Funding supplier deposits and landed stock for importers

Where does an importer’s cash actually go?

The supplier invoice is only the most visible part of the cost. An importer’s cash leaves the business in stages, and each stage has its own timing:

1. Deposit at order placement.
2. Balance payment before the goods leave the port of origin, or against shipping documents.
3. Freight and insurance, often paid to a forwarder before arrival.
4. Duty, clearance charges and, for many importers, GST around the time goods arrive in Australia.
5. Cartage and storage once the stock lands.
6. Selling time — weeks or months on the shelf.
7. Debtor days — if you sell on terms, a further 30 to 60 days or more before cash returns.

Put those stages on a calendar and the true funding window is far longer than the payment terms on the supplier’s invoice suggest.

How long is the cycle, really?

Stage (illustrative)	Days from order	Cash out / in
Deposit paid	Day 0	Out — 30% of goods
Balance paid before shipment	Day 45	Out — 70% of goods
Freight, duty, GST, clearance	Day 75	Out
Stock in warehouse	Day 80	—
Average sale	Day 140	—
Customer pays (45-day terms)	Day 185	In

Illustrative only; no real business. In this example cash first leaves on day 0 and doesn’t return until around day 185. Measured the conventional way, inventory days alone would look long; measured from the deposit, the funding window is over six months.

The working capital cycle calculator handles the standard inventory, debtor and creditor days. For importers, add the pre-shipment deposit period on top to see the full picture.

What facility structures fit an import cycle?

Revolving working capital facility. A limit drawn at deposit and balance stages and repaid as stock sells. It suits importers with several shipments a year at irregular intervals. See working capital facilities.

Property-backed limit. Property security supports facilities from $20,000 to $5,000,000 and gives the lender comfort through the stage where there’s no stock yet to point to — the deposit. It also tolerates the lumpiness of large seasonal orders better than a turnover-sized unsecured limit. See property-backed business loans.

Unsecured cash-flow facility. For established importers without property, unsecured options typically run from $5,000 to $500,000, sized on turnover and bank statements. That can suit smaller or more frequent shipments.

Bank trade instruments. Letters of credit and shipment-specific trade loans are bank products with their own documentation requirements; some suppliers insist on them. They fund part of the cycle but rarely the whole landed cost.

If you’re not sure which fits your shipment pattern, outline your import cycle for a specialist.

What will a lender want to understand?

• Supplier history. How long you’ve dealt with the supplier and how reliably orders arrive as specified.
• Margin after landed cost. Freight, currency and duty can compress margins sharply; lenders look at gross margin after all of them.
• Stock turnover and ageing. Slow-moving or obsolete stock in the accounts is a red flag.
• Customer base. Who buys the stock, on what terms, and how concentrated sales are.
• Currency management. Whether you price in a buffer, use forward cover through your bank, or pass changes on.
• Tax conduct. GST on imports and quarterly or monthly BAS obligations. Businesses with GST turnover of $20 million or more must lodge and pay BAS monthly, by the 21st of the following month, which tightens the rhythm.

Common mistakes that strain import funding

• Sizing on the supplier invoice. Freight, GST and storage can add materially to the cash outlay.
• Funding deposits from the tax account. Using cash set aside for BAS or PAYG to fund a deposit creates a second problem when the ATO due date arrives.
• Ignoring the second shipment. A facility sized for one container often runs out when the next order must be placed before the first has sold.
• Letting stock age. Stock that doesn’t move ties up the facility and weakens the next review.
• Growth without funding. Adding a range or a major retail customer can double the cycle’s funding need. Our guide to overtrading covers the pattern.

Where debtor finance fits for importers

Once goods are sold on terms, invoices can in principle be funded through a ledger facility. But that only covers the back end of the cycle; the deposit, balance, freight and duties are all paid before any invoice exists. Importers therefore often pair a stock facility with collections discipline rather than rely on ledger funding alone — our comparison of debtor finance and working capital loans explains the trade-offs.

A quick landed-cost check

Before your next order, list the goods cost, freight, insurance, duty, any GST outlay, clearance, cartage and storage, and note the date each is paid. Add the expected selling period and your customer terms. That single table shows the true cash requirement per shipment and when it peaks — the number your facility needs to cover.

Funding your next shipment

If your import cycle is stretching your cash, bring us the landed-cost timeline, turnover and any property available as security. We’ll say plainly what’s realistic and how quickly.

Enquiring won’t touch your credit file. Your details aren’t spread across a panel of lenders — a specialist reviews the file and approaches the right one. Accurate figures on the form, especially the size and timing of your largest orders, mean we can shape a limit that survives the second shipment as well as the first. Start an import funding enquiry.