Every business that processes payments has a cash flow story. Revenue comes in, expenses go out, and somewhere in between sits the capital needed to hire, expand, purchase equipment, manage inventory, or bridge a slow season. Most businesses treat the payment processor and the lending conversation as two entirely separate relationships. They do not have to be.
Proficient works with a network of commercial finance lenders across every major lending category. Because we see the cash flow directly through processing, the businesses we work with are positioned to access capital faster, with better context behind the application, and in the form that actually fits how their business operates.
Why payment processors and capital belong in the same conversation
A lender evaluating a business application is trying to answer one question: can this business repay? Processing data answers that question more directly than a tax return or a balance sheet. Revenue volume, transaction consistency, seasonality patterns, and chargeback ratios tell a complete story about how a business actually performs — not just how it looked at year-end.
When the processor and the lender are working from the same data, the underwriting conversation is faster and the approval is more accurately sized to what the business can actually support. That is the advantage of sourcing capital through a relationship that already knows your numbers.
The forms capital takes
Different business needs call for different capital structures. Proficient connects businesses to lenders across all of the following:
- Working capital loans — short-term funding for payroll, inventory, and operational gaps between revenue cycles
- Revenue-based financing — capital repaid as a percentage of monthly revenue, sized to cash flow rather than a fixed schedule
- Equipment financing and leasing — dedicated funding for machinery, technology, vehicles, or infrastructure with the asset itself as collateral
- Merchant cash advances — lump-sum advances repaid through a portion of daily card volume, available quickly with minimal documentation
- Business lines of credit — revolving access to capital drawn as needed, ideal for businesses with variable or seasonal cash flow
- Invoice factoring — immediate liquidity against outstanding receivables, converting unpaid invoices into working capital without waiting on customer payment cycles
- SBA-backed programs — government-supported lending for qualified businesses seeking longer terms and lower rates for expansion or acquisition
- Commercial real estate financing — purchase, refinance, or construction funding for businesses investing in their physical footprint
Matching the capital to the need
The wrong type of capital is expensive even when the rate looks right. A business that takes a 24-month term loan to solve a 90-day cash flow gap is paying interest on money it does not need for most of the loan period. A business that uses a revolving line to fund equipment it will use for seven years is refinancing that equipment every year.
Proficient's role is to match the structure to the actual need. We look at what the capital is for, how long it needs to last, how the repayment will interact with cash flow, and which lending partners have the appetite and the product for that specific situation. The goal is not to find any capital — it is to find the right capital.
Capital for businesses that processing relationships already support
High-risk merchants, newer businesses, and operators in specialized industries are often told they do not qualify for conventional financing. The same factors that make a business harder to place with a standard processor — product category, revenue concentration, chargeback history — can create friction in a standard lending application.
Because Proficient already works in these categories on the processing side, our lending relationships extend into them as well. A merchant we process for has a documented cash flow history, a cleared underwriting relationship, and a processor that can speak to their business model. That context opens doors that a standalone lending application often cannot.
If you are a business that processes with Proficient — or one that is looking to — the capital conversation is available alongside the processing conversation. Growth requires more than a gateway. We can help with both.