Revenue-based and EFTPOS finance: borrowing against your card takings

Revenue-based finance gives a business a lump sum now and takes it back out of future sales, usually card and online takings, a little each day. Instead of a fixed monthly instalment, the repayment follows your trading: a big Saturday pays down more, a wet Tuesday pays down less. It’s quick to assess because the lender can see your sales history on the terminal, but it isn’t always the cheapest way to borrow, so it pays to understand exactly how the cost is built before you sign.

How does revenue-based finance actually work?

The provider looks at several months of your card settlements or online payment gateway history and works out roughly what you turn over each day. It then offers an advance sized against those takings and agrees a total repayable amount with you up front: the advance plus the provider’s fee.

From there, collection happens in one of two ways:

• A share of each day’s sales. The provider takes an agreed slice of every settlement before the rest reaches your account. Quiet days mean smaller repayments; busy days clear the balance faster.
• A fixed daily or weekly debit. The amount is set at the start, based on your average takings. It’s simpler to budget for, but it doesn’t flex when sales dip.

Once the agreed total has been collected, the facility ends. Many providers will offer a top-up once a set portion has been repaid, which is handy but is also how some owners end up permanently carrying one.

You’ll also hear it called EFTPOS finance, merchant finance, a merchant cash advance or a sales-based advance. The labels vary; the mechanics above are what matter.

Who is it best suited to?

Revenue-based finance works best when most of your revenue passes through a terminal or payment gateway and lands in the bank every day. That makes it a natural fit for:

• cafés, restaurants, bars and takeaway shops (see how lenders read a café)
• retailers with steady foot traffic
• online stores paid through a gateway
• salons, gyms and other service businesses where customers tap and go

It’s a poorer fit for businesses that invoice on 30-day terms (where invoice finance usually makes more sense), businesses that take mostly cash, and anyone who needs to borrow for several years. The industry finder is a quick way to see how lenders usually treat your sector.

What do lenders look at?

Because the product is built on sales, the assessment is mostly about the reliability of those sales:

• Terminal and gateway history. Usually several months, so the lender can see the daily and weekly pattern, including your slow periods.
• Business bank statements. To confirm settlements are arriving and to see what else is drawing on the account, including other lenders’ daily debits.
• Time trading and ABN age. A longer, steadier history usually means a larger offer.
• Existing advances. Stacking two or three daily-debit products is one of the fastest ways to choke cash flow, and lenders know it.
• Tax position. The ATO notes that a garnishee notice can be issued to a business’s bank and its “merchant card facility suppliers” on its firmer action page. A provider collecting from your settlements will want to know about any ATO debt early. It’s considered case by case, but honesty matters.

If your takings are steady and banked, it takes about a minute to check what your card sales could support.

How does it compare with an unsecured loan or line of credit?

	Revenue-based finance	Unsecured business loan	Business line of credit
Repayments	Share of daily sales or fixed daily debit	Fixed weekly, fortnightly or monthly	Interest on what you use, plus any agreed reductions
Cost structure	Fixed fee agreed up front	Interest over the term plus fees	Interest on drawn balance plus line fees
Early repayment	Often no saving	Usually reduces interest, sometimes a break cost	Repay and redraw freely
Assessed on	Card and gateway takings	Turnover and bank statements	Turnover and bank statements
Best for	Card-heavy businesses with uneven weeks	A one-off purchase or project	Ongoing, unpredictable needs

The key difference: a loan charges interest over time, so paying it off faster saves money. Revenue-based finance typically fixes the cost on day one, so speed of repayment changes how long you carry it, not what it costs.

What does it cost?

There’s no single price, and you won’t see one quoted here, because every facility is priced on the business’s own circumstances: how long it has traded, how steady the takings are, the size of the advance and how quickly the provider expects to be repaid. What you can do is understand the pieces:

• The fee or factor. The difference between what you receive and what you repay. This is the main cost.
• Establishment or admin fees. Sometimes deducted from the advance, so you receive less than the headline amount.
• Dishonour and default fees if a daily debit fails.
• Terminal costs if you’re required to switch provider.

Card payment costs are also moving. In its March 2026 conclusions, the Reserve Bank set out plans to lower interchange caps and to move away from card surcharging. If you surcharge today, factor that change into your margin before committing a slice of future sales.

The simplest comparison is total dollars repaid divided by the months you expect it to run, set against the same calculation for a standard loan.

Illustrative example

Illustrative example: A suburban gift and homewares shop banks steady card takings all year but needs $60k in September to stock up for Christmas. A revenue-based provider offers the full amount with a fixed total repayable, collected as a slice of each day’s card sales. Through November and December the shop’s busy trade clears most of the balance quickly; in January, when sales slow, the daily repayment shrinks with them. Because the cost was fixed up front, finishing early didn’t make it cheaper, but the repayments never fought the shop’s cash flow. If the owner had needed the money for a two-year fit-out instead, a term loan or a property-secured loan would have made more sense. For a business whose year has a pronounced rhythm, the seasonal business loans page covers other ways to fund the build-up.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Comparing on the daily amount. A small daily figure can hide a large total. Always compare total repayable.
• Stacking advances. Taking a second product to cover the first is a spiral, not a solution.
• Using it for long-term needs. Equipment that lasts ten years is better funded through equipment finance or a term loan.
• Not reading the collection clause. Know whether it’s a true share of sales or a fixed debit dressed up as one.
• Forgetting the tax bills. BAS and PAYG still need paying from what’s left after daily collections.

Is your card trading strong enough to borrow against?

If your business lives on tap-and-go sales, there’s a good chance your takings already tell a lender most of what it needs to know. Our enquiry form takes around a minute, and your credit file isn’t touched at that first step. We don’t broadcast your details to every lender with a website, so you won’t spend the afternoon fielding calls. Someone who understands card-based trading reviews what you’ve told us and rings you personally to talk through whether revenue-based finance, a line of credit or a standard loan is the better fit. The more accurate your turnover and existing debts on the form, the better that first conversation will be.

Find out what your takings could support →