One of the biggest problems that small businesses face is the lack of access to capital, quick turnaround financing, and cash flow management. Here’s another blog where we deep dive in the superiority of cash flow over revenue metrics. When it comes to debt financing, it can be hard to choose the right lending service given the plethora of viable, yet differing, options. In this article, we put the spotlight on Quickbooks Capital (and a few other honorable mentions). Intuit Financing Inc. started offering Quickbooks Capital as one of their many services to provide decision makers with quick access to working capital.
Why Quickbooks Capital?
Is Quickbooks Capital The Right Fit For You?
First things first, if your business looks anything like the following:
Small business (less than 100 employees)
Looking for short term financing (less than 1 year)
Already an existing, active QBO user
If you check all of these boxes, then you should consider QBO Capital as a financing option for your business. Quickbooks Online Capital is not a referral service that recommends businesses with lenders. Quickbooks is lending their own capital to help entrepreneurs.
Quick and Easy
At Financial GPS, we know how valuable time is. So, with Quickbooks’ machine learning capabilities, it helps speed up the application process and uses your personal Quickbooks data to determine if you are eligible for the loan. It operates very similarly to Paypal Working Capital and Shopify Capital.
Applying Won’t Hurt!
This might be the best part of choosing QBO Capital. The nice aspect about Quickbooks is that they are not being secretive about anything. It is all out there for you to decide for yourself. There are no prepayment penalties and no fees that you should not be unaware of.
Here's where the applying won't hurt come in: "Applying for QuickBooks Capital won’t affect your credit score in any way". Quickbooks performs what they call a "soft pull", which doesn’t affect your personal credit rating or score. However, your business credit history may be affected when you apply for a loan.
“Intuit is uniquely positioned to innovate in this space because of the breadth and depth of data small businesses have entrusted us with,” explained Succar (TechCrunch).
This lending service is powered by Artificial Intelligence. With this innovative ability, Quickbooks is able to forecast the cash flow for what that company should be expecting next in order to pay the loan back. With the synced Quickbooks data, the process in the model learns and comes up with the best offer for the company.
What Are the Alternatives to QBO Capital?
Find yourself not eligible for Quickbooks Capital or want to do further research? No sweat, there are plenty of other popular alternatives out there that work with QBO. Here’s additional lenders that specifically partner with Quickbooks Capital to consider. In the Marketplace, you’ll find several options. We’re going to highlight the pros and cons on a few lending services that are specific to what a business could be looking for.
QBO Capital (for comparison)
Pros
Low rates (between 2.61% - 18.35%)
No origination fees or prepayment penalties
No hard credit check
Marketplace for long-term loans
Cons
Weekly repayments
Short terms of up to 12 months
Not available in Nevada or Alaska
Best Overall: Lendio
Pros
Multiple types of financing available
High borrowing amounts
Low credit score requirements (for some products)
Cons
Application process can be slow
Funds can take a while to disburse
Rates can be expensive
Fast Application Process: OnDeck
Small to medium sized businesses looking for a loan or line of credit with a fast application process
Best for getting a handle on operating costs due to excellent short/medium-term financing products on offer.
Pros
Multiple types of financing options available
The application process is quick and easy for when you need it the most asap
Funds are disbursed quickly
No interest charge on its term loans, repayment is a fixed rate
Save money by paying early
Cons
Rates can be expensive
Not available to businesses in some industries
Credit Not the Best?: Fundbox
Small businesses looking for invoice financing or a line of credit for consistent cash flow
Pros
Low credit score requirements (as low as 500 is accepted!)
Multiple types of financing available
Funds are disbursed quickly
Cons
Rates can be expensive
No long-term financing options available
Smooth Out Cash Flow: BlueVine
Small business looking for invoice factoring or a line of credit for consistent cash flow
Pros
Low credit score requirements
No long term contract required
Funds are disbursed quickly
Cons
Rates can be expensive
Repayments are required quickly
How to Apply for Quickbooks Capital?
We mentioned you have to be eligible, now here are a few qualifications to check out beforehand.
Now let’s just say you are eligible and qualify for this service. How to apply is simple and easy as a Quickbooks user. You can easily apply online by the following these steps (or call 800-556-9145).
Go to the Quickbooks Capital website
Click Get started
Log in to your business’s Quickbooks account
Follow the directions to fill out the application
Here’s two videos of what to expect and see how the process looks like. If you have further questions about funding by QBO Capital, here’s their general questions list.
The Verdict?
Keep in mind it’s important to understand and distinguish what each type of loan is and how they differ. Here are some to consider: installment loans, short-term loans, merchant cash advances, lines of credit, and invoicing factoring. Ask yourself these two questions:
Which loans am I eligible for?
What do I want to use this loan for?
At the end of the day, you are the one that knows your business best, and what it needs. You get to choose to decide on which loan is best for your business. Good luck!
Comments