What documents do you need for debtor finance? The full checklist, and why each one matters

For debtor finance, expect to provide an aged debtors report, an aged creditors report, a customer list, sample invoices with proof of delivery, customer contracts, recent financials, bank statements, your ATO account position and director identification. The lender will also search the PPSR. If those documents agree with each other, set-up moves quickly. If they don’t, expect questions.

That’s very different from a typical business loan, where property values or years of tax returns take centre stage. Debtor finance is about your customers and your ledger, so that’s where the paperwork goes.

Why does debtor finance need different documents from a normal loan?

With an ordinary business loan, a lender asks: can this business repay us? With debtor finance, the main question shifts to: will this business’s customers pay these invoices, and can we collect if they don’t?

That shift explains almost every document on the list. The lender needs to understand:

• who owes you money, and how reliable they are
• whether the invoices are real, final and undisputed
• whether the invoices can be assigned to the lender under your customer contracts
• who else might have a claim over your receivables, such as an existing lender or the ATO
• whether the business is viable, so the ledger keeps refreshing with new invoices

The full checklist

Here’s what most lenders ask for, grouped by what each document proves.

Document	What it tells the lender	Tips
Aged debtors report	How much is owed, by whom, and how overdue	Run it on the same date as your other reports
Aged creditors report	Who you owe and how far behind you are	Explain anything large and overdue
Customer list with terms	Concentration and payment patterns	Include each customer’s terms and average days to pay
Sample invoices	That invoices are correct and complete	Pick recent ones to your largest customers
Proof of delivery	That work was finished or goods received	Signed delivery dockets, approved timesheets, sign-off emails
Customer contracts or terms	Payment rights and any ban on assignment	Flag contracts with set-off or retention clauses
Financial statements	Overall viability	Latest year plus year-to-date management accounts
Business bank statements	Real cash flow and customer receipts	Usually the last three to six months
ATO account statement	Tax debts and lodgement status	Include any payment plan details
Existing finance details	Other lenders with security	Loan statements and contact details
Director identification	Who’s behind the business	Current licence or passport

Expect follow-up questions, especially if your largest customers aren’t household names or if your ledger has old invoices on it.

Why do invoices need proof of delivery?

Because an invoice on its own only proves you asked for money. The lender needs to know you’ve earned it. business.gov.au’s how to invoice guide makes the point that an invoice that’s wrong or missing details isn’t valid. Lenders take the same view, and go a step further: they want evidence the customer received what it’s paying for.

Good proof of delivery looks like:

• signed delivery dockets or consignment notes for goods
• approved timesheets for labour, see our guide on invoice finance for labour hire
• written sign-off or acceptance for project milestones
• system records from customer portals showing the invoice was accepted

If your proof is patchy, fix the process before applying. It’s one of the most common reasons a lender excludes invoices from funding.

How does the lender check for existing security?

By searching the Personal Property Securities Register. The PPSR’s guidance on describing collateral notes that book debts, the money customers owe you for goods or services already provided, fall into the “account” class. If another lender has registered over your accounts, or over all your present and after-acquired property, the debtor finance lender will see it.

That doesn’t stop you getting a facility, but it changes the process. The existing lender usually needs to agree who ranks first over your receivables. Common situations:

• a bank overdraft with a general security
• an equipment lender registered over specific assets only, which usually isn’t a problem
• a supplier registered over goods it sold you on retention of title terms
• an old, paid-off loan whose registration was never removed

Run your own PPSR search before you apply so nothing comes as a surprise. If you find an old registration from a finished loan, ask that lender to remove it now.

Ready to see whether your ledger qualifies? Start a 60-second enquiry and a real person will tell you what to gather first.

Why does your ATO position matter so much?

Tax debts can compete with a lender’s claim over your business, so lenders look closely. They also check credit reports, and the ATO can report some business tax debts to credit reporting bureaus. According to the ATO’s criteria for reporting business tax debts, this can happen when a business has an ABN, at least $100,000 of tax debt overdue by more than 90 days, and isn’t effectively engaging with the ATO to manage it. Having a payment plan and keeping to it counts as engaging.

A tax debt doesn’t rule out debtor finance. Lenders consider it case by case. What hurts is a lender discovering it on its own. Provide your ATO statement and plan details at the start, and see our guide on invoice finance with an ATO debt for more.

An illustrative example

Illustrative only. A freight forwarder with about $400k in receivables across 25 customers applies for debtor finance. The first pack it sends includes an aged debtors report from the end of last month, bank statements to yesterday, and financial statements from 18 months ago.

The lender can’t reconcile the numbers. Receipts in the bank statements don’t match payments in the debtors report, and the old financials don’t reflect the business’s growth. Two weeks pass in back-and-forth.

On the second attempt, the bookkeeper runs every report on the same date, adds year-to-date management accounts, attaches signed consignment notes for a sample of invoices, and explains two large overdue debts, one under a payment arrangement and one in dispute. The lender excludes the disputed invoice, agrees an arrangement for the slow payer, and the facility is approved shortly after.

How can you speed up approval?

• Run all reports on the same date so they reconcile.
• Clean up your ledger. Chase or write off very old invoices and apply unallocated payments.
• Explain anomalies before you’re asked. A short note on disputes, big overdue amounts or a customer that pays late but always pays.
• Know your customer contracts. Flag any that prohibit assignment or allow set-off.
• Describe your business clearly. Our guide to ANZSIC codes explains why your industry label matters.
• Disclose everything. ATO debts, existing security, disputes. Surprises slow things down more than problems do.

How long does set-up usually take?

It varies more with your paperwork than with the lender. A business with clean, reconciled reports, no competing security and well-known customers can move through set-up quickly. One that needs a priority deed from an existing bank, has a messy ledger or customers the lender hasn’t dealt with before should allow longer. Once the facility is running, funding against new invoices is typically much faster than the initial set-up, because the lender already knows your customers and your systems.

Got your paperwork together? Here’s the next step

If your invoices are piling up faster than customers pay them, getting your documents in order is the hard part done. The next step is finding a lender whose rules suit your customers and your ledger.

The enquiry takes about 60 seconds, with no credit check when you first enquire. We don’t spray your details around a long list of lenders, so you won’t be dealing with a queue of strangers. A real person reviews your situation, tells you which documents will matter most, and calls you. Please complete the form accurately, especially your turnover and how many customers you invoice, so we can match the right option first time.

Start your enquiry →