Restaurant working capital is the most common funding need we see — and the one Toast restaurants get wrong most often. Operators wait until cash is critically tight before borrowing, then take whatever's available rather than what's structured well. Approached correctly, working capital is a routine operational tool: you take it before you need it, deploy it for productive purposes, and pay it back during your strongest weeks of the year.
What Working Capital Actually Funds for Restaurants
The biggest categories we see: bridging payroll between bi-weekly cycles when food costs spiked the week before; pre-paying produce vendors at a discount that exceeds the cost of capital; covering rent during a remodel that suspended dine-in revenue; buying inventory for a catering contract before the deposit lands; absorbing the cash impact of a third-party delivery payout delay. None of these are emergencies — they're operational realities of running a restaurant on tight margins.
Why Toast Operators Choose Working Capital Over a Shopify Capital Advance
Shopify Capital's product is structured as a single-use cash advance with daily POS holdback repayment. That works for one-time uses. For ongoing operational cash flow management, a working capital facility with fixed daily ACH is usually a better structural fit — you know exactly what you owe each day, you can budget against it, and you avoid the variable holdback during your slow weeks.
How Much Working Capital Should a Toast Restaurant Take?
Rule of thumb: 1.0x to 1.5x your trailing six-month average revenue, capped by what your debt service coverage can support. A restaurant doing $100K/month consistently can usually carry a $100K-$150K working capital facility comfortably. We'll model your specific debt service during underwriting and won't approve you for more than your operation can support.
Repayment Options That Match Your Cash Cycle
Standard fixed daily or weekly ACH (most common — predictable, easier accounting). Revenue-based holdback (small percentage of daily deposits, scales with sales). Hybrid structures for seasonal restaurants. We'll recommend the structure that fits your specific revenue pattern.
Speed Matters When Vendors Are Calling
From application to funds in your operating account: typically 4-24 hours. We process applications during business hours and fund same-day for applications submitted before 11 AM ET if all documentation is complete. The five-minute application is real — most operators are surprised.
5-minute application. Soft credit pull only. Funded in 4 hours for approved restaurants. Start your application →
