Funding by industry
Auto repair funding: two revenue streams to explain
A shop that does retail work and insurance work is really running two businesses at once. Retail customers pay when they collect the car; insurers and fleets pay sixty days later. A file that presents both as one number produces a cash rhythm that looks erratic, and erratic is the one thing an underwriter cannot price.
Elora is not a lender, bank or broker. We coordinate: we prepare the file and introduce it to appropriate funding sources, who make every credit decision. Nothing here is an offer, a rate quote or a guarantee of approval.
Two clocks running at the same time
The retail side settles same-day through the terminal. The insurance and fleet side is a receivable. Both are healthy, but they are underwritten differently, and separating them is the single most useful thing you can do to the file.
- Collision work behaves like an invoice, not a sale. The car leaves, the money arrives later. Deposits alone will not show that, so ageing has to sit next to them.
- Fleet accounts are the steadiest revenue a shop has, and the biggest concentration risk. If one fleet is most of the work, expect that to be the first question, and answer it before it is asked.
- Parts are bought before they are billed. A large parts purchase shows as money leaving. Saying what job it was for turns an outflow into work in progress.
- A cash-heavy shop reads thin on card volume. Perfectly normal in independent repair, and perfectly fine, but only if the file says so instead of letting the terminal statements speak for the whole business.
The documents that actually move an automotive file
Four items let a reviewer separate the two revenue streams without guessing.
| Document | Why it is asked for |
|---|---|
| Business bank statements - last 4 months | The baseline. Shows the real deposit rhythm and any existing daily debits, which in this trade are common enough to be checked for first. |
| Merchant processing statements - last 3 months | Isolates the retail side that settles same-day. What it does not show is the insurance and fleet work, which is precisely why the next document matters. |
| Receivables ageing for insurance and fleet work | The document that explains the gap between what the shop invoiced and what its bank account received. Most often missing. |
| Equipment list, with what is owned and what is financed | Lifts, alignment racks and diagnostic gear determine whether an asset-backed structure is available at all, and prevent already-pledged equipment being offered twice. |
If most of your work comes through one insurer programme or one fleet contract, say so in the file. Concentration is not disqualifying, but discovered concentration is treated far more harshly than declared concentration.
Which structures tend to fit and which rarely do
Parts and payroll go out weekly. Retail comes in daily and insurance in sixty days. Fit follows from that split.
| Structure | How it behaves |
|---|---|
| Revenue-based advance | Remittance follows the daily card rhythm, which matches the retail half well. The mismatch is the insurance half, where money has not arrived yet but the remittance still does. |
| Equipment financing | For a lift, an alignment rack or scanning equipment, the asset secures the transaction. Well matched to expansion; it does not solve a parts or payroll gap. |
| Receivables-backed funding | Fits the insurance and fleet side directly, because that is what it is built for. Requires clean ageing, which is exactly the document most shops do not keep. |
| Business line of credit | The best structural match for parts purchasing: draw for the job, repay when it is paid for. Expects longer history and cleaner books than most independent shops carry. |
We do not publish rates, amounts or terms. Those are set by the funding source for your specific file, and any figure quoted before underwriting would be a guess. How these structures differ, in plain English →
Why automotive files stall
In our experience preparing files, most delays are not credit decisions. They are gaps that could have been closed before submission.
- Insurance and retail presented as one number. The cash rhythm then looks erratic rather than simply mixed.
- No ageing for the insurance side. The reviewer sees invoices with no way to tell a thirty-day claim from a six-month one.
- One fleet account carrying the shop, unmentioned. It is visible in the deposits, and unexplained it reads as fragility.
- An existing advance already debiting daily. Visible in the statements. Disclosing it keeps the file with sources that permit it.
What happens if you start a review
You answer a short intake, upload documents through a secure portal, and a person — not an automated score — reads the file and tells you what is strong, what is missing and which kinds of funding source are a realistic fit. No upfront fees, and nothing at this stage affects your credit. If we cannot help, we say so.