Is BYO finance actually allowed under my salary package?

Yes. Salary packaging rules govern how the lease is administered, not who provides the finance. Administrators package externally-financed leases routinely.

Is a self-managed novated lease the same as BYO finance?

Yes. Self-managed, BYO (bring your own) finance, finance-only, employee-arranged and externally financed all describe the same arrangement: you source the finance on the car and your existing salary packaging administrator continues to run the deductions. The business that arranges that finance for you is sometimes called a third party introducer — that is the role millarX plays, as a credit assistance provider under its own Australian credit licence. Providers differ over which word they use, so being told they do not offer one of them is often a vocabulary mismatch rather than a policy. If one term is not recognised, ask again using another.

Is millarX an approved South Australian Government novated leasing provider?

No, and neither is any other BYO provider. The SA Government BYO Lease Framework expressly prohibits a BYO provider from presenting itself as an approved, authorised, reviewed or endorsed SA Government provider, and Smart remains the exclusive salary packaging provider under SAGSSA. What the framework does is set out a route for an employee to bring their own finance and name novated leasing providers as parties it applies to. Any provider telling you it is SA Government approved is describing something the framework does not allow it to claim.

What does a BYO lease under the SA Government framework have to disclose?

The framework prescribes the disclosures a BYO quote must carry: the amount financed, the fortnightly finance payment, administration costs, the effective interest rate, a breakdown of everything included in the financed amount, fees and commissions including brokerage, operating costs and the methodology behind those assumptions, the residual value and percentage, and the relevant warnings. The effective interest rate and the brokerage inside the finance are the two figures a bundled novated lease quote usually does not separate out.

Who submits the BYO paperwork to Smart — me or the provider?

You do. The framework states that submitting the completed documentation to Smart is “the responsibility of the employee’s not the BYO provider”. That documentation is the completed quote template, the BYO Provider Attestation, the employee attestation and the supporting documents. Once it is approved, Smart makes the regular lease payment to the BYO provider and administers the reimbursements for fuel, registration, servicing, insurance and other operating costs.

Will my administrator push back?

It's business as usual for them — we hand over the documents in the format they expect, and we deal with them directly so you don't have to.

Does anything change for payroll?

No. Your pre-tax deductions, running-cost budgets and reporting all continue through your administrator exactly as before.

What if I leave Department for Education (South Australia)?

Same as any novated lease — the finance travels with you. You can re-novate with a new employer or continue repayments directly.

I work part-time / casual — does this still work?

If you're eligible for salary packaging with your employer, you're eligible to BYO the finance. The saving works the same way.

Where does the saving come from?

The finance bundled into a novated quote usually carries a margin on top of the lender's rate. BYO replaces that finance with a transparent millarX loan on the same car and the same term — the management side of the lease is untouched.

Can Department for Education (South Australia) employees bring their own novated lease finance?

Yes, with conditions

Yes, subject to specific requirements. Department for Education (South Australia)'s salary packaging arrangement accepts external finance, but it sets conditions on how — the detail below sets out what we know of them, and your employer confirms how they apply to you.

What this is based on:

South Australian Government Salary Sacrifice Arrangements — Bring Your Own (BYO) Lease Framework, Version 2 — Released 2 July 2024, applying to BYO leases settled from 1 July 2024. Covers circumstances where an employee arranges finance, vehicle sourcing and/or disposal and relevant insurances themselves or through a third-party novated leasing provider instead of using Smart’s fully maintained leasing option, and states that it applies to financiers, novated leasing providers, fleet providers and salary packaging providers. Smart remains the exclusive SAGSSA salary packaging administrator, and the framework prohibits a BYO provider presenting itself as an approved, authorised, reviewed or endorsed SA Government provider.

Last verified September 2026. Arrangements change, and they can differ between agencies and business units — your employer confirms what applies to you.

Department for Education (South Australia) employees can keep their existing salary packaging administrator and replace only the finance portion of a novated lease with a millarX loan — payroll deductions, running-cost budgets and the administrator all stay the same.

What you need to do

Ask Department for Education (South Australia) payroll the question below — One email settles it. We have written it for you — it names no provider, so it is a neutral question about your own arrangement rather than a request to use anyone in particular.
Get a finance quote to compare — Price the car you are actually looking at. You need a real number to put next to the bundled quote — the difference is almost entirely in the interest rate, and that is the part the bundled quote does not itemise.
Hand the approval to Smart — They need written finance approval, the dealer invoice and the lease schedule. We send all three in the format administrators file without asking twice, and we chase what is outstanding rather than leaving it with you.
Everything else stays as it is — Smart continues to run your payroll deductions, running-cost budgets and FBT reporting exactly as before. Nobody at work has to do anything differently.

The question to send payroll

Copy this as it is. It names no finance provider, so it asks about your own arrangement rather than requesting anyone in particular.

I'm looking at taking out a novated lease. Could you confirm whether I'm able to arrange the finance on the vehicle myself — sometimes called a self-managed or BYO finance novated lease — and have Smart administer it, rather than using the financier bundled into the quote? If that's possible, what does Smart need from the financier to set it up?

The arrangement you are asking for is called a self-managed novated lease. If you want the detail first, how it works, step by step.

See what it is worth before you commit

Upload the bundled quote you are holding and we will line up every contracted dollar against an externally financed lease. No email needed to see the result. Compare my quote.

The swap that could save you thousands

The loan hiding inside your Department for Education (South Australia) lease carries a quiet markup. Swap it for a millarX loan — that's it. Nothing else changes, nobody at work does anything differently, and the difference stays in your pocket.

A novated lease is two things. You only need to change one of them.

Every novated lease is finance (the loan on the car) plus management (payroll deductions, budgets, running costs). Your Department for Education (South Australia) administrator handles the management brilliantly — but the bundled finance usually carries a hidden margin. BYO swaps just that part.

Your journey, step by step

Quote — MILLARX
Finance approval — MILLARX
Finance settlement — MILLARX
Car collection — YOU
Paperwork to salary packager — MILLARX HELPS. Our automated system guides you through it
Ongoing management — PACKAGER

millarX handles

The vehicle finance & competitive rate
Setting up the lease paperwork
Getting the deal packaged & handed to your salary packager
Re-finance and payouts down the track

Your salary packager handles

Running-cost budgets (fuel/charging, insurance, servicing, rego, tyres)
Your claims & reimbursements
Pre-tax / post-tax payroll deductions with your employer
Ongoing account management & support

Department for Education (South Australia) employees are packaged through Smart. Nothing about that changes.

What your salary packager asks for — and how we make it easy

A BYO lease asks your administrator for the same paperwork any novated lease does. The difference is who chases it. Here is every item they'll want, and what happens on our side of it.

Written confirmation your finance is approved: We send the formal approval — lender, amount, term, residual — the day it comes through, in the format administrators file without asking twice.
The dealer quote or tax invoice for the car: We check the invoice is made out correctly before it goes anywhere, then forward it. A wrong purchaser or GST treatment is the single most common cause of a delayed settlement.
The lease documents and lease schedule: millarX prepares and settles the lease, so the schedule showing rate, term, residual and repayment already exists when they ask for it.
A deed of novation for you and your employer to sign: The administrator issues it. We complete the finance side, explain the two pages that matter, and chase the signatures — the employer execution is arranged through your administrator, not by you.
The exact repayment and start date, to set your payroll deduction: We confirm both in writing and time settlement so your first deduction lands on a full pay cycle rather than a part one.
A comprehensive insurance certificate noting the financier: We give you the exact wording your insurer needs to record millarX as the interested party, so it is right the first time.
Your running-cost budget — kms, fuel or charging, servicing, tyres, rego: This one stays entirely with your administrator. BYO changes the finance only, so the budget you set with them is untouched.

Can South Australian Government employees use their own novated lease finance?

Yes — South Australia publishes an express framework for it. The “South Australian Government Salary Sacrifice Arrangements — Bring Your Own (BYO) Lease Framework” (Version 2, 2 July 2024) permits an employee to arrange their own finance, vehicle and insurances, or to do so through a third-party novated leasing provider, instead of taking Smart’s fully maintained leasing option. Smart remains the salary packaging administrator and keeps running the deductions. Compliance with the framework’s requirements is mandatory.

South Australian Government employees do not have to argue for the right to bring their own finance — the Government has written the rules for it.

Most jurisdictions leave BYO finance to be inferred from what a salary packaging contract does not prohibit. South Australia is different: it publishes a framework that sets out how a Bring Your Own lease works, who may provide one, and what they have to disclose. It applies to BYO leases settled from 1 July 2024.

The framework describes a BYO lease as covering circumstances where:

“an employee arranges finance, vehicle sourcing and/or disposal and relevant insurances themselves or through a third-party novated leasing provider, instead of using Smart’s fully maintained leasing option.”

It states that it applies to companies providing any aspect of a BYO lease, including:

“financiers”
“novated leasing providers”
“fleet providers”
“salary packaging providers”

Smart still runs your salary packaging

A BYO lease does not take you out of the SA Government’s salary packaging arrangements. Smart remains the exclusive salary packaging administrator. Once a BYO lease is approved, Smart makes the regular lease payment to the BYO provider and administers the payments and reimbursements for fuel, registration, servicing, insurance and other operating expenses, exactly as it would on a lease it financed itself.

The paperwork route runs through you rather than through the provider. The employee submits the completed quote template, provider attestation, employee attestation and supporting documentation to Smart — the framework is explicit that this is:

“the responsibility of the employee’s not the BYO provider.”

The conditions are mandatory, not guidance

A BYO lease must use the Employee Contribution Method and the SA Government-approved Deed of Novation, and the finance has to be structured around the SA Government’s two-month payment deferral. The provider must comply with the South Australian Cyber Security Framework, meet the relevant FBT, GST and tax requirements, and complete a BYO Provider Attestation for every lease. A lease that does not meet the requirements does not proceed.

What the framework makes a provider disclose

The framework prescribes what a BYO quote has to show. The list is, in substance, a transparency standard:

“amount financed”
“fortnightly finance payment”
“administration costs”
“effective interest rate”
“breakdown of everything included in the financed amount”
“fees and commissions, including brokerage”
“operating costs and the methodology behind the operating-cost assumptions”
“residual value and percentage”
“relevant warnings”

That is close to the disclosure millarX argues every novated lease quote should carry anyway — the effective interest rate and the brokerage inside the finance are the two figures a bundled quote almost never separates out. In South Australia, the Government requires them.

Nobody is an “approved” SA Government leasing provider

This matters, and it cuts against anyone marketing to you. The framework prohibits a BYO provider from presenting itself as an approved, authorised, reviewed or endorsed SA Government provider, and Smart remains the exclusive salary packaging provider under SAGSSA. A BYO provider also cannot use the arrangement to sell you broader salary packaging services.

So millarX makes no claim to be an approved SA Government provider, and you should treat any novated leasing company that does with caution. What the framework establishes is narrower and more useful: the Government has set out a route for an SA Government employee to bring their own finance, and named novated leasing providers as parties that route applies to.

Already holding a quote from Smart?

The fastest way to see whether BYO is worth pursuing is to price the finance inside the quote you already have. millarX can compare the finance component independently and show you the difference in dollars, before you commit to any of the framework’s paperwork.

Compare the finance in your quote

Before accepting a fully maintained quote, SA Government employees can ask:

“Can I arrange this as a BYO lease under the SA Government BYO Lease Framework, with Smart continuing to administer it?”

If the answer is no, ask which requirement of the framework is not met — the framework itself contemplates the arrangement, so a refusal should point to a specific condition.

Source: Government of South Australia — Salary sacrifice (Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment). The governing document is “South Australian Government Salary Sacrifice Arrangements — Bring Your Own (BYO) Lease Framework”, Version 2, released 2 July 2024, applying to BYO leases settled from 1 July 2024. The Commissioner’s salary sacrifice page confirms Smart as the Government’s salary packaging partner and directs employees to the detailed arrangements; SAGSSA enquiries go to SAGSSAQuestions@sa.gov.au.

Already holding a bundled quote? Prove it against ours.

Drop the quote in and we'll line up every contracted dollar against a millarX BYO lease — in plain English, no email needed to see the result. Compare your quote.

People who BYO'd and kept the difference

I cannot speak highly enough of the team at MillarX, and the founder Ben. Like a lot of people, I was locked into a particular novated leasing company as dictated by my employer. The car finance portion of the contract they offered did not look competitive compared to other options. I thought that I just had to accept it and look at the savings in income tax as a bonus to offset the fact the finance portion of the arrangement was not as sharp as some other lenders. A work friend put me on to MillarX, and all the info they have on their website about BYO finance. The staff I spoke to at the novated leasing company were either willfully opaque or perhaps just woefully ill informed, but three different people I spoke to made it sound like that was NOT an option, but Ben explained it all to me and once I understood, I had the confidence to call back and insist I speak with someone about the BYO finance option. Ben saved us over $10k in repayments on the car loan over 5 years!! Ben is very patient, transparent and aims to make you feel informed and empowered to make smart choices. Do not accept a terrible interest rate out of the gate from a novated leasing company — find out if you can BYO finance, and make sure you contact Ben for a quote.
Fleur Bedford — 5-star Google review

GOATed novated leasing experience. Full transparency, no pushy sales tactics, and reasonable rates. Can't thank the team enough for sorting out my NL in 2 business days. Incredible.
Hudson Yao — 5-star Google review

Fair questions

Is BYO finance actually allowed under my salary package?: Yes. Salary packaging rules govern how the lease is administered, not who provides the finance. Administrators package externally-financed leases routinely.
Is a self-managed novated lease the same as BYO finance?: Yes. Self-managed, BYO (bring your own) finance, finance-only, employee-arranged and externally financed all describe the same arrangement: you source the finance on the car and your existing salary packaging administrator continues to run the deductions. The business that arranges that finance for you is sometimes called a third party introducer — that is the role millarX plays, as a credit assistance provider under its own Australian credit licence. Providers differ over which word they use, so being told they do not offer one of them is often a vocabulary mismatch rather than a policy. If one term is not recognised, ask again using another.
Can South Australian Government employees choose their own novated lease financier?: Yes. The South Australian Government Salary Sacrifice Arrangements — Bring Your Own (BYO) Lease Framework (Version 2, 2 July 2024) covers circumstances where “an employee arranges finance, vehicle sourcing and/or disposal and relevant insurances themselves or through a third-party novated leasing provider, instead of using Smart’s fully maintained leasing option”, and applies to BYO leases settled from 1 July 2024. Smart remains the exclusive salary packaging administrator and continues to run the payroll deductions and operating-cost reimbursements. Compliance with the framework’s requirements is mandatory.
Is millarX an approved South Australian Government novated leasing provider?: No, and neither is any other BYO provider. The SA Government BYO Lease Framework expressly prohibits a BYO provider from presenting itself as an approved, authorised, reviewed or endorsed SA Government provider, and Smart remains the exclusive salary packaging provider under SAGSSA. What the framework does is set out a route for an employee to bring their own finance and name novated leasing providers as parties it applies to. Any provider telling you it is SA Government approved is describing something the framework does not allow it to claim.
What does a BYO lease under the SA Government framework have to disclose?: The framework prescribes the disclosures a BYO quote must carry: the amount financed, the fortnightly finance payment, administration costs, the effective interest rate, a breakdown of everything included in the financed amount, fees and commissions including brokerage, operating costs and the methodology behind those assumptions, the residual value and percentage, and the relevant warnings. The effective interest rate and the brokerage inside the finance are the two figures a bundled novated lease quote usually does not separate out.
Who submits the BYO paperwork to Smart — me or the provider?: You do. The framework states that submitting the completed documentation to Smart is “the responsibility of the employee’s not the BYO provider”. That documentation is the completed quote template, the BYO Provider Attestation, the employee attestation and the supporting documents. Once it is approved, Smart makes the regular lease payment to the BYO provider and administers the reimbursements for fuel, registration, servicing, insurance and other operating costs.
Will my administrator push back?: It's business as usual for them — we hand over the documents in the format they expect, and we deal with them directly so you don't have to.
Does anything change for payroll?: No. Your pre-tax deductions, running-cost budgets and reporting all continue through your administrator exactly as before.
What if I leave Department for Education (South Australia)?: Same as any novated lease — the finance travels with you. You can re-novate with a new employer or continue repayments directly.
I work part-time / casual — does this still work?: If you're eligible for salary packaging with your employer, you're eligible to BYO the finance. The saving works the same way.
Where does the saving come from?: The finance bundled into a novated quote usually carries a margin on top of the lender's rate. BYO replaces that finance with a transparent millarX loan on the same car and the same term — the management side of the lease is untouched.

Ready to keep the difference?

Request a BYO finance quote — we'll price the car you're looking at and show you exactly what to hand your Department for Education (South Australia) administrator. enquiries@millarx.com.au · 1800 498 500 · ABN 15 681 267 818 · ACL 569484