Finance for professional services businesses
Accountants, lawyers, consultants, brokers. How a lender sees your business depends heavily on how your revenue actually arrives.
Professional services is a broad category, and depending on which part of it you sit in, the level of funding available and how a lender perceives your business can vary considerably. What matters most is how consistently and how often revenue actually lands.
Transactional versus recurring: why it changes how lenders see you
Historically, tax accountants sat firmly in the transactional bracket, clients engaging them quarterly or annually rather than monthly. That’s shifting: many accounting practices are now diversifying into advisory services, virtual bookkeeping and other recurring offers specifically to build repeat, monthly revenue rather than relying on a seasonal spike. The more a professional services business can show consistent, recurring income, the more favourably a lender tends to view it, and the more finance options open up as a result.
The products that actually get used
Most professional services businesses are looked on favourably by non-bank lenders, which means there’s a genuinely good choice of options to find the right fit. In practice, two products dominate:
- 01Overdrafts and lines of credit are the most commonly used products for cashflow purposes, easy to set up and quick to access when needed.
- 02Invoice finance suits larger services businesses with recurring income from a spread of clients on monthly, 60 or 90 day terms, getting access to that capital early relieves cashflow pressure and frees it up for marketing or expansion instead of sitting as a receivable.
Five professional services businesses this applies to
Some of the largest and most common professional services categories in Australia, and where they typically sit on the transactional-to-recurring spectrum:
Accounting & bookkeeping
Traditionally transactional, increasingly recurring via advisory and virtual bookkeeping arms.
Legal services
Often transactional per matter, though retainer-based firms carry more recurring income.
Finance & mortgage broking
Commission-driven and often lumpy, see below for how we work with brokers directly.
Management & business consulting
Mix of project-based and retainer engagements, larger firms lean recurring.
Architecture & engineering
Typically project and milestone-based, cashflow gaps between stages are common.
The broker’s broker
We’ve placed finance for other finance brokers before, businesses that know their own clients well but don’t have visibility across the full non-bank lending panel we do. Where a broker has come to us with a deal they couldn’t place themselves, we’ve been able to find the right lender and get it done. In the industry, this is sometimes called being “the broker’s broker.”
| Revenue pattern | Typical fit |
|---|---|
| Ongoing working capital buffer | Business overdrafts or lines of credit |
| Recurring client revenue on 30-90 day terms | Invoice finance |
| One-off need, e.g. new fit-out, software or hire | Unsecured business loans |
| Equipment, vehicles or technology purchase | Asset finance |
The more consistent and recurring your income, the more favourably non-bank lenders view your business, and the wider your finance options become.
Why work with a broker instead of comparing lenders yourself?
Non-bank lenders assess professional services businesses differently depending on how recurring your revenue is and which profession you’re in, an accountant with a growing advisory arm and a sole-practitioner lawyer billing per matter won’t be viewed the same way even at similar turnover. A broker who works across professional services regularly knows which lender is actually going to look favourably at your specific business. (More on how a business loan broker actually works.)
When finance isn’t the right call yet
If your revenue is still highly seasonal or transactional with no visibility on the next engagement, taking on an overdraft or line of credit to smooth cashflow can help, but it won’t fix an underlying pipeline problem. Worth being clear on whether the gap is genuinely timing, or something more structural, before committing to a facility.
Run a professional services business?
Tell us how your revenue actually arrives, transactional, recurring, or somewhere in between, and we’ll tell you honestly which finance fits.
Give us the basics below and Andrew will come back with the two or three offers actually worth your time, usually within a business day.