Manufacturing finance: which option fits your production?

Making things is capital-hungry. Before a single product leaves your floor, you’ve paid for materials, paid your team, run your machines and covered the power bill. Then the order ships, the invoice goes out, and you wait. For many manufacturers, the time between buying materials and getting paid is measured in months.

This page helps manufacturers, fabricators, food producers and makers of all kinds match the right funding to each part of the production cycle.

How does cash move through a manufacturing business?

• Materials first. Steel, timber, ingredients, fabric or components are bought — sometimes in bulk, sometimes from overseas with long lead times.
• Labour and machine time. Wages and running costs accrue across the production run.
• Finished goods and delivery. Product may sit as stock, or be delivered in batches.
• Customer payment terms. Trade customers often pay 30 to 60 days after delivery.
• Capital equipment. Machines wear out, need upgrading or become the bottleneck as you grow.

Which option suits which manufacturing need?

What you need	Tends to suit	Why
Materials for the regular production cycle	Line of credit	Revolving need — draw and repay each cycle
A large one-off order	Working capital loan	Sized to the order and its payment date
New or upgraded machinery	Loan matched to the machine’s life	Pays back through increased output
A factory move or fit-out	Property-secured loan	Larger amount, long payback
Buying your premises	Property-secured loan	Long-term commitment
Clearing an ATO debt	Case by case	Lodge on time regardless

Our equipment funding guide covers matching a loan to the working life of a machine.

What do lenders look for in a manufacturer?

• Bank statements showing the production cycle’s peaks and troughs over several months.
• Order book and contracts, especially if you’re funding a large order.
• Customer concentration and how long key relationships have run.
• Machinery details: age, condition, what’s owed and what’s being bought.
• Lodgements: BAS and tax returns up to date.
• Property, for larger amounts or longer terms.

Want to know what your manufacturing business could access? Start a short enquiry — there’s no credit check when you first enquire.

Is a big order worth funding?

A big order can transform a manufacturer, but it can also stretch you thin. Coaching questions to work through first:

1. What’s the full cycle? Days from paying for materials to receiving the customer’s payment.
2. What’s the true margin? After materials, labour, machine time, freight and the cost of funding.
3. Can you deliver without disrupting regular customers? Losing your bread-and-butter work to chase one big order is a real risk.
4. What if payment is late? Could you cover another month of costs?
5. Is it repeatable? A one-off order justifies short-term funding; a new ongoing relationship might justify investing in capacity.

Should you buy or lease machinery?

business.gov.au’s guide to leasing or buying equipment sets out the trade-offs clearly. In short: buying with a loan suits long-life machines you’ll use for years; leasing can suit fast-changing technology. Ask your accountant whether the $20,000 instant asset write-off applies — it’s available to businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million and was made ongoing from 1 July 2026.

An illustrative example

Illustrative only. A small food manufacturer supplies sauces to independent grocers and has just been offered a trial with a larger regional chain. The order is roughly three times its usual monthly volume, and the chain pays 60 days after delivery.

The funding plan ranks a working capital loan first, sized to cover ingredients, packaging and extra shifts for the trial order. A line of credit ranks second for ongoing cycles if the trial becomes regular business. Its prep checklist includes the purchase order, supplier quotes, six months of statements and a simple margin calculation per unit.

What should a manufacturer have ready?

• Photo ID and ABN (plus ACN if you trade through a company)
• Last six months of business bank statements
• BAS lodged and recent tax returns or financials
• Purchase orders or contracts for the work you’re funding
• Machinery quotes, if you’re buying equipment
• Property details if you’re offering security

The funding profile builds your personal checklist in about two minutes.

How do you work out your production cash cycle?

Knowing your cycle in days is the single most useful number for sizing manufacturing funding. Add three figures together:

1. Days to produce — from receiving materials to finished goods.
2. Days held — how long finished goods sit before they’re delivered or sold.
3. Days to be paid — from delivery to the customer’s payment landing.

Then subtract the days your suppliers give you to pay. What’s left is how long your own cash is tied up in each production run. Multiply your average daily production costs by that number and you have a rough idea of the working capital the business needs — and whether a limit or a loan suits it better.

Makers: let’s fund the next production run

You turn raw materials into something people want to buy — that takes skill and capital. We’ll help you find funding that matches your production cycle, whether that’s a limit for regular runs, a loan for a new machine or a bigger facility for the next stage.

It takes about a minute to enquire and there’s no credit check. We won’t blast your details out to a list of lenders; a real person reads your situation and gives you a call. Please answer the form accurately — especially what the funding is for and your monthly deposits — so we can point you to the right fit immediately.

Check your manufacturing business’s options →