Business acquisition finance · Professional services
Business acquisition finance for professional services
Professional services finance is lending to accounting, legal, engineering, architecture and consulting firms, funding work in progress, office fit-outs, technology and partner buy-ins against fee income rather than physical assets.
How a business acquisition finance works for professional services
Professional practices change hands constantly — a partner buying in, a firm acquiring a smaller book, a retiring principal selling a client list. Lenders on our panel will lend against fee-base goodwill for accounting and legal practices in particular, because client retention after a well-managed transition is high. Expect scrutiny of client concentration, how much of the fee base follows the departing principal personally, and the transition arrangements. Vendor finance across two or three years is standard and aligns both parties.
The cash-flow pattern we plan around
Fortnightly salaries against work in progress that is billed weeks later and then paid on 30–60 day terms, with seasonal peaks around tax and reporting deadlines.
What professional services typically fund
- Funding work in progress and unbilled time
- Office fit-out and relocation
- Practice management software, servers and devices
- Partner buy-in or practice acquisition
- Hiring ahead of contracted work
Business acquisition finance for professional services: the numbers
| Typical amounts | $100,000 – $10,000,000 |
|---|---|
| Term | 24–120 months |
| Indicative rates | 7.5% – 16% p.a. |
| Repayments | Monthly |
| Speed | 3–8 weeks |
| Documents professional services usually need | ABN and two years of practice financials · Aged debtors and work-in-progress reports · Fit-out, equipment quote or partnership agreement |
Rates shown are indicative ranges observed across our lender panel for the period stated. They are not an offer or quote. Your rate depends on your business, the lender, the amount, the term and the security offered. The lender makes the final credit decision.
Key terms
Professional services finance
Professional services finance is lending to fee-based firms such as accountants, lawyers, engineers and consultants, assessed on fee income, debtors and work in progress rather than on physical security.
Work in progress funding
Work in progress funding is finance that covers the cost of work performed but not yet invoiced, bridging the gap between paying staff and issuing the fee note that recovers their time.
What is business acquisition finance?
Business acquisition finance is a loan used to fund the purchase of an existing business or a shareholding in one. Lenders assess the target business’s adjusted earnings, the assets included in the sale, the buyer’s deposit and any security offered.
How much deposit do you need to buy a business?
Most lenders expect the buyer to contribute 30–50% of the purchase price in cash or equity. Where the buyer offers property security, the required cash contribution can fall substantially.
What is vendor finance in a business sale?
Vendor finance is where the seller leaves part of the purchase price outstanding, repaid by the buyer over an agreed period. It bridges the gap between the price and what a lender will fund, and signals the vendor’s confidence in the business.
What is normalised EBITDA?
Normalised EBITDA is a business’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, adjusted to remove owner-specific items such as above-market director wages, personal expenses and one-off costs. Lenders use it to estimate what the business will actually earn under new ownership.