The opportunity and the cash flow do not always arrive in the same month. Working capital is capital for the running of the business, reviewed on how the business actually performs and subject to underwriting and approval.
Illustrative diagram of the review path. Amounts, structures and terms are decided at underwriting, and nothing here is an offer of credit.
Stock bought ahead of a season, a refit, or the gap between paying for inventory and selling it.
A build-out, a kitchen replacement, or covering the quiet months in between.
Forecourt work, compliance upgrades and store remodels — none of which happen cheaply.
More chairs, better equipment, or a second location once the first one is full.
Hiring ahead of the work, or bridging the gap between invoicing and being paid.
Six stages. The parts you control are all at the start: what the capital is for, and how completely you can document the business behind the request.
What the capital is for, and when it is needed. A specific purpose is far easier to review than a general request for money.
The business, its ownership and its trading history, submitted as one file rather than in pieces over a fortnight.
Business bank statements, processing statements where card volume is part of the picture, and whatever else the review needs to understand the revenue.
Trading performance, consistency, time in business, existing obligations, and how the business has handled money before.
Approved, declined, or approved on a structure different from the one discussed. The terms arrive with the decision rather than ahead of it.
If it proceeds, everything is documented before anything moves — and a business that performs is an easier conversation the next time.
Nothing here is an offer of credit. Availability, amounts, structures and terms are decided at underwriting and differ between businesses. No approval, amount or timeframe is promised on this page, and any figure discussed before a decision is an illustration.
That distinction is worth a minute, because it decides which page answers your question. Equipment financing is its own thing — it is attached to an asset. Working capital is a purpose. A merchant cash advance and term funding are two of the shapes an arrangement can take, and they behave very differently once they are running.
Most of what slows a decision down is missing information rather than a difficult business.
A funding review is trying to answer one question: does this business generate enough, consistently enough, to support what is being asked for? Everything below exists to make that question easier to answer accurately — which is in your interest as much as anyone else’s, because an approval built on an incomplete picture is not a favor.
If something is unusual — a weak quarter, a relocation, a large one-off payment — say so up front. Explained, it is context. Discovered later, it is a question mark.
Working capital is subject to underwriting and approval. Amounts, structures and terms differ by business and are decided at review. Nothing here is an offer of credit.
A funding company that has never seen your business starts from a blank page. When processing, equipment and capital sit inside one relationship, the review begins with a trading picture that already exists — a shorter conversation, and a more accurate one.
Anything about amounts, structures or timing depends on the business — which is why those answers come after a review rather than before one.
All Funding OptionsThat is decided at underwriting, and it depends on the business — its trading performance, how consistent that performance is, how long it has been going, and what it already owes. No amount appears on this page, because a figure given before a review is a guess dressed up as an answer.
Structures and terms differ by business and arrive with a decision rather than before one. If you are given a rate, a factor or a repayment schedule before your file has been reviewed, treat it as an illustration and ask what it is based on.
It depends on how complete the file is and on what the review turns up, so no timeframe is promised here. The part you control is the documentation: a complete application is reviewed in one pass, while an incomplete one goes back and forth.
Funding and processing are separate services, and a review is about the business rather than about which processor it uses. In practice, when both sit inside one relationship the review starts from a trading picture that already exists — which usually makes for a shorter conversation.
No, and nobody honest will tell you otherwise. Working capital is subject to underwriting and approval. An application may be approved, declined, or approved on a structure different from the one that was discussed. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit.
If what you need is terminals or POS hardware, equipment financing is usually the more direct route — it is tied to the asset and reviewed on that basis. Working capital is for the running of the business rather than for one purchase. Some businesses use both; they remain separate arrangements with separate reviews.
A purpose. It describes what the money does — cover a gap, buy stock, meet payroll on time, get through a quiet season — rather than the shape of the arrangement that provides it. Two of the structures that commonly carry it have pages of their own on this site, because they behave very differently: a merchant cash advance is a purchase of future card receipts and is not a loan, while term funding is a fixed amount on a fixed repayment schedule.
Which structure fits is settled at review, against what the business is for and how it trades. It is not picked from a menu, and it is not decided before anyone has looked.
That depends entirely on the structure, and it is one of the most important questions to ask before signing anything. A fixed schedule is fixed: the payment is the same in a quiet month as in a busy one. A sales-linked structure moves with the takings, which is easier in a slow month and finishes sooner in a strong one. Neither is better in the abstract — they suit different businesses, and the answer for yours comes out of the review rather than out of a preference.
Capital, reviewed on the business.
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.
