The opportunity accountants are missing
Your clients regularly need funding. Working capital for seasonal peaks. Money to hire their next employee. Finance for new equipment or a second location. And yet, most accountants refer informally — or not at all — and earn nothing from it.
The UK SME lending market is worth over £60 billion annually. Accountants are among the most trusted sources of financial advice for small business owners. The gap between that trust and the commercial opportunity is significant — and entirely closeable.
How accountant lending commission works
Partner programmes work on a simple model: when your client gets funded through your referral link or portal, you earn a percentage of the broker fee. This is often called an introducer fee or referral commission.
- Commission rates: typically 10%–30% of the broker fee, depending on the programme and deal type
- Average deal: most funded SME loans are £50k–£250k, generating £500–£5,000+ in commission per deal
- Payment timing: legitimate programmes pay within 14–30 days of funding completing
Fundably pays up to 30% — the highest published rate in the market — with no minimum volumes and no monthly fees.
What you do vs what the broker does
As an accountant introducing clients, you typically:
- Identify that a client has a funding need (often comes up in quarterly review)
- Share a referral link or submit a referral through a partner portal
- Optionally receive updates on the application status
The broker platform:
- Matches the client to lenders from a curated panel (50+ in Fundably’s case)
- Manages the application process end to end
- Handles credit checks, documentation, and underwriting coordination
- Manages compliance obligations
You do not need to manage the funding process. That is the broker’s job.
Do accountants need FCA authorisation to earn referral commission?
This is the most common question — and the most commonly misunderstood.
The short answer for most accountants is no. Earning commission for introducing a client to a regulated credit broker is a permitted activity under FCA guidelines, provided you are not:
- Advising the client on whether to take specific credit products
- Arranging credit on the client’s behalf
- Managing the credit application process yourself
Simply identifying a funding need and passing a referral to an NACFB-authorised credit broker does not require your own FCA authorisation.
See our full guide: Do Accountants Need FCA Authorisation to Refer Clients for Lending?
How much can an accountant earn?
The strongest indicator is deal frequency. Most accountants with 50–200 business clients will have 1–5 clients at any time who could benefit from funding — whether they realise it or not.
At an average commission of ~£2,000 per funded deal:
| Monthly referrals | Annual commission estimate |
|---|---|
| 1 per month | ~£24,000/year |
| 2–3 per month | ~£48,000–£72,000/year |
| 5 per month | ~£120,000/year |
These are averages. Small deals (£10k–£25k) generate less; larger deals (£250k+) can generate £5,000–£10,000+ per event.
Free vs subscription platforms: what’s the difference?
Some platforms (most notably Capitalise.com) operate a tiered subscription model — their free tier locks commission at 10%, with 30% gated behind a £395/month subscription.
Fundably’s model is different:
- Zero monthly fees on every tier
- Up to 30% commission from day one, for every partner
- No minimum volumes required
- No contract lock-in
Over a year, an accountant using a paid platform at the maximum tier pays £4,740 in subscription fees. If a Fundably partner is earning £24k+/year, keeping 100% of those earnings without subscription costs matters.
How to get started
- Apply via a partner portal — most decent programmes take 24–48 hours to set up
- Get your unique referral link — all applications submitted through it are tracked to you
- Identify your first referral — look at your client list for businesses seeking growth finance, working capital, or asset purchases
- Submit the referral — through your portal or link; the broker handles everything from here
- Track in your dashboard — see where each referral is in the process, in real time
You can book a free consultation with Fundably’s accountant partner team here.