The dough gap calculator

How the dough gap is worked out

Most owners underestimate how much cash a business needs because they watch the one-off cost (the oven, the ute, the tax bill) and forget the quieter number underneath it: the money you front every day while customers take their time. The calculator separates the two and then takes away what you already hold.

1. Daily cost. Your monthly fixed costs multiplied by twelve, divided by 365.
2. Costs carried while waiting. Daily cost multiplied by your typical days to get paid. This is the cash you have effectively lent your customers.
3. Add the one-off cost. The extra spend you are planning or facing.
4. Subtract your cash buffer. What is left, if anything, is the gap.

Runway works the same way: your buffer divided by one week of costs. It tells you how many weeks you could keep trading if nobody paid you, which is a sobering and very useful figure.

What do I do with the result?

If the gap is zero, you have headroom. Use it to arrange a standby line of credit while your statements are strong, and keep an eye on the runway. If the gap is positive, work through the levers in this order: collect faster (the weekly saving above shows what one week is worth), pay suppliers on fair, longer terms, phase the one-off spend and trim costs. Whatever remains is the amount worth funding. Our guide to the working-capital gap walks through each lever, and the guide on days to get paid shows how to measure the number you typed in.

Which funding route matches which gap?

The routes listed beside your result follow a simple pattern. Unsecured, cash-flow and line-of-credit options for trading businesses, typically $5,000 to $500,000, sized on turnover and bank statements. Property-secured options (first and second mortgages, caveat loans) for larger amounts, with residential or commercial security. For gaps that repeat, a business line of credit usually beats borrowing a lump sum each time; for a single defined gap, a working-capital loan or short-term loan tends to fit; and where the gap is bigger than turnover supports and you own property, property-backed funding may be the answer. The What can I borrow against? quiz helps you see which shelf you are on.

What this calculator leaves out

On purpose, it leaves out interest, fees and repayments. Every facility we arrange is priced on the individual situation, so any figure here would be a guess dressed as a fact. It also assumes your costs are steady across the month and that every customer takes about the same time to pay. Real businesses are lumpier, so treat the answer as a sensible starting point, then check it against your bank statements and your accountant.

When you are ready to talk it through, start a 60-second enquiry. There is no credit check when you first enquire. Your details are not sprayed across a pile of lenders, and a real person reads what you write.