Funding our own loans since 2004 $20,000 to $5,000,000 Funded in as little as 24 hours No repayments for 6 months
HomeSec Business Finance
1300 93 83 87 Get funded
Payroll

Payroll is due and the money is not there

Wages are a debt to each employee and paying late breaches the Fair Work Act and the applicable award. Chase the largest receivable today, talk to your accountant about the order of payments, and where there is equity in real property, a loan can settle in as little as 24 hours with funds paid where you direct them.

A small business owner working late at a desk lit by a single lamp

See if you qualify in sixty seconds. No credit check to apply, no financials, no payments for the first six months. That's the HomeSec Advantage.

See if you qualify

Today, in order

If pay day is this week, these are the things that actually move the position, roughly in the order they are worth doing. Most of them are not a loan.

  1. 1
    Ring your three largest debtors personally.Not an emailed statement — a phone call to the person who authorises payment, asking for a specific invoice to be paid on a specific day. A surprising proportion of overdue invoices are sitting in an approval queue that a phone call clears in an hour.
  2. 2
    Work out the exact number and the exact date.Gross wages, PAYG withholding, superannuation, and the date each falls due. Vagueness here is what turns a solvable gap into a crisis, because every option below needs a number.
  3. 3
    Call your accountant.Before you decide the order of payments. The order matters legally, not just practically, and it is not a decision to make alone at nine o'clock at night.
  4. 4
    Ask suppliers for terms, not for forgiveness.A supplier asked for thirty days on one invoice will often say yes. A supplier told nothing until they chase will usually say no and put you on stop supply.
  5. 5
    If there is equity in property, price the loan option properly.Not as a last resort, but as one option with a cost you can compare against the others. An indicative figure takes one phone call and commits you to nothing.

What a missed payroll actually triggers

What is unpaidWhat follows
WagesA debt owed to each employee. Paying late breaches the Fair Work Act and the applicable award or agreement, and can attract penalties. In an insolvency, employee entitlements rank ahead of most other unsecured creditors.
PAYG withholdingReported to the ATO whether or not it is paid. Unpaid PAYG withholding is one of the amounts a Director Penalty Notice can make the director's personal debt.
Superannuation guaranteeLate super is not deductible, attracts the superannuation guarantee charge, and is also within the director penalty regime. Payday super applies from 1 July 2026, with contributions due within 7 business days of the employee being paid.
The business itselfContinuing to incur debts while unable to pay them as they fall due is where a director's personal exposure for insolvent trading begins. This is the reason to involve an accountant early rather than late.

General information, not legal or financial advice, and not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances.

Where a loan fits, and where it does not

A payroll loan is the right answer to a timing problem: the work is done, the money is coming, and the dates do not line up. That is an extremely common shape — a cleaning contractor carrying six weeks of payroll against a monthly ledger, a builder waiting on a certified claim, a transport operator invoicing a client on sixty-day terms. In all of those, borrowing bridges a gap that is going to close.

It is the wrong answer to a structural problem. If the business loses money on every job, or has lost the contract that carried the overhead, a loan funds one more pay run and makes the eventual reckoning larger — and it does it against your property. We decline those files, and we would rather say so in the first ten minutes than take a commitment fee. A person decides every loan. Every application is read by a Lending Manager and every credit decision is signed off by a person. We do not use artificial intelligence to assess, approve, decline or price a loan.

How much you can borrow

Take the property's value, multiply by 80% for residential security or 70% for commercial, and subtract what is already owing on it. What is left is roughly what is available, between $20,000 and $5,000,000. Several properties can be added together, and the borrower does not have to be the owner — companies, trusts and sole traders — including start-ups, with everyone on title signing. Up to 80% on residential and 70% on commercial. Lower on large acreage, and LVRs may reduce on properties worth less than $800,000.

From the call to the money

1

Tell us the deal

Amount, purpose, timing, the property and how the loan gets repaid. A Lending Manager gives you an indicative answer on that call — usually in minutes.

Minutes

2

Conditional approval

Photo ID, a rates notice and your most recent mortgage statement. That is the whole list, and it takes about fifteen minutes.

About 15 minutes

3

Funds released

As little as 24 hours from a clean, complete scenario. Paid where you tell us — to your account, or straight to the ATO.

As little as 24 hours

What it costs

Priced per file, on the property, the position, the amount and the exit. No rate is published, because a rate with "from" in front of it is the best file's number. How it is priced, and every fee that exists.

✓Upfront: a small commitment fee, payable only once your loan is conditionally approved
✓Valuation fee: none — we don't use valuers
✓Monthly or line fees: none — no monthly, line or account-keeping fees
✓Fee to extend: none — no rollover fees, legal fees or rewriting the loan to extend

Questions we get on the phone

What happens if I cannot pay my employees on time?
Wages are a debt owed to each employee and paying them late is a breach of the Fair Work Act and of the applicable award or agreement, which can attract penalties. Superannuation has its own regime and its own consequences. Separately, continuing to trade while unable to pay debts as they fall due is where directors' personal exposure begins, so a missed payroll is not only an employment problem.
Should I pay wages or the ATO first?
Talk to your accountant, because the answer depends on your circumstances. What can be said generally is that PAYG withholding and superannuation guarantee carry personal liability for directors through the director penalty regime, and unpaid wages carry obligations to your employees and, in an insolvency, priority ahead of most other creditors. Neither is an obligation to defer casually, and choosing between them is a sign that the underlying problem needs addressing rather than scheduling.
Can I borrow money just to pay wages?
Yes. Paying your own staff is plainly a business purpose. HomeSec lends against equity in real property, and payroll is one of the most common reasons a business calls us at short notice. Funds can be in your account in as little as 24 hours from a clean, complete scenario.
I do not have business assets. Can I still borrow?
Yes, where you or someone in the ownership group owns real property. The company or trust borrows and the property secures it, with everyone on the title signing. Up to 80% of a residential property's value or 70% of a commercial one, less what is already owing.
How fast can the money actually arrive?
An indicative answer on the first call, conditional approval in about fifteen minutes from photo identification, a rates notice and your most recent mortgage statement, and settlement in as little as 24 hours. A caveat over a property with an existing mortgage needs nobody's consent, which is usually what decides whether money is there for Thursday.
Do I have to tell my staff?
That is a judgement call and not one a lender should make for you. What is worth knowing is that employees usually sense it before they are told, and that a short, specific message — what is happening, what is being done, when they will be paid — costs far less goodwill than silence followed by a missed pay run.
Is unpaid superannuation worse than unpaid wages?
It is different, and in one respect worse. Superannuation guarantee that is paid late is not deductible, directors are personally liable for it under the director penalty regime, and since 1 July 2026 the timing rules are tighter — a contribution is on time if the fund receives it within 7 business days of the employee being paid. Wages carry their own obligations but not the same automatic personal liability.
What if this is not a one-off?
Then borrowing buys time and does not solve anything, and that is worth being honest about. A loan is the right answer when something specific changes inside the time it buys — a debtor pays, a contract starts, a season turns, an asset sells. Where nothing is going to change, the conversation you need is with an accountant or a registered insolvency practitioner, not with a lender, and we will say so on the first call.
Can the money be paid straight to my payroll account?
Funds go where you direct them at settlement — your operating account, a separate payroll account, or direct to a creditor. Tell us at conditional approval and it is arranged as part of settlement.
Call before the pay run, not after it

A Lending Manager will tell you on the call whether this works and roughly what is available. If it does not work, you will know today and can spend the time on something else. 1300 93 83 87, Mon–Fri, 8:30am – 5:30pm Melbourne time.

When the pressure is coming from somewhere else
Where to start when cash has run outBAS due and cannot pay itA supplier has stopped supplyThe bank has called the facilityA customer has gone under owing youATO intent to disclose a tax debtServed with a winding-up applicationSmall business restructuring explainedA statutory demand has been servedA Director Penalty NoticeClearing an ATO tax debt
Sixty seconds, no documents

See if you qualify in sixty seconds

Three short questions, no credit check to apply and no financial statements. A Lending Manager reads it and calls you back with a real answer — not a call centre, not an algorithm.

That's the HomeSec Advantage.

See if you qualifyCall 1300 93 83 87Mon–Fri, 8:30am – 5:30pm Melbourne time

Reviewed by Catriona Anderson, General Manager

1300 93 83 87 homesec.com.au
Get funded Call 1300 93 83 87