How to get a business loan through your accountant

People search for “a business loan through my accountant” expecting the accountant to hand over the money, or at least to have a lender on speed dial. The reality is more useful than that. Your accountant is the person who already holds most of what a lender wants to see. Used well, they shorten the process, improve the quality of your file and make the lender’s job easier — which tends to make yours easier too.

Can an accountant actually arrange a business loan?

Most accounting practices don’t lend money and many don’t arrange finance themselves. A small number have a finance or broking arm. Either way, their real contribution is threefold:

• They hold the evidence. Financial statements, tax returns, BAS lodgement history and often the ATO portal access.
• They can explain the evidence. Why profit dipped one year, what an add-back is, why the trust distributed income the way it did.
• They can produce new evidence. Year-to-date management accounts, a cash flow forecast, or a letter confirming specific facts.

Under the Tax Practitioners Board rules, registered tax agents and BAS agents provide different services. You can check your adviser on the TPB register, and it’s worth knowing which kind of practitioner you’re dealing with, because a BAS agent may hold your activity statements but not your tax returns.

What order should you do things in?

Getting the sequence right saves weeks. Here’s the order we see work best.

1. Agree the need with your accountant

Settle the purpose, a realistic amount and how long you need it for. If they’ve raised finance, ask what figure prompted it. Our page on what to do when your accountant says look into funding has the questions to ask.

2. Ask for the right documents — current ones

Lenders care about recent performance. A tax return from 15 months ago tells part of the story; year-to-date numbers tell the rest. Ask for:

• The last one or two years of financial statements and tax returns
• Year-to-date profit and loss and balance sheet
• Copies of the last four quarterly BAS, or monthly BAS for the past year
• An ATO account statement showing any balance owing and any payment plan

The ATO’s record-keeping guidance says most business records must be kept for five years, so these should exist even if they take a little digging.

3. Gather your own pieces

You can usually pull business bank statements, ID, property details and any existing loan statements yourself, faster than your accountant can. Our Link-up checklist builder splits the list into what you provide and what your adviser provides.

4. Enquire and nominate your accountant as a contact

When you start your enquiry, mention your accountant’s name and firm, and that you’re happy for us to speak with them about specific figures. That one step removes a lot of back-and-forth.

5. Let the specialist and the accountant talk numbers

The lending specialist calls you first. If technical questions come up, they’re put to your accountant with your permission, and you’re kept in the loop.

Which accountant documents carry the most weight?

Document	What a lender reads from it	Most relevant to
Financial statements	Profit, assets, debts, trend over two years	Term loans, larger facilities
Tax returns and notices of assessment	Declared income, confirmation lodgements are current	Most loans
Year-to-date P&L	Whether recent trading matches the last return	Servicing checks
BAS history	Turnover consistency, lodgement discipline	Cash flow and unsecured lending
Accountant’s letter	Specific confirmed facts	Low-doc and unusual files

For more on each, see accountant-prepared financials and what lenders need from accountants.

Common mistakes owners make

• Applying before talking to the accountant. You end up quoting figures that don’t match the financials, and the lender notices.
• Sending a stack of PDFs without context. One page explaining the purpose and the figures beats forty unlabelled attachments.
• Hiding the ATO debt. Lenders see it on the portal statement anyway. Raising it first, with your accountant’s explanation, reads far better.
• Shopping the file to many lenders. Multiple credit enquiries in a short window can make a file look desperate. A single, well-matched application is the better approach.

What to say when you ask your accountant for help

Accountants are busy, especially around lodgement deadlines. A clear request gets a faster answer. Something like this works well (adapt as needed):

“We’re looking at finance of roughly $150k for a second delivery vehicle and working capital. Could you please send our last two years of financials and tax returns, a year-to-date P&L, and confirm whether all BAS is lodged? We may ask you to speak with the lender about the figures — I’ll confirm that in writing. Could you let me know if there’s a cost for preparing the year-to-date figures?”

That one email tells them the purpose, the scale, the documents and the next step. The amount in it is illustrative.

Bank, non-bank or private lender?

Your accountant may have a view. Banks tend to suit established businesses with clean, current financials and time to wait. Non-bank and private lenders can be more flexible on ATO debt, past credit issues, recent losses or tight timelines, and often lean more on property security or bank statement performance. There’s no single right answer — it depends on the file.

Use your accountant’s work to see what’s possible

If you’ve done the groundwork with your accountant, you’re most of the way there. Send us a 60-second enquiry and note who your accountant is. There’s no credit check at that stage, we link your file to one suitable lender instead of spreading it around, and a specialist will call you personally. Fill the form in accurately — especially the amount, the purpose and whether property is involved — and the conversation starts in the right place. Check what your business could qualify for.