A standing engagement
Your covenants, managed all year.
A financed business carries covenants it has to stay inside and report on, and a breach is a default even when every repayment is on time. Covenant Management is the standing annual engagement that runs that compliance for you.
Why it matters
A missed covenant is not a paperwork problem.
A breach is a default
Even when every repayment has been made on time. The covenants are part of the facility, and failing one is failing the loan.
The lender gets options
A default can let the lender reprice the facility, ask for more security, or call the debt in. None of those conversations happen on your terms.
The tight one goes unwatched
The covenant that bites is rarely the one owners watch. It is usually buried in the facility agreement, and by the time it surfaces in the quarterly accounts the room to fix it has often gone.
The gap this fills
After a financed acquisition, someone has to keep the business inside its covenants and feed the bank what the facility requires. It is rarely a good fit for anyone already in the room. The broker who wrote the deal has moved on to the next one. The accountant does the numbers, not the banker liaison. The owner wanted to run a business, not a compliance calendar.
We sit in that gap and run it: between you, your accountant and your lender, with every covenant tracked, targets set to keep you inside them, and the reporting produced on schedule. When a decision might move a covenant, you ask us first.
How the year runs
The compliance calendar, taken off your desk.
- 1
Onboard
Every covenant across your facilities mapped, the reporting calendar built, and the tightest constraint identified before it can surprise anyone.
- 2
Each period
The figures worked, the reporting the bank asks for produced and submitted on schedule, and the headroom on every covenant tracked as the numbers move.
- 3
Mid-year
A meeting on how you are tracking against every covenant, targets adjusted while there is still time to change the outcome, your accountant coordinated.
- 4
Test date
The annual compliance cycle run end to end, with the certificate figures ready for you to sign. No surprises, because nothing was left to the test date.
We prepare the figures and manage the process; the compliance certificate is your representation to the lender and stays yours to sign. This is analysis and process management, not audit, assurance or credit advice.
The difference it makes
The same year, run two ways.
Running it yourself
- You are the bank's point of contact, all year
- Reporting produced late, from whoever had time
- The tightest covenant unwatched between test dates
- The first sign of trouble is a certificate that will not sign off
With Covenant Management
- One desk between you, your accountant and your lender
- Reporting produced and submitted on schedule
- Every covenant tracked as the numbers move
- Anything close to the line flagged while there is still time to move it
Everything covered through the year
- Every financial covenant across your facilities tracked all year, not just at the test date
- The point of contact for the bank's covenant and reporting requests, so you are not living in the banker's email chain
- Targets set with you to stay inside each covenant, and a read on any decision that might move one
- Coordination with your accountant, so the numbers behind the covenants are consistent and nobody duplicates work
- The management reporting your lender or facility requires, produced and submitted on schedule
- A mid-year meeting on how you are tracking against every covenant, and what to change while there is still time
- The annual compliance cycle run end to end, with the certificate figures ready for you to sign
Who it's for
Built for the people who would rather hand this off.
The same work solves a different problem for each of them, which is why brokers and accountants refer it rather than compete with it.
Owners carrying acquisition debt
You bought a business with a bank behind it, and the facility came with covenants you now have to report on. You would rather run the business than the compliance, and you do not want to be the one in the banker's email chain.
Commercial brokers
You wrote the deal, and after settlement the covenant compliance is neither your job nor your system to run. Hand it to us: the client keeps their relationship with you, our no-poaching commitment is published, and if they are a client of The Lending Lab a large discount applies.
Accountants
You do the client's numbers, not their banker liaison, and you would rather not be looped into scattered document requests all year. We manage the covenant process and coordinate with you, so the compliance is consistent and nobody duplicates work.
Not to be confused
Covenant Management vs The Owner's Desk
Both touch your covenants, and they are not the same product. One advises; one runs the obligations.
The Owner’s Desk is advisory
It tells you what the numbers will support: what you can borrow, how much covenant headroom is left, whether the next move is fundable. You still deal with the bank. How The Owner’s Desk works
Covenant Management is operational
It runs the compliance itself: we are the bank’s point of contact, we produce the reporting, we coordinate your accountant, and we keep you inside the covenants across the year. Many owners take both, one for the decisions and one for the obligations.
Just one test date?
Not ready for the full year yet?
If you only need the covenants worked for the next test date, rather than managed all year, there is a one-off for that.
Covenant Compliance Review · $1,250 · 5 business days
A single-shot review: every financial covenant worked against your actual numbers, the headroom on each, and the calculations ready for the certificate you sign. The one-off way in.
Out of scope
The boundary is the product. We manage the covenant compliance and the reporting around it; we do not cross into the work that belongs to your broker, your accountant or a lawyer.
- Arranging credit, negotiating a waiver, or varying a facility: that is finance broking, handled by The Lending Lab Pty Ltd
- Statutory financial statement preparation, tax, BAS agent services and bookkeeping, which stay with your accountant
- Audit or any assurance opinion
- Financial product advice, or anything touching personal wealth, superannuation or insurance
- Legal advice on the facility agreement or the covenants themselves
How the engagement runs
- An annual engagement, scoped and priced in writing before it starts.
- Priced to your facilities: the number of covenants, the number of lenders, and the reporting each demands. Tell us the setup and you will have the scope and the fee within two business days.
- Ad-hoc questions through the year are included, not metered. If a covenant is heading for a breach, you hear it early.
- Where a covenant needs a waiver or a facility needs changing, that is broking, and it goes to The Lending Lab Pty Ltd, disclosed in writing.
- No lock-in beyond the annual term. We tell you before renewal what, if anything, has changed.
Covenant Management
Your covenants, managed all year, so you never deal with the bank alone. Scoped and quoted in writing within two business days. Send us your facilities and covenants, and we will come back with the scope and the fee.
Common questions
The Owner's Desk is advisory: it tells you what your numbers will support, what you can borrow, how much covenant headroom is left, whether the next move is fundable. Covenant Management is operational: we run the compliance itself. We are the bank's point of contact, we produce the reporting, we coordinate your accountant, and we keep you inside the covenants across the year. Many owners take the Desk for the decisions and Covenant Management for the obligations; some take only one.
Yes, for covenant compliance and the reporting the facility requires, so you stop living in the banker's email chain. What we do not do is arrange credit, negotiate a waiver, or vary a facility: that is finance broking, and it goes to The Lending Lab Pty Ltd, a separate business, with any referral relationship disclosed in writing.
Alongside us, not replaced. We coordinate with them so the numbers behind the covenants are consistent and nobody duplicates work. Statutory financial statements, tax and bookkeeping stay with them. Most accountants are glad to hand off the covenant and banker liaison rather than manage scattered document requests through the year.
Yes, and it is built for it. After settlement most brokers have neither the time nor the systems to manage a client's covenant compliance, and it is not broking work. We manage it, you keep the relationship, our no-poaching commitment to referrers is published, and clients of The Lending Lab receive a large discount on our fees.
It is scoped and quoted in writing, because the work scales with the number of covenants, the number of facilities and lenders, and the reporting each demands. Tell us your setup and you will have the scope and the fee within two business days.