Quick answer
If customers pay only when a job is finished, your business funds every dollar of materials, wages and overheads until then. A cash flow loan or short-term loan can bridge that gap, sized on your banked turnover and repaid when completion payments land. Lenders read lumpy deposits fine if the pattern is clear, but asking for a deposit or staged payments on future jobs is the cheaper long-term fix.
Key points
- Completion-only payment means you're financing the customer for the whole job.
- Lenders can read lumpy deposits, as long as the pattern of jobs and payments is clear.
- A loan repaid from the completion payment is the cleanest structure.
- Deposits and staged payments on new jobs cut the amount you ever need to borrow.
- Overlapping jobs are where the real cash squeeze happens.
If customers pay only when the job is finished, your business is funding every dollar of materials, wages and overheads until then. A cash flow or short-term loan can bridge that gap, sized on your banked turnover and repaid from the completion payment. Lenders handle lumpy deposits well if the pattern is clear, but a deposit or staged payments on future jobs is the cheaper fix.
This is the everyday reality for custom joiners, signwriters, small manufacturers, landscapers, shopfitters, boat builders and plenty of others. The work is good, the margins are fine, and the customer pays in full. Just not until the end. Meanwhile the timber, the wages and the rent have been paid for weeks.
Why is completion-only payment so hard on cash flow?
Because you’re financing your customer. Every week a job runs, you pay out and receive nothing back. The longer the job, the deeper the hole, and the hole only fills on handover day.
One job at a time is manageable. The squeeze comes when jobs overlap: you’re halfway through one, starting another, and the first hasn’t paid. Two or three jobs in progress can tie up more cash than the business has, even though every one of them is profitable.
business.gov.au’s guide to managing cash flow describes payment terms as the rules you set for how and when customers pay, and suggests deciding whether customers pay up front or within a set period. Completion-only payment is a payment term too, just one that puts all the waiting on you.
How do lenders read lumpy deposits?
A cash flow loan is normally sized on six to twelve months of bank statements. For a business paid on completion, those statements look jagged: quiet weeks, then a big deposit, then quiet again. That’s fine. Lenders are used to it, and they look at the total over the period and the rhythm of payments rather than any single week.
What they want to understand:
| What the lender looks at | What makes it read well |
|---|---|
| Total deposits over 6 to 12 months | Consistent with the number and size of jobs you describe |
| Gaps between payments | Gaps that match job lengths, not unexplained silences |
| Who pays you | A spread of customers, or reliable repeat ones |
| Balance in the quiet weeks | Enough buffer that the account isn’t hitting zero mid-job |
| Existing commitments | Repayments that don’t stack up in the lean weeks |
A simple job list makes all of this easier: the last ten or so jobs, their value, start date, completion date and the date the customer paid. With that beside the statements, the jagged pattern turns into an obvious, healthy business.
Which kind of finance suits completion-paid work?
It depends on how your jobs run. Here’s the general picture across the market.
- A short-term loan for one big job. If a single large job is causing the squeeze, a short-term business loan sized for the materials and wages, with a term that ends after the completion payment is due, is the cleanest fit.
- A line of credit for overlapping jobs. If you’re always running two or three jobs at different stages, a facility you draw and repay as each one pays can work better than a series of loans.
- Purchase order style finance for confirmed orders. Where a customer’s written order is the trigger, purchase order finance can fund the supplier side of the job.
- Invoice finance after completion. Once you’ve invoiced, invoice finance can release money while the customer takes its time to pay. It doesn’t help before the invoice exists.
Many businesses combine two: a cash flow facility for the build-up and invoice finance for slow payers at the end.
Not sure which structure suits the way your jobs run? Tell us about your jobs in a quick enquiry and a real person will talk it through with you.
How much should you borrow for a completion-paid job?
Work it out from the cash, not the contract value. A lender cares about how much you’ll be out of pocket at the deepest point, and so should you.
- List what goes out week by week for the length of the job: materials (usually front-loaded), wages, subcontractors, equipment hire and a share of rent and overheads.
- Add up the running total until the week the customer is due to pay. The highest point of that running total is your real funding gap.
- Subtract what you already have in the account that isn’t needed for other commitments.
- Add a buffer for delays, both on site and in getting paid.
What’s left is the amount worth borrowing. It’s often well below the job’s value, because you don’t need to fund your margin, only your costs. Borrowing the full contract price “to be safe” just means paying for money you never use. business.gov.au’s guide to applying for a business loan suggests having financial forecasts ready, and this simple week-by-week table is exactly that.
What should you do about customers who pay late after completion?
Completion is supposed to be the end of the wait. Sometimes it isn’t. A customer signs off the job and then takes another 30 or 60 days to pay, and your loan term was built around getting paid on handover.
Two habits help. First, build slippage into the plan. If customers usually pay within two weeks of completion, size the loan’s term as if it might take six. Second, check who you’re dealing with. If a customer is a large business, the federal Payment Times Reporting Scheme requires large businesses to report their payment terms and times to small businesses every six months, and the register is free to search. Knowing a customer typically pays in 50 days before you sign is far better than finding out afterwards.
How can you need less finance in the first place?
Finance is a good bridge, but the cheapest dollar is the one you don’t borrow. For future jobs, consider:
- A deposit at signing. Even a modest deposit covers the first round of materials and shows the customer is committed.
- Staged payments. Tie payments to visible milestones: materials ordered, frame complete, installation done.
- Materials paid up front. For custom work, ask the customer to cover specific materials before you order them.
- Shorter jobs, clearer handovers. Break big jobs into stages that can each be signed off and invoiced.
- Supplier terms. Longer terms with your own suppliers mean less of the job is funded out of your account.
You won’t win every negotiation, and some industries resist deposits. But each change shortens the time you’re carrying the job, and that shrinks the loan you need.
A worked example
Illustrative. A custom joinery workshop builds kitchens and built-ins, paid in full on installation. A typical job is worth about $40k and takes six weeks. Usually the workshop runs two jobs at once, but it has just signed three larger jobs back to back, worth about $150k between them.
The owner maps the cash: timber, hardware and benchtops for all three are needed in the first month, plus two extra staff. Roughly $70k goes out before the first job pays. The statements show nine months of healthy but lumpy deposits, and the owner prepares a job list showing each job’s value and payment date.
The workshop takes a short-term loan for $60k with a term that runs past the third job’s expected payment plus a buffer. The lender reads the job list against the statements and sees the pattern straight away. For the next round of quotes, the owner introduces a deposit on signing and a payment when benchtops are ordered, which cuts the cash needed for future jobs substantially. Manufacturers and fabricators will find more on our manufacturing business loan page.
Got a big job and a long wait? See if you qualify
Being paid at the end is a sign customers trust your work. You just need the cash to get there, and that’s something we help with every day. Unsecured and cash-flow options typically run from $5k to $500k, sized on your banked turnover; property-secured options from $20k to $5m suit bigger or longer jobs.
The enquiry is about a minute of your time, and there’s no credit check when you first enquire. We won’t spray your details across multiple lenders. A real person reads about your jobs and how you’re paid, then calls to work out a structure that ends when your money arrives. Please answer accurately, including roughly when your customers usually pay, so we can match the right option first time.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a cash flow loan if my income arrives in big lumps?
Yes. Lenders look at the pattern over six to twelve months rather than week by week. Lumpy deposits are normal for businesses paid on completion, and a clear list of recent jobs and when they paid makes them easy to read.
Is invoice finance an option if I'm paid on completion?
Only once you've issued the invoice. Invoice finance advances money against invoices already raised, so it helps with the wait after completion, not the build-up before it. For the build-up, a cash flow, short-term or purchase order style facility is usually the better fit.
Should I ask customers for a deposit instead?
Where you can, yes. A deposit reduces how much you carry and filters out customers who aren't committed. Many businesses that move to a deposit and staged payments find they need far less finance, or none at all.
What if a customer pays late after completion?
Then the gap lasts longer than planned, which is why a buffer matters. Build a few weeks of slippage into the loan term, and follow up promptly. If the customer is a large business, the government's Payment Times register shows how quickly it typically pays small suppliers.
Is a line of credit better than a loan for this?
If you run jobs back to back, often yes, because you draw for each job and repay when it pays. A one-off loan suits a single large job with a clear end date.