Opening a café: a money timeline from lease to first coffee

Ask a café owner what opening cost and they’ll give you a number. Ask them what nearly sank them and they’ll tell you about timing: the shopfitter’s progress payment that landed before the loan settled, the machine deposit due months before delivery, the six quiet weeks after opening when the takings didn’t yet cover the wages. Opening a café is as much a cash-timing exercise as a budgeting one. Here’s how the money typically flows, stage by stage.

Stage 1: before you sign the lease

Costs that can land now:

• Site visits, measurements, maybe a designer’s concept
• Legal review of the lease
• Business registrations — ABN, business name, and GST (the ATO requires registration within 21 days once turnover reaches $75,000; many new cafés register before opening so they can claim GST credits on fit-out and equipment)

What to do:

• Check zoning and approvals. Business.gov.au advises checking with your council about whether your business type is allowed and what permits or approvals you need, for example before you can fit out.
• Check the tenancy can handle a café: power for the machine and kitchen, water and drainage, grease trap, exhaust options.
• Negotiate incentives — a rent-free period over the fit-out is common and valuable.
• Get an in-principle view on funding before you commit. Our page on opening a business explains the usual mix.

Stage 2: lease signed, approvals underway

Costs:

• Security deposit or bank guarantee and advance rent
• Lease legal costs
• Design and drawings
• Council and building approval fees
• Food business registration or licence with your council

Timing note: approvals can be the longest lead item. Use this time to finalise quotes and order long-lead equipment.

Stage 3: fit-out

Costs:

• Shopfitter deposit at contract
• Progress payments as stages are completed
• Services — electrical, plumbing, gas, exhaust
• Signage
• Final payment at handover

This is where cash timing bites. Map the shopfitter’s payment schedule against when your funding can be drawn, and fund any early gap from your own savings. Our guide to budgeting a fit-out before you sign walks through each line and the contingency.

Planning your café’s funding? Start a 60-second enquiry — a specialist will map the funding to your timeline, with no credit check to enquire.

Stage 4: equipment

Costs:

• Espresso machine and grinders — deposit on order, balance on installation
• Fridges, freezers, ovens, dishwasher, ice machine
• POS hardware and software
• Furniture, crockery, smallwares

Most of these are well suited to equipment finance, with the lender paying the supplier directly. New cafés often need a deposit. Ask suppliers for itemised quotes with installation listed separately, so the equipment and the works can be funded appropriately.

Stage 5: people and compliance

Costs:

• Food safety supervisor certification. Food Standards Australia New Zealand says category one and two food businesses must appoint a certified food safety supervisor under Standard 3.2.2A, introduced in December 2023, plus food handler training requirements apply.
• Recruitment and pre-opening training wages
• Payroll setup: PAYG withholding registration, STP-enabled software, workers compensation insurance
• Uniforms

Wages: the Fair Work Ombudsman says the Restaurant Award covers cafés where the business mainly sells food and drinks to be eaten on the premises or offers table service. Weekend and public holiday penalty rates matter a lot in café rosters, so cost your actual roster. Super is 12% from 1 July 2025, and from 1 July 2026 Payday Super means it’s paid with each pay run.

Stage 6: the week before opening

Costs:

• Opening stock — coffee, milk, food ingredients, packaging
• Launch marketing — signage, social media, a soft-opening event
• Final top-ups and small items you forgot

Stage 7: the first weeks after opening

This is the stage most budgets forget. Takings build gradually as locals discover you. Meanwhile:

• Wages and super run every pay cycle
• Rent and outgoings are due (unless you negotiated rent-free time)
• Suppliers want paying — often on delivery until accounts are established
• Equipment finance repayments begin

A working capital buffer covering several weeks of fixed costs and wages is what separates a stressful opening from a manageable one.

Putting it on a timeline (illustrative)

Stage	What’s typically paid	Common funding
Before lease	Legal, registrations	Owner funds
Lease signed	Bond or guarantee, approvals, design	Owner funds
Fit-out	Deposit, progress payments, services, signage	Owner funds + property-secured loan
Equipment	Machine, kitchen gear, POS, furniture	Equipment finance (often with deposit)
People and compliance	Training, certification, pre-opening wages	Owner funds or working capital
Opening week	Stock, marketing	Owner funds or working capital
First weeks	Wages, rent, suppliers, repayments	Working capital buffer or line of credit

Illustrative example: A barista with years of experience opens her first café in a suburban strip. She negotiates eight weeks rent-free for the fit-out, funds the machine, grinders and kitchen gear through equipment finance with a deposit, and borrows against her apartment for the fit-out and an opening buffer. Her forecast assumes takings reach break-even only after a couple of months, so the buffer is sized to carry wages and rent until then. When trade builds faster than expected, the buffer stays largely untouched.

Five money mistakes new café owners make

1. Treating the fit-out quote as the total opening budget
2. Signing the shopfitter’s contract before funding is confirmed
3. Underestimating weekend and public holiday wage costs
4. Ordering the machine late, delaying opening while rent runs
5. No buffer for the first quiet weeks

For a broader view of café funding beyond opening — upgrades, refreshes and second sites — see our café finance page.

Building your opening budget

Rather than starting with someone else’s estimate of what a café “should” cost, build your own from the bottom up:

1. Fit-out — itemised quotes from at least two shopfitters, including services and signage.
2. Equipment — itemised quotes for the machine, grinders, refrigeration, cooking gear, POS and furniture.
3. Approvals and compliance — council fees, food business registration, food safety supervisor certification.
4. People — recruitment, pre-opening training wages, uniforms.
5. Opening stock and marketing.
6. Working capital — several weeks of wages, super, rent and supplier payments after opening.
7. Contingency.

Then decide which parts you’ll fund yourself, which suit equipment finance and which need a business loan. The fit-out budget builder adds up the premises side and suggests a funding split.

Choosing equipment with cash flow in mind

The machine is the centrepiece, but it doesn’t have to be the most expensive model on the market. Size it to your expected peak trade with some room to grow, and consider whether a quality used machine from a reputable supplier would do the job for the first few years. Ask about service response times — a machine that’s down on a Saturday morning costs more than its repayments. Grinders deserve the same thought: good grinders protect the quality of every cup and often matter more to regulars than the badge on the machine. Many owners also keep a small, simple backup option for emergencies so service never stops completely.

Open with your funding mapped out

The best café openings are the ones where the money was planned stage by stage. Tell us about your café plans, your timeline and what you can contribute. A real person will map the right funding to each stage, so payments land when they should. There’s no credit check when you first enquire, your plans aren’t passed around a roomful of lenders, and honest answers about your budget help us match you properly the first time. Plan your café funding.