Everything here is free, and none of it needs your email.
No email wall. No “download the PDF.” Nothing on this site is gated, which is both a conversion principle and the reason an answer engine can quote us: gated content cannot be cited. The numbers are on the page.
The launch set
Ten guides, each written to answer one question an operator actually types. Until each one is published, the underlying numbers are already live on the product page it points to — nothing here is behind a form.
Toast Capital vs. a working capital advance: the real math
Answers: “Is Toast Capital a good deal?”
Holdback math at 10%, 15% and 20% against a 3–5% net margin, the fixed-ACH comparison, and the cash-sales blind spot that costs a heavy-cash operator its approval size.
Prime cost: the only number that tells you if you can afford a payment
Answers: “What is a good prime cost for a restaurant?”
Food at about 33% plus labor at about 33% is roughly 66% against a 55–60% target, and how an underwriter converts prime cost into payment capacity.
The shoulder-season plan: what to do in August so February doesn’t hurt
Answers: “How do restaurants survive the slow season?”
April through August is peak, January and February are the floor, holiday dine-in dips up to 20% — and why you open the line in July rather than the week you need it.
Stacked advances: how to get out, in order
Answers: “How do I consolidate merchant cash advances?”
The order of operations, why a term loan is usually the fix, and exactly what SBA will and will not refinance.
What an underwriter sees in your three bank statements
Answers: “What do lenders look for in bank statements?”
Average daily balance, deposit count, NSF tolerance at three in 90 days, and the floor-not-average rule that sizes your payment.
SBA for restaurants, by the data
Answers: “Do restaurants get approved for SBA loans?”
41,841 loans, $483,000 average, 148-month average term, and a 9.9% charge-off rate against 15.4% all-industry.
What restaurant equipment actually costs in 2026
Answers: “How much does a walk-in cooler cost?”
The full price table — cooking line, refrigeration, ventilation, front of house, mobile and dish — expanded with lead times.
Why bars get declined, and what to do about it
Answers: “Can a bar get a business loan?”
SIC-code declines, what a liquor-heavy revenue mix means to an underwriter, and why a weekly structure beats a daily one for a Thursday-to-Sunday venue.
The restaurant funding glossary
Answers: “What does holdback mean?”
Holdback, split funding, ACH, factor, payback, stacking, reverse consolidation, UCC-1, personal guarantee, lockbox, prime cost, covers, turns.
Financing a second location: the 14-item checklist
Answers: “How do I finance a second restaurant location?”
Real cost ranges — $200,000 to $500,000 for an independent full-service build-out — which product at which stage, and the LOI-to-funding timeline.
Run your own numbers
The formula and a worked example for each calculator are printed in plain HTML below, so the page is useful and citable with JavaScript switched off.
Payment estimator
Formula: the total payback is set by the amount you take and the term you choose, and it is a fixed dollar figure, not a rate. Daily payment = payback ÷ (months × 21 business days). Weekly payment = payback ÷ (months × 52/12 weeks). Payment amounts round up, so the debit is never larger than the number you were shown.
Worked example: $150,000 over 12 months → total payback $190,500, cost of funding $40,500, daily $756, weekly $3,664.
Prime cost
Formula: prime cost = (cost of goods sold + total labor including taxes and benefits) ÷ total sales.
Worked example: $120,000 in sales, $39,600 food and beverage cost, $39,600 labor → prime cost 66%. The industry target is 55–60%. Every point above target is $1,200 a month that cannot service a payment.
Break-even covers
Formula: break-even covers per day = (fixed monthly costs ÷ contribution margin per cover) ÷ days open per month.
Worked example: $48,000 fixed monthly costs, $22 average check, 34% contribution margin → $7.48 per cover → 6,417 covers a month → about 214 covers a day on a 30-day month.
Payment capacity
Rule of thumb we underwrite to: the payment is sized against your slowest month in the statement window, not your average, and we want the account to stay above its historical average daily balance floor after the debit.
Worked example: a restaurant depositing $100,000 in its best month and $70,000 in its worst is sized off the $70,000, which is why seasonal operators should send four statements rather than three.
Done reading? Get a real number.
Four minutes and three bank statements. Offer in about four business hours, funded in 24.