Review Square Cash Advance application requirements
About Square Cash Advance application requirements
When applying for Square Cash Advance funding, certain information about you and your business may need to be verified and supplementary information is sometimes required to proceed with your application.
If you don’t see an offer in Square Dashboard, your business isn’t currently eligible to apply for a Square Cash Advance. Check your Square Dashboard at any time for more information about your current eligibility status, keep processing with Square and consider the eligibility factors below as you process.
If additional information about you or your business is required, you’ll be notified in Square Dashboard and via email.
Before you start
Eligibility reviews are automatic, and there’s no need to contact us if you don’t see an offer yet.
Square is unable to manually generate or predict offers. All sellers must qualify based on eligibility criteria. Offers may expire if your business no longer meets eligibility requirements.
Offer eligibility is based on a variety of factors related to your Square account, including payment-processing volume, account history and payment frequency. The more you use Square, the more likely you are to become eligible for a funding offer.
If additional information for your application is requested, complete the request in full to the best of your ability. Your funding application won’t be reviewed if the request is incomplete. If the submitted information isn’t sufficient, you’ll be notified.
You have until the date specified in the email notification to complete the information request. If you don’t provide all of the requested information on time, your application will be cancelled.
Once you’ve completed the information request, you’ll be notified of your application status within one to three working days.
Funding offers may expire if your business no longer meets the offer eligibility criteria. Offer eligibility is largely based on current payment-processing data, which means eligibility can change as frequently as a business does. For example, you may see your current offers expire if your processing has slowed down.
Review application eligibility requirements
In general, businesses that have processed at least £10,000 or more in a year with Square are more likely to be eligible for a merchant cash advance offer. You must have used Square at least 20 days in the last year to be considered for funding.
If you consistently take payments, you’re more likely to get noticed and approved for an offer. A steady pattern of taking payments shows that you have a healthy business.
If you have multiple Square accounts or locations with outstanding funding plans, ensure that they are all processing payments consistently.
A good mix of new and returning customers shows us that you’re growing in different ways. You can use Square’s analytics tools to understand your customer base better.
Learn how to set up analytics and reporting.
Prior declined funding applications can have a negative impact on your business’s eligibility for future funding applications.
Payment limits are restrictions that put a temporary cap on your ability to process transactions through Square. Square doesn’t necessarily put limits on your payments because you’ve done anything incorrectly but, in certain situations, limits are put in place to protect your account from transactions that seem likely to result in payment disputes.
If an account has a payment limit, it can restrict transaction-processing capabilities, which in turn affects funding eligibility.
Reserves are a common industry practice used by payment processors and other financial institutions to make sure merchants are able to cover disputes, also known as chargebacks, from their buyers. Square uses what’s known as a rolling reserve, in which card payments subject to a reserve have a percentage set aside and released on a rolling basis.
These funds still belong to you and are only used if you are unable to cover a chargeback. If no chargebacks occur, you receive the full amount.
Reserves are considered a negative factor when evaluating eligibility for a merchant cash advance offer and can impact funding eligibility.
Learn more about payment reserves.
Review accepted application documents
If additional information for your application is requested, acceptable documents include:
Invoice
Service contract
Purchase order
Signed card-authorisation form
Detailed receipt
Bill of sale
Email correspondence with the buyer
If you don’t have any of these documents, please provide a detailed description of the goods and services sold.
Upload application documents
You can upload requested application documents through the link that was sent to your email or through Square Dashboard. If you didn’t receive the email in your inbox, check your junk folder. To upload your documents:
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Cash Advance.
Select the bell icon at the top of the page.
Click We need more information fromyou to see a list of the requested items.
Click Start to upload the requested items.
Understand declined application reasoning
We understand being declined for funding can be disappointing. For more information about the decline, please review the email notice you received about your funding request.
There are various requirements that must be met in order to qualify for Square Cash Advance funding. Some of the reasons for decline are listed below.
When your account is reviewed after you submit your application, we look at your Square payment history. If you’ve been declined for this reason, it means that your recent Square account payment history seems unusual.
If your application has been declined due to your payment history, we’ve reviewed your account and determined that your sales through Square have decreased relative to your prior payment history.
A chargeback happens when a customer disputes a charge from your business and contacts their bank to reverse it. If your business has had a significant number of payment disputes over the past 12 months, your funding application may be declined.
You can reduce your chargeback risk by avoiding card-not-present (manually keyed) payments when your customer is in-store.
Visit Chargebacks 101: Credit Card Chargebacks Explained to learn more.
You can use a Square Reader to process payment cards in person. Learn more about preventing disputes.
When your business is connected to another account with Square funding, it is important to keep the connected accounts current and processing payments consistently. If you have one or more Square accounts that don’t meet this criteria, your new funding application may not be approved.
Cash advances include swiping your own credit or debit card or those of family members, friends or associates. Square’s Point of Sale service is designed to process payments for the sale of goods or services. It is not designed to process person-to-person transfers or to facilitate payments between companies owned by the same individuals/groups of individuals or within companies.
Transition from a Square Loan to a Square Cash Advance
Certain sole traders and partnerships who have a Square Loan with an outstanding balance will transition to receive Square Cash Advance offers moving forward, once any outstanding loans are paid. Square Cash Advance is a merchant cash advance which provides you with a funding advance upfront in exchange for a percentage of future card sales that Square will purchase from you. Unlike loans, merchant cash advances do not have an interest rate, fixed term length or minimum payments.
Also, unlike Square Loans, there are no mid-plan offers and you’ll no longer see these once your business transitions to Square Cash Advance. You also can’t secure a new offer until the entirety of your Square Cash Advance plan is complete.
You don’t need to take any action to transition from Square Loans to Square Cash Advance. Once your Square Loan is repaid, you’ll receive an offer for Square Cash Advance if you are eligible.
For Cash Advance eligibility requirements, please see the eligibility section above.