Lightspeed is excited to offer eligible businesses access to quick financing through Lightspeed Capital. If you're looking for a speedy influx of capital to expand or renovate your business, Lightspeed Capital offers you a fast and easy path forward.
Eligible businesses will be contacted with a few different offer amounts, allowing you to choose the amount that works best for your business. The offer will outline how much you are eligible to receive and what the flat fee is for the cash advance. You'll gradually pay the advance back as a percentage of your daily transactions.
Once you’ve been approved and accepted an offer, you’ll typically see the funds in your bank account within 1-2 business days.
Applying for Lightspeed Capital
Lightspeed merchants using integrated payments are automatically reviewed for eligibility every month. The criteria for eligibility are based on several factors, including your transaction volume and history. You will be contacted via email if your business qualifies for an offer, and offers can be reviewed in the Back Office of Lightspeed Restaurant by navigating to Financial Services > Capital.
- Offers will remain available for up to 30 days, after which the offer will expire, and you will be reevaluated for eligibility as before.
- Eligible merchants using Lightspeed Payments will be able to apply directly from the Back Office of Lightspeed Restaurant.
If there are no offers available, your business is not currently eligible for funding. However, our eligibility requirements are frequently updated, so check back regularly if you’re interested in a cash advance for your business.
If you have questions about your eligibility or the amount you are eligible for, email us at capital.sales@lightspeedhq.com.
Accepting an offer
If your business is eligible for Lightspeed Capital, you will be contacted via email with your personalized offer. Offers can also be reviewed by navigating to Financial Services > Capital.
Your offer will outline:
- Financing amount: The amount that will be deposited into your bank account
- Flat fee: The fee you'll pay over time in exchange for the advance, there are no other fees, and there is no interest
- Total amount owed: The sum of the financing amount and the flat fee
- Holdback rate: The percentage of your daily card transactions that will be debited to pay down your financing.
For example, you may receive an offer that looks something like this:
- Financing amount: $30,000
- Flat fee: $4200
- Total amount owed: $34,200
- Holdback rate: 11%
If you accepted the example offer above, you would receive $30,000. Eleven percent of your daily transaction total would then be debited from your account until you've paid down the total amount owed of $34,200 (the $30,000 advance plus the $4200 flat fee).
How your Capital balance works
Regardless of how long it takes you to pay down the total amount of your Lightspeed Capital balance, you will never be charged more than the financing amount and the flat fee. There is no deadline to pay down the advance, and there is no accrued interest or late fees.
Your payment method is based on which credit card processor you use. Payments will begin the day after the advance has been deposited into your account.
Starting September 2025, all Lightspeed Payments customers who applied for Capital Advance will automatically be enrolled in the auto deduct payment feature. With automatic deductions, a percentage of your daily sales is automatically deducted from your Lightspeed Payments settlement to pay your Capital advance.
Once your sales day is done, your daily capital deduction is calculated based on the holdback percentage outlined in your accepted offer, then deducted from that day’s Lightspeed Payments settlement. You can be completely hands off knowing your Capital advance is being paid off, and focus on running your business.
If Lightspeed is unable to deduct the amount from your payout, the payment will be withdrawn directly from the bank account shared with Lightspeed.
If you're an existing Capital customer using the Direct debit payment method, nothing will change unless:
- You opt in to switch to auto deduct payment during your current Advance.
- You complete your current Advance and take on a new Capital Advance.
If you’re using a third-party payment processor, or if Lightspeed encountered an issue with your auto deduct payment, payments are debited directly from your bank account.
Once your sales day is done, your daily capital deduction is calculated using the holdback percentage outlined in your accepted offer, then debited from the bank account on file.
Using the same bank account for your credit card deposits and Lightspeed Capital can prevent most issues with Capital deductions.
Repaying early does not guarantee subsequent financing offers. Accounts are automatically reviewed for additional offers on a monthly basis, and we will reach out to you via email if you qualify for any additional offers.
Keeping your Capital advance in good standing
If an automatic deduction cannot be withdrawn from your account for any reason, we will notify you through the Financial Services tab.
It is recommended that you use the same bank account for both Lightspeed Payments and Lightspeed Capital to prevent issues with deduction.
Most commonly, deductions cannot be collected successfully due to an issue with your bank account or insufficient funds. Below is a short list of some of the most common reasons that a deduction cannot be collected:
- Changes to the bank account on file: If you have recently updated your bank account for Lightspeed Payments, ensure it has also been updated for Lightspeed Capital.
- Issues with direct debit: You may have made changes to your bank account preventing us from collecting deductions. Contact your bank to make changes or contact us for more information.
- Insufficient funds: There may not be enough funds in your account to make your Lightspeed Capital deduction. Add funds to your account to resolve the issue.
If you have any questions about your account, contact us for more information.
Checking your Lightspeed Capital statements
You can view your Capital advance details by navigating to Financial Services > Capital within the Lightspeed Restaurant Back Office.
Clicking on a specific advance will pull up a detailed account of payment progress.
Pending transactions have been initiated by Lightspeed Capital to collect from your bank, but have not yet been processed. These do not count towards your outstanding balance at this time. The balance will be updated once the transaction is processed. Pending transactions may take several days to process, depending on your bank.
Pending transactions are shown when Capital deductions are made using direct debit. If you're using auto deduct, you will not see a Pending transactions section.
Processed transactions have been processed by your bank and cleared or rejected. These count towards your outstanding balance.
There are several other transaction types. These include:
- Adjustment: An adjustment was made to your balance.
- Automatic deduction: Normal automatic deductions towards your outstanding balance.
- Chargeback: Funds were returned to your account due to a chargeback (you initiated cancellation of a transaction after it was processed by the bank).
- Credit: A discount/credit was offered towards your outstanding balance.
- One-time payment: You made an unscheduled, one-time payment towards your outstanding balance.
- Refund: A refund was issued to your account by Lightspeed Capital.
Any failed transaction will show the reason for the rejection. These include:
- Bank account issue: There is an issue with your bank account information. Contact Support to correct your information.
- Insufficient funds: There were insufficient funds in your bank account when the transaction was attempted to be processed. Make sure there are sufficient funds in your bank account to cover your scheduled payments.
- Rejected by bank: Your bank has blocked the payment due to a hold placed on your bank account. Contact your bank to inquire about the blocked transactions.
- Error: An unknown error occurred while collecting your payment. Contact Support for more information.
You will receive a monthly statement showing your payment progress, including Pending transactions, a breakdown of processed transactions, and your remaining balance. Statements are emailed to the email address used on your application.
Exporting your Capital statement
To export your full statement of an advance, navigate to the advance details page from Financial Services > Capital in the Lightspeed Restaurant back Office, then click Export. The statement will automatically download to your computer.
This statement will display your processed transactions and remaining balance.
Lightspeed Capital FAQ
The flexibility capital provides can be make-or-break for a business, and this service makes accessing capital easier. With traditional loans, you're forced to make fixed monthly payments with interest. Lightspeed Capital lets you pay as you earn, automatically deducting payments based on your holdback rate outlined in your offer.
Lightspeed will withhold a percentage of your daily credit card transactions, depending on your offer. This percentage, called a holdback rate, will be outlined in your offer. You pay more when business is good, and less when things slow down.
No. Lightspeed provides a merchant cash advance, which is not a loan. A loan is borrowed money, paid back according to a set schedule. A cash advance is remitted as a percentage of income on future sales. You pay back the total amount owed at the rate agreed to in your offer. No deadlines and no interest.
There is no set payment schedule or contract period.
There is no interest rate. You only pay the financing amount and the flat fee you agreed to when you accepted the offer.
Based on the amount of funds requested, there is an associated flat fee. This fee is displayed in the Capital section of the Financial Services tab of Lightspeed Back Office. The flat fee is paid as part of your regular payments towards the advance balance and isn’t due upfront.
A merchant can only have one active advance per location, but you may be eligible for a renewal or additional funding once a percentage of your total amount owed has been paid. If you’re interested in additional funding but haven’t received a renewal offer, contact us at capital@lightspeedhq.com.
Your payment has been processed, but it may take a few days to update in our system.
Additional questions?
If you have any questions or would like to discuss additional options, do not hesitate to contact Lightspeed support or email us.
For merchants currently enrolled in Lightspeed Capital who would like to discuss payment options or have questions about their account, email capital@lightspeedhq.com.
For merchants who would like to learn more about Lightspeed Capital, reach out to our sales team for more information at capital.sales@lightspeedhq.com.