Alternatives to voluntary administration

When the ATO letters stack up and suppliers want cash on delivery, voluntary administration can start to sound like relief: someone else takes over, the creditors pause, and there’s a process. Some advisers raise it early. Search for help with business debt online and much of what you’ll read comes from firms that take on these appointments.

Administration has a real place. But it’s a big step, and it’s worth understanding exactly what it means for your control, and what the latest data says about how it ends, before deciding it’s the only door.

What actually happens in voluntary administration?

ASIC’s guide for creditors sets it out clearly:

• An independent registered liquidator, the voluntary administrator, takes full control of the company. The directors’ powers are suspended.
• The first creditors’ meeting happens within eight business days of the appointment.
• A second meeting is held about five weeks in (six around Christmas or Easter), where creditors decide the company’s future.
• Creditors vote for one of three outcomes: return the company to the directors, approve a deed of company arrangement (DOCA), or put the company into liquidation.

How does voluntary administration usually end?

In July 2026 ASIC published a review of administration outcomes covering more than 5,000 companies from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2025. The findings are sobering for smaller businesses:

Outcome of the administration	Share
Deed of company arrangement	44%
Voluntary liquidation	50%
Court liquidation	6%

Size mattered. For companies with liabilities above $10 million, 48.3% reached a DOCA. For companies with liabilities between $1 and $250,000, the figure was just 15.4%. Of DOCAs that were finalised, 81% were wholly effectuated, and almost half of approved DOCAs involved the business continuing to trade.

So for a small company, administration is more likely to lead to liquidation than to a rescued business. That’s not a reason to avoid it when it’s genuinely needed. It is a reason to check every funding option while you’re still in charge.

What are the realistic alternatives?

Alternative	Who controls the company	Suits
Refinance the pressure with a loan	You	Viable businesses with property equity or steady turnover
Payment plans with the ATO and creditors	You	Manageable debts and cooperative creditors
Small business restructuring	You, with a practitioner	Eligible companies with liabilities up to $1 million
Selling assets or part of the business	You	Businesses with non-core assets
Voluntary administration	The administrator	Businesses that need a formal process to survive, or can’t be saved

Refinancing is the only route in this list where the debts are paid out in full and you carry on exactly as before, with one lender instead of many creditors. Property-secured business loans from $20,000 to $5,000,000 can pay the ATO, suppliers and expensive short-term lenders directly at settlement. Unsecured and cash-flow options, typically $5,000 to $500,000, suit smaller balances where there’s no property.

To see whether funding could work before any appointment, start a 60-second enquiry. There’s no credit check when you first enquire, and the call is confidential.

When is funding the right answer, and when isn’t it?

Funding works when the business is fundamentally sound and the problem is a debt, a timing gap or an expensive facility. Signs you’re in that territory:

• Take out the one-off hits and the business makes money.
• Customers are still buying and paying.
• There’s property equity, or bank statements show steady turnover.
• There’s a believable plan to repay the new loan.

It isn’t the right answer when the business loses money at its core, or when it’s already unable to pay its debts as they fall due with no realistic plan to change that. ASIC’s guidance on what to do if your company is insolvent tells directors to get competent advice early and not to incur further debts once insolvency is established. We’d rather tell you honestly that a loan won’t help than add to the problem. Our way-out finder is a quick, private way to test where you sit.

Illustrative example: funded instead of appointed

Illustrative only, not a real client. A signage company in Melbourne’s south-east lost two major clients in a year and built up ATO arrears and supplier debts. Its accountant raised voluntary administration. The directors, who owned their home and the company’s small factory unit, asked for a second opinion first.

The core business was still profitable on its remaining clients. A specialist lender provided a property-secured loan over the factory unit, paid out the ATO and the three largest suppliers at settlement, and left the company trading under the same directors with a single monthly repayment.

What should I have ready for a funding conversation?

The same list an administrator would ask for, which is no coincidence: a schedule of who’s owed and how much, any notices received, the last six to twelve months of bank statements, and details of property the business or its owners hold. Add a short note on what went wrong and what’s changed. If ATO debt is the main pressure, our page on business loans with ATO debt explains how lenders pay it out. If the debt is spread across short-term lenders, see refinancing stacked debt. And if you’d like a second opinion on the formal route, read before you call an insolvency firm.

Still holding the keys? Let’s look at funding first.

Owners deserve to see the funding option clearly before anyone else takes the keys. The form is short, around a minute, and there’s no credit check when you first enquire. It lands with one specialist, never a mailing list of lenders, who then phones you for a proper conversation about the numbers.

Please be accurate about what’s owed, to whom, and whether any formal notices have arrived. That’s what lets us tell you honestly whether funding can work. See if you qualify →