Cafe and restaurant funding: keeping the kitchen running between busy services

Ask a café owner what keeps them awake and it is rarely the coffee. It is the Thursday when rent, the produce supplier and the fortnightly wages all fall due and the till has been quiet since Tuesday. Hospitality is a business of daily cash and lumpy bills, and funding it well starts with understanding that shape.

How does cash flow work in hospitality?

Money comes in every day: card settlements, cash, delivery platform payouts and the occasional function invoice. Money goes out in chunks: rent, wages, suppliers, utilities, insurance and tax. The daily trickle of takings makes the business feel healthier than it sometimes is, because the chunks are bigger than any single day.

A few features make hospitality distinctive:

• Perishable stock. Overbuying turns straight into waste, while underbuying loses sales.
• Labour-heavy costs. Wages are the largest line for most venues, and rosters rarely flex as fast as sales do.
• Seasonality and weather. A wet fortnight or a hot week moves turnover more than most owners like.
• Platform and card delays. Settlements can lag the sale by a day or more.

Business.gov.au points to several levers that matter here: avoiding overstocking, negotiating supplier terms, using flexible rostering and following up on any amounts owed, such as function deposits or catering invoices.

What do lenders read in a hospitality business?

The bank statements. A lender sees the card settlements and cash deposits, and how the balance moves around rent, wages and BAS dates. Steady deposits, regular supplier payments and a balance that does not live at zero tell a good story.

Things that muddy the picture:

1. Personal spending through the business account. Keep the two separate.
2. Cash takings that are not banked or are banked in irregular lumps.
3. Unexplained spikes or dips. A short note solves this: “December function bookings” or “closed two weeks for refit”.
4. Overdue supplier accounts or tax. Raise these yourself.

Our guide to what lenders see in your bank statements explains how to tidy things up before sending them.

What do hospitality owners typically fund?

Need	Likely fit
Refit or kitchen upgrade	Unsecured funding or, for larger jobs, property-backed
New coffee machine, oven or cool room	Working-capital loan; see equipment funding
Wages and rent in a quiet patch	Line of credit or short-term loan
Stocking up for a seasonal peak	Line of credit
A BAS bill after a strong quarter	Short-term loan; see BAS and GST gap loans
Opening a second venue	Mix of set-up and working capital; see second location funding

For trading businesses, unsecured funding is typically $5,000 to $500,000, sized on turnover and bank statements. If you own property, funding from $20,000 to $5,000,000 is possible.

How big is the gap in a cafe?

An illustration, with no real venue behind it. A café has fixed costs of about $38,000 a month (rent, wages, utilities, insurance and loan repayments). Most takings arrive immediately, but catering and wholesale customers pay in about 21 days, and the owner holds $15,000 in the bank. A $20,000 refit of the front counter is planned.

The days-to-get-paid float is roughly three weeks of costs tied up in catering invoices, but only on the portion of sales that is invoiced. The refit adds $20,000 of one-off cost. With a $15,000 buffer, the gap is around $5,000 plus whatever float the invoiced sales create. The Dough gap calculator lets you test that with your own figures. Many hospitality owners find that their gap is smaller than feared once they separate cash sales from invoiced ones, and that the refit, not the float, is the real hole.

What about payroll and tax in hospitality?

Hospitality payrolls are big and varied: casuals, weekend loadings, public holidays. Super is paid on eligible earnings, and from 1 July 2026 the ATO says Payday Super means it is paid with each wage payment. Payroll tax applies when total wages pass your state’s threshold, and thresholds vary by state, so check with your state revenue office.

GST registration is required once turnover reaches $75,000, according to the ATO, which many cafés pass. The quarterly BAS then becomes one of the biggest lumps in your year.

What mistakes cost hospitality owners the most?

A few patterns turn up again and again in venues that get into trouble.

• Paying for growth from the operating account. A refit or second venue funded out of the same pot that pays wages leaves no cushion. Keep a floor balance you never go beneath.
• Letting the roster drift. Hours creep up in busy weeks and rarely creep back down. Check wages as a share of takings every week, not every quarter.
• Over-ordering to avoid running out. Waste is the quiet killer. Track what you throw away for two weeks and you’ll see where the money goes.
• Ignoring the BAS until it arrives. In hospitality, the quarterly BAS is one of the biggest single payments of the year. Move a slice into a separate account every week.
• Waiting too long to ask for help. A line of credit set up in a strong month costs nothing to hold. One chased in a panic costs a lot more.

None of these needs a clever fix, only a habit. Weekly numbers, a floor balance and a standby facility will carry most venues through most surprises.

How do I get started?

Gather your last few months of business bank statements, your ABN, ID and a note on what the money is for. Then make an enquiry. A lending specialist reads it and calls you. There is no credit check just to ask, and your details are not sprayed around a crowd of lenders.

Honest figures keep the first call short. Use the real takings, the real rent and the real purpose. See if you qualify and get back to the coffee.