Four routes, and the choice is not a matter of preference. What the money is attached to, and how steady the revenue behind it is, decide which one fits — and getting that right matters more than anything that comes after it.
Illustrative. Programs, amounts, costs and terms are subject to underwriting and approval, and nothing shown here is an offer of credit or of financing.
Read the four headings first. The one you do not recognize is usually the one that would have been the wrong application, and knowing that before you apply is worth more than any figure on a funding page.
Terminals, a POS setup, the peripherals around it and the install that makes it work. The equipment is part of the arrangement rather than something the funding happens to be spent on, which is what makes this route different — and it is why the right setup stops being a cash-flow decision and goes back to being an operational one.
Inventory before a busy season, payroll timing, a repair that cannot wait, a renovation, a second location. There is no single item to attach it to, so what it is assessed against is how the business actually trades — and working capital describes the PURPOSE, with the structure that carries it decided at review.
Not a loan. A set amount of future card receipts is purchased, and an agreed share of card takings is remitted until it has been delivered. A quiet week remits less and a strong week remits more, so there is no fixed payment to find on a date when the sales were not there. The cost is a fixed total rather than a rate, which is the part worth understanding properly before signing.
An agreed sum up front, repaid over a set period on a schedule fixed before it begins. Commonly called a business term loan. Its advantage is planning — a known payment on a known date goes into a forecast — and its cost is rigidity, because that payment does not move when a month is quiet.
Not a recommendation — a way of narrowing it down before anybody looks at your numbers. Most businesses reach the answer by the third question.
Funding decisions go wrong at the start far more often than at the end. A business that asks for capital when what it actually needs is equipment ends up with the wrong review; a business with seasonal takings that signs a fixed schedule finds out in its quietest month. Both are avoidable, and both are avoided in the first conversation rather than in the paperwork.
Work through these in order. They are the same four things a review will look at, so answering them first also makes the review shorter.
General information about how these structures differ, not financial, legal or accounting advice, and not a recommendation of any product for any business. Decisions of this kind are worth taking with your own advisor as well as with us.
Described without timings, because a timeline that depends on how quickly documents come back is not a timeline anybody should publish.
The purchase, or the gap. This is the fork, and it decides the route before anything else is discussed.
A first look at whether there is anything worth pursuing, before anything is submitted.
Business bank statements, processing statements where card volume is part of the revenue picture, and — on the equipment route — what is being acquired.
Trading performance, how consistent it is, time in business, and what the business already owes. The same four things the questions above ask you.
Approved, declined, or approved on a structure different from the one discussed. Any program, amount, cost and terms arrive with the decision rather than ahead of it.
Everything set out in writing before anything is signed — and, on the equipment route, installed and configured for the room.
No stage here carries a timescale, and none of them is a guarantee of the next. Programs, amounts, costs and terms are subject to underwriting and approval throughout, and a business can stop at any point before signing.
A business that only arranges one kind of funding will find a way to fit you into it. With four routes on the same relationship, a seasonal business asking about a fixed schedule gets told that a sales-linked structure may suit it better — and a business asking for capital when it needs equipment gets sent to the equipment page.
The questions that come before an application. The ones about your own numbers need somebody looking at them rather than a page.
Talk It ThroughStart with what the money is attached to. If it is a specific thing you are acquiring — terminals, a POS setup, the install around them — that is equipment financing, and the equipment forms part of the arrangement. If it is the running of the business, that is working capital, and the next question is which structure carries it.
That second question is the one the other two pages answer. Term funding is a fixed amount on a fixed schedule to a known end date. A merchant cash advance is not borrowing at all — it is a purchase of future card receipts, remitted as a share of sales. The first is predictable; the second flexes with your takings. Which suits depends on how steady your revenue is.
No. It is the purchase of a specified amount of your future card receipts, repaid by remitting a share of card sales rather than by making scheduled payments. There is no principal and no interest rate, and the cost is a fixed total rather than something that accrues — which is why settling early usually does not reduce it. The merchant cash advance page explains all of that properly, and it is worth reading before signing anything of that shape from anybody.
They are separate arrangements with separate underwriting, so wanting two does not make either automatic — and an arrangement already running is part of the review of the next one. What is true is that they sit on the same relationship and the same trading history, so the conversation does not start from scratch twice.
There is no figure on this page, and there should not be one. Amounts, costs and structures come out of underwriting on a specific business — its trading history, its processing activity and what is being funded. Anyone who can quote you a number before looking at those is quoting a marketing figure rather than an offer.
Not necessarily, but it changes the conversation. A processing relationship already shows real trading activity, which means a funding discussion can start from facts rather than from a blank application. Where that history does not exist yet, more of it has to be established a different way.
No. Funding and the cost of accepting a card are separate arrangements, and neither one prices the other. If a conversation ever ties them together, that is worth asking about specifically.
No. A pre-qualification conversation establishes whether there is anything worth pursuing before anything is submitted, and nothing on this site — including this page — is an offer of credit or of financing. Programs, amounts and terms are subject to underwriting and approval throughout.
A thing? Or the business? Start there.
Restaurant-ready POS, pay-at-table handhelds and equipment with no upfront cost for qualifying merchants. We start with a statement analysis — nothing changes until the numbers make sense.
Promotional terms and eligibility apply. Estimates only. Final pricing requires statement analysis and approval.
