Capital
Loans read from the ledger, not the tax return.
Banks underwrite restaurants on last year's paperwork and say no. We underwrite on the books Garde keeps every day, and we stay in them after the wire lands.
Commercial loans to operating restaurants, one to ten locations, in the United States.
Why a bank says no
And why we can say yes
A restaurant's tax return is twelve months old by the time a bank sees it, and it was prepared to minimize taxable income. It cannot tell anyone whether the kitchen is well run. So the bank asks for collateral and a credit score, and a good operator with a thin personal balance sheet hears no.
We already journal every day's sales, line-item every invoice, reconcile every delivery payout and close the month. We underwrite from that ledger. You do not prepare a package. You connect your systems and keep operating.
After funding, the ledger keeps reporting. If prime cost drifts two points, you and we see it the same week, and the accounting team that noticed is already in the books to help fix it. A bank finds out when a payment is missed. We find out a quarter earlier.
Eight things the ledger has to show us
None of these come from a form. They come from the point of sale, the invoices, the payroll and the bank, read by people who read restaurant ledgers all day.
- Sales, daily, by daypart and channel.Twelve months or more, so we see the trend, the seasons, and how much is third-party delivery.
- Prime cost, and which way it is moving.Food plus labor as a share of sales. The direction matters more than the number.
- Delivery margin net of commissions.DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub payouts reconciled against orders, so we know what a delivery sale is worth.
- Days of cash through the slowest month.Not the average balance. The low point, and how the restaurant got through it last year.
- Vendor concentration and price movement.Who you buy from, how much is one supplier, and which ingredients have crept up unnoticed.
- Occupancy, and the lease term left.Rent as a share of sales, and whether the lease outlasts the loan.
- How cleanly the month closes.A restaurant that closes in four days with no plugs is run differently from one that closes in four weeks.
- Counts that reconcile to purchases and sales.Inventory that ties out tells us the kitchen is managed, not just busy.
Indicative terms, on one page.
These are the ranges we work in. Rates, fees and covenants are written into the term sheet before any commitment, in words you do not need a lawyer to read.
- Repayment
- A fixed amount each month, or a share of each day's settled sales. Chosen per loan. Slow weeks pay less. Strong weeks pay down faster.
- Security
- Cash flow first. Business assets; a personal guarantee case by case. We would rather read the ledger than take your house.
- Who qualifies
- Open twelve months or more, one to ten locations, in the United States, books on Garde or migrated during underwriting.
- What it costs
- A rate and, on some loans, an origination fee, both on the term sheet. No fee to apply. No fee for the books.
What we fund
Four uses, each with the repayment that fits it.
Plain answers
Before you apply
- Do I have to put my books on Garde?
- Yes, for the life of the loan, and it is included. It is how we underwrite and how we stay useful afterward. If you are already a Garde customer, we start from the data you have.
- What if I have a slow month?
- If you chose repayment as a share of sales, a slow month pays less by design. If you chose a fixed payment, you will have heard from us before the month got slow, because we read the same ledger you do.
- Will you ask for a personal guarantee?
- Sometimes, and we will tell you why. We lend against cash flow first. A guarantee is for when the ledger is short and the operator is strong.
- My books are a mess. Can I still apply?
- Yes. Messy books are most of the books we see. Onboarding to Garde cleans them up, and you keep the clean books whether or not we lend.
- How fast can I have the money?
- About two weeks to connect point of sale, invoices, payroll and bank, then ten business days to a decision, then a wire. Faster if you are already on Garde.
Indicative only. Rates, fees and covenants are set per loan and disclosed in the term sheet before any commitment. Garde Holdings makes commercial loans to businesses, not consumer loans.