Cash flow loans for fencers

A fence looks simple from the street. Behind it sits a pile of hardware, a pallet of panels or palings, bags of concrete, a trailer, an auger and a crew who will want paying on Friday. When the customer pays a small deposit and the balance only lands when the last post is plumb, the fencer is the one funding the build.

Why does fencing eat up cash before the job is done?

Because the materials list is long and the pricing is by the lineal metre. The longer the run, the more you carry. A typical job needs posts, rails, palings or panels, gate hardware, concrete or post-mix, fixings and sometimes retaining or sleepers. All of it is bought before the job is finished.

Specific squeezes in this trade:

• Material price swings. Timber, steel and colour-coated sheet prices move, and you quote before you buy.
• Deposits that do not match the bill. A modest deposit on a long boundary job covers a fraction of the materials.
• Ground conditions. Rock, clay or tree roots mean extra hours and plant, which are not always priced in.
• Weather. Wet ground, hot spells and bushfire-season restrictions affect when you can work.
• Neighbour disputes. Dividing fence arrangements between neighbours vary by state, and jobs can stall while owners agree.

How do fencers get paid across different customers?

Customer	Typical payment pattern	Cash flow pressure
Homeowner, boundary or garden fence	Deposit, balance on completion	Deposit short of the materials bill
Builder or developer, new estate	Stage claims or completion of a batch	Large material outlay before first claim
Strata or body corporate	Quote approval, invoice after completion	Slow approvals and committee payment cycles
Rural or farm fencing	Per metre, sometimes with staged payment	Remote travel and material hauling costs
Pool fencing	Payment after inspection or certification	Final payment waits for sign-off

What can a fencer use a cash flow loan for?

Typical uses:

1. Bulk material orders, such as a pallet of panels or a full run of posts and rails.
2. Crew wages, including offsiders and casuals for a big install.
3. Plant hire, such as a post-hole digger, a skid steer or a post driver. If you want to own one, see skid steer finance.
4. Trailer and tool costs. Repairs to a trailer or a replacement tipper cost money at the worst time; for buying one outright, see trailer finance.
5. Insurance premiums that arrive in a lump.

Pricing and costing well is half the battle. The job quote margin calculator shows how a small cost blow-out affects your margin across a long run.

Seeing a fencing job through the numbers

The scenario below is fictional and uses round numbers for ease.

A fencing business wins a job for a new estate fence along a long boundary. Materials come to $16k, concrete and fixings add $2k and a two-person crew costs $5k across a fortnight. Total outlay is $23k. The builder pays 30 days after invoice, and the invoice is issued on completion.

That means about six weeks between the first material purchase and the cash arriving. If the owner holds $9k, the gap is $14k. A short facility covers the shortfall, the supplier is paid on time and the crew is paid weekly. When the builder pays, the facility is cleared.

How do I keep my supplier account healthy?

Most fencers have a trade account with a timber or steel supplier. Staying inside the limit and paying on time keeps pricing sharp. A separate cash flow facility lets you pay for a large job without maxing out that account. Our page on materials and supplier accounts goes through how tradies manage that balance.

If a builder is the one dragging, read about slow-paying builders. When you are ready to see what is possible for your own business, ask in about a minute.

What will a lender want to see?

Trading history comes first. Get ready with:

• Business bank statements showing deposits from homeowners, builders and strata.
• Your ABN, and ACN if you trade through a company.
• A sense of upcoming jobs and expected payment dates.
• Any ATO payment plan, noted plainly.

What changes between states and between jobs?

Fencing rules are local. Dividing fence arrangements between neighbours follow state law, pool barriers have their own standards and inspection process, and bushfire-prone areas push owners towards non-combustible materials such as steel. Each of those changes your materials list, your timeline and when you are paid. A pool fence that fails inspection means a return visit that nobody pays for. A rural job may involve long hauls and a night in a motel. When you describe your business to a lender, say which kinds of fencing make up most of your revenue, because the cash cycle of a farm fence differs from a suburban boundary run.

How do you see if you qualify?

You would rather be setting posts than filling in forms. Checking what is available takes about 60 seconds, and no one runs a credit check when you first enquire. Your details are not shared around a pile of lenders, so you will not get a stream of unwanted calls. A real person looks at your situation and rings you.

Please answer honestly about turnover, how long you have traded and any tax debt, so we match you correctly from the start.

Keep in mind that no credit check when you first enquire applies here too, so a quick question about options leaves your file untouched.

Find out if your fencing business qualifies