The Knock-Back Decoder, match.moneyhawk.au/tools. Every criterion below was read on the lender's own published page on 16 August 2026.
Where you stand
Scored against 23 products from 14 Australian lenders, on their own published criteria.
Add how much you need and the amount gets tested against every published range too. Everything else on your list is already being checked.
Open to you now
0 productsYou meet every criterion these lenders publish. That is not an approval. It means nothing on their published list rules you out before you even speak to anyone.
One thing away
0 productsYou miss on exactly one published criterion. In several cases the fix is changing the amount you ask for, not changing your business.
Not yet
0 productsTwo or more published criteria are out of reach today. Worth knowing what they are, and when they stop being a problem.
The bit nobody tells you
The same lender will accept a much younger business for one product than another. When an owner says "they knocked me back", they usually mean one product, at one amount. Here is the tiering, straight off the lenders' own pages, read 16 August 2026.
| Lender | Easiest product | Hardest product | The gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prospa | Small Business Loan, 6 months trading | Business Line of Credit, 2 years trading | 18 months apart, same lender, same $6k monthly turnover test |
| Bizcap | Fast Business Loan, 4 months, $12k a month | Line of Credit, 9 months, $20k a month | 5 months plus a 67% higher revenue bar |
| Bizcap | Fast Business Loan, no security | Bridging Finance, must own property | Security only appears at the top of the range |
| Square | Under $75,000, no security, no personal guarantee | Over $75,000, security over business assets | The guarantee cliff is a dollar figure, not a product |
| Prospa & Moula | Up to $150,000, no upfront security | Above $150,000, security required | Ask for $145k instead of $160k and the test changes |
| Shift | Overdraft, 2 years, $20k a month | Term Loan, 2 years, $250k a year | Same bar, framed monthly on one page and annually on the other |
So before you accept a no: ask which product you were assessed for, and ask what the answer would be at a lower amount. Those two questions are free and they change the outcome more often than anything else you can do.
Six things worth knowing before you sign anything
All six are checkable. We've linked the primary source for every one so you don't have to take our word for it.
Business loans are the least protected credit in Australia
Not an opinion. This is the regulator, on its own website:
The law provides the lowest level of protection to commercial loans, including loans to small businesses. Lenders that only provide commercial loans are not required to have a credit licence and are not legally required to be a member of AFCA.
The best interests duty that covers mortgage brokers does not extend to business finance.
So check the AFCA register before you sign
If your lender isn't an AFCA member and something goes wrong, you cannot lodge a complaint. AFCA closed 2,063 small business finance complaints in 2024-25 and 21% were thrown out because the firm wasn't a member. AFCA's Lead Ombudsman for Small Business:
If a small business lender is not a registered member of AFCA, the small business cannot lodge a complaint with us if things go wrong, leaving these business owners vulnerable.
The register is free and takes 30 seconds.
"Unsecured" and "no personal risk" are not the same thing
Most unsecured business lenders still take a personal guarantee from the directors. Prospa: "we take a personal guarantee from directors, shareholders or persons actively engaged in the management of the business." Capify: a personal guarantee by the majority owner is its only security. Tyro and Lumi both require one.
The exception worth knowing: Square takes no personal guarantee under $75,000.
Ask one question about the credit check
Business loan enquiries can appear on your personal credit file if you're a sole trader, partner or company director, and they stay five years. But Equifax names the pattern, not the single event:
If you make several credit applications in a short space of time, this may be seen as a sign you are in financial difficulty.
Some checks don't touch your file at all. Square says applying doesn't affect your credit rating; Tyro says it may run a credit check at the eligibility stage. So ask: is this a soft eligibility check, or a recorded credit enquiry?
You almost certainly don't need to be GST registered
Of 20-plus lender pages read, exactly one (Moula) publishes GST registration as a requirement. GST is a tax obligation that kicks in at $75,000 turnover, with 21 days to register once you cross it. It is not a lending prerequisite at Prospa, Bizcap, Lumi, OnDeck, Shift, Banjo, Capify, Max Funding, Earlypay, Tyro, Square, PayPal or the four majors.
Your ABN age is not your trading history
The ABR sets no minimum age or trading history to hold an ABN. The start date is the one you supplied on the application. An ABN can be years old on a business that never traded, and a business can be trading eight months on a three-month-old ABN.
What lenders actually test is trading history plus a turnover floor, evidenced from your bank statements or your accounting software.
And a word about the banks
CBA, NAB, Westpac and ANZ publish no minimum trading history, no minimum turnover and no GST requirement on any of their small business loan pages. ANZ says only that applications are "subject to ANZ's normal credit approval criteria"; CBA that products are "subject to the Bank's eligibility and suitability criteria". That absence is the finding. You cannot self-assess against a major bank the way you can against Prospa or Bizcap, which is why a bank knock-back so often arrives with no reason attached. For context, ScotPac put the average bank loan approval time at 35 days, sometimes exceeding 55.
How Money Hawk gets paid
Money Hawk is not a lender and not a broker. We introduce Australian businesses to vetted business finance specialists, and we may receive a referral fee if you proceed. It does not change the rate or the terms you are offered.
Nothing on this page is a recommendation to borrow. If the honest answer is that you should not take this loan, we would rather you heard it here.
This page shows you where the doors are. A broker knows which one to knock on.
If a lender has told you no, it was a no to one product at one amount. Money Hawk introduces you to a vetted business finance specialist who works with these lenders and can tell you which of the lists above is worth acting on. You can stop at any point.
Get matchedThe match page starts at $35k in funding. You need $35k+ monthly turnover and 6+ months trading. Below that floor, the three lists above are the more useful thing on this site.