the table. Put in your real turnover, trading time and current repayments, the same numbers you used above, and the match we suggest will be far closer to the mark.

Check your unsecured options →