Your credit score matters less than you think. Your banking conduct, how you have managed existing facilities, your ATO account, and your day-to-day cash flow patterns, often matters more. Here is what lenders actually look at, from someone who spent 20 years looking at it.
When a credit analyst reviews a business finance application, one of their first actions is to pull the conduct history on any existing facilities. This tells them far more about how you actually manage money than your tax return or balance sheet does. A business can look profitable on paper but have bank accounts that chronically run near zero, regular overdraft usage, or occasional dishonours. All of that is visible to a lender before they ask you a single question.
Conduct history is reviewed across four areas:
Frequency of overdraft usage, dishonour history, and whether accounts regularly operate in credit or are chronically overdrawn. A business that bounces payments occasionally raises cash flow management questions an analyst will want answered.
Are existing loan repayments made on time, consistently? Have there been hardship arrangements, missed payments, or renegotiated terms? Lenders see all of this through credit bureau data and weight it heavily.
Current ATO payment plan status, whether BAS and PAYG obligations are lodged on time, and whether there are any Director Penalty Notices. ATO conduct is increasingly visible to commercial lenders and increasingly weighted in credit assessments.
How you manage supplier payment terms, whether you are regularly late on trade accounts, and whether suppliers have lodged defaults. This appears in credit bureau data and is reviewed alongside bank conduct.
Since 2020, the ATO has been significantly more active in reporting business tax debts to credit bureaus. A business with ATO debt above $100,000 that has not entered a formal payment plan may have a bureau listing on its file, even if it has never missed a commercial loan repayment in its life.
Many business owners do not know this has happened until a lender comes back with a decline. By that point, a credit enquiry has already been recorded. Krishna checks for ATO bureau reporting risk before any lender sees your application.
One or two dishonours in a year with a clear explanation is usually manageable with the right lender. Frequent dishonours across multiple months signal a cash flow management problem that needs to be addressed in the narrative or the application may need to wait for improved conduct history before submission.
An active ATO payment plan is not automatically disqualifying but it affects serviceability and some lenders have a policy against approving new facilities while one is active. Other lenders will approve if the plan is being maintained. Lender selection matters more here than anywhere else.
Paid defaults are better than unpaid ones. Older defaults carry progressively less weight. Krishna reviews what is visible on your bureau file and identifies lenders whose credit appetite accommodates your specific history rather than requiring a clean file.
Krishna reviews your conduct position, including what is visible to a lender on bureau, before selecting a lender or building a submission. If there are conduct issues, he addresses them in the credit narrative rather than hoping the lender does not find them. Most conduct issues have solutions. The solution is usually the right lender selection and the right framing, not waiting indefinitely.
Get a Free Assessment →Most commercial lenders review the last six months of business bank statements as standard. Some asset finance lenders review three months. For larger or more complex facilities, lenders may request up to 12 months. The key issue is not the period reviewed but what the statements show during that period.
Yes, with the right lender and the right presentation. Some lenders decline any application where an ATO payment plan is active. Others will approve if the plan is being maintained on schedule and the debt is declining. Krishna selects the lender whose policy suits your specific ATO situation rather than submitting to a lender who will decline on policy grounds.
Some non-bank lenders offer facilities with minimal credit checking, typically shorter-term working capital products. These carry higher rates reflecting the reduced assessment. Krishna advises on whether a reduced-credit-check facility is appropriate for your situation or whether a properly structured submission to a full-credit lender would produce a better outcome at a lower cost.
No. Krishna runs what is called a soft enquiry, which shows the file contents but does not register as a credit enquiry on your record. A hard enquiry only occurs when you formally apply to a specific lender and they pull your file. We compare 30+ lenders on your behalf without creating a single mark on your file.
Krishna reviews your conduct position before any lender sees it and advises on the clearest path forward. No credit impact from an initial conversation.
General Advice Warning: Information in this guide is general in nature and does not constitute financial or credit advice.