100k business loan: the turnover you need and the repayments in dollars

Six figures. Round, tidy and the number that pops into almost every owner’s head first. A $100k business loan buys a cool room, a second van, a fit-out stage or a serious stock run. But the question that matters isn’t “can I get it?” It’s “can my business carry it every month, including the quiet ones?”

Let’s count it down in dollars.

Can I get a 100k business loan in Australia?

Probably, if you’re trading. $100k sits right in the middle of the market. Unsecured, cash-flow and line-of-credit options typically run from $5,000 to $500,000, and property-secured business loans from $20,000 to $5,000,000. So the amount itself is rarely the problem.

The entry tickets vary by lender. As one example, a major bank’s unsecured product publishes minimums of at least $75,000 annual turnover, GST registration and an ABN held for 12 months, with loans up to $250,000 (NAB’s QuickBiz criteria). Non-bank lenders set their own bars, and some look past a shorter history or a credit mark case by case.

Here’s the catch most owners miss.

Myth or reality: “I turn over $75k a year, so I qualify for $100k.”

Myth. A turnover minimum gets you through the door. It doesn’t size the loan. A business banking $6,250 a month can’t carry a repayment of $5,000 a month, and no sensible lender will pretend otherwise. The amount comes from what your statements can repay. Our page on how much your business can borrow unpacks both sizing methods.

What are the repayments on a $100,000 business loan?

Ignore the rate on the brochure. Look at the total you’ll repay, then divide it by the weeks or months. That’s the number your bank account actually feels.

Repayment reality check (illustrative)

The quotes below are invented to show the method. They’re expressed as total cost of finance in dollars, meaning the loan cost plus every fee.

$100k over…	12 months	24 months	36 months	60 months (property-backed)
Total cost of finance (made up)	$14,000	$26,000	$39,000	$45,000
Total to repay	$114,000	$126,000	$139,000	$145,000
Monthly repayment	about $9,500	about $5,250	about $3,860	about $2,420
Weekly equivalent	about $2,190	about $1,210	about $890	about $560

Notice the trade. Stretching from 12 months to 36 drops the monthly hit by more than half, but adds $25,000 in total cost in this example. The five-year column is the lightest month to month. It also needs property behind it and costs the most overall. There’s no free lunch here, just trade-offs you can see. The business loan repayments page explains weekly, fortnightly and monthly options.

How much turnover do I need for a 100k business loan?

Here’s our favourite question: what share of your monthly turnover does the repayment eat? Take the 24-month column, about $5,250 a month, and run it against five businesses:

Annual turnover	Monthly turnover	$5,250 as a share	Comfort reading
$250,000	about $20,800	about 25%	Stretch alert
$500,000	about $41,700	about 12.6%	In the groove, if margins are healthy
$750,000	about $62,500	about 8.4%	Just above cruising
$1,000,000	about $83,300	about 6.3%	Cruising
$1,500,000	about $125,000	about 4.2%	Barely registers

The bands come from our 1-2-3 Loan Repayment Planner: under 8% is cruising, 8–15% is workable for many businesses, 15–25% is a tight squeeze and over 25% is a stretch. They’re a rough guide, not a lending rule.

Flip it around and you get a handy rule of thumb. To keep a $5,250 repayment under 8%, you’d want about $65,600 a month in deposits, roughly $790,000 a year. To keep it under 12%, about $43,800 a month. Under $500,000 a year? A longer term, a smaller first loan or property security usually makes $100k sit better.

And turnover isn’t profit. A café on thin margins feels a 10% repayment far more than a consultancy with few costs.

Quick one: Not sure where your numbers land? Tell us your turnover and what the $100k is for, and an expert will rough out the fit with you. Start your 60-second enquiry. Asking won’t touch your credit file.

Why does Payday Super change the maths in 2026?

Because the cash buffer moved. Since 1 July 2026, employers pay super with each pay run, and the ATO says contributions must reach the employee’s fund “within 7 business days” of payday (ATO — About Payday Super). The super guarantee is 12% of qualifying earnings.

Under the old quarterly system, plenty of owners had super money sitting in the account for weeks. It quietly covered a loan repayment in a slow fortnight. That cushion has gone. If you last tested a repayment before July, test it again with super leaving every pay cycle. The quarterly BAS still lands on top. For the July to September quarter, that’s 28 October for most businesses lodging themselves.

Our guide to a tax set-aside account shows how to ring-fence the BAS so it never collides with a repayment date.

Unsecured or property-backed: which route suits $100k?

	Unsecured	Property-backed
Sized on	Bank statements, turnover, existing debts	Equity in residential or commercial property
Usual term	Shorter	Can run longer
Monthly feel	Heavier	Lighter
Paperwork	Often bank statements, ID, ABN; more for stronger cases	Plus valuation, title details and everyone on title signing
Watch for	Director’s guarantee, early payout costs	Valuation, legal and discharge fees; a clear exit

Unsecured business loans suit a trading business with steady deposits that wants to keep the house out of it. Property-backed business loans suit owners whose turnover can’t comfortably carry a shorter term, or who want the lighter monthly repayment.

Whichever you choose, read the contract before you sign. ASIC’s guidance on unfair contract terms for small businesses covers loans where the upfront price is up to $5,000,000 and the business has fewer than 100 staff or turnover under $10 million. Handy to know if a clause looks one-sided.

Worked example: the florist and the cool room (illustrative)

A made-up florist banks an average of $55,000 a month. January and July drop to about $38,000. February and May spike. They already pay about $900 a month on a van lease. They want $100k for a walk-in cool room, a second delivery van and a new online ordering system.

Option 1: $100k unsecured over 24 months. About $5,250 a month, or 9.5% of an average month. In January, the loan plus the lease takes about $6,150, or 16% of deposits. That’s a tight squeeze with wages and super going out every pay run.

Option 2: $100k unsecured over 36 months. About $3,860 a month, or 7% of an average month. In January, with the lease, about $4,760, or 12.5%. It costs more in total, but it survives the quiet months.

Option 3: stage it. Borrow $70k now for the cool room and the van, which start earning by Mother’s Day. Leave the website for a top-up once there’s a run of clean repayments.

The florist went with option 2 and set the debit for the week after the Valentine’s and Mother’s Day takings land. The lesson: pick the structure that works in January, not the one that looks cheapest in May. Our repayment comfort test walks through the slow-month check step by step.

Mistakes that shrink a $100k approval

• Quoting your best month. Lenders average what actually hits the account. If you say $70k a month and the statements show $52k, trust drops along with the number.
• Mixing personal spending through the business account. It muddies the real figure.
• Forgetting existing debts. Merchant advances, leases and old loans all come off your capacity first.
• Applying everywhere at once. Each formal application can leave an enquiry on your credit file, and a cluster makes the next lender cautious.
• Skipping the purpose. Business.gov.au suggests you understand your income, costs and cash flow and work out what you can afford to repay before you apply (apply for a business loan). A short note on what the $100k will earn goes a long way.

What our expert will ask you on the call

Walk into step 2 ready for these:

• What does the business bank in a normal month, and in your slowest?
• What exactly will the $100k buy, and when will it start earning?
• What do you repay each month now: loans, leases, merchant advances, ATO plans?
• Is there a BAS or ATO debt we should plan around?
• Do you own property, and roughly what’s owed on it?
• Would you rather have the lighter monthly repayment or the lower total cost?

Rough figures are fine. Honest ones are better.

Ready to see where $100k lands for you?

A hundred grand can be the thing that moves a business up a gear, or the repayment that keeps you awake every January. The difference is sizing it to your real turnover, and that’s exactly the conversation we like having.

Let’s get started. The enquiry takes about 60 seconds, and your credit file stays untouched just for asking. We don’t send your details to a pile of lenders, so no surprise calls from strangers. A real person reads what you’ve sent, looks at your turnover, your debts and the job the money needs to do, then calls you to talk it through. Please fill the form in accurately, especially your average monthly deposits and existing repayments, so we can line up the right $100k option the first time.

Find out where you stand →