Term loans for the bigger warehouse, the competitor’s book, and the way out of stacked advances.
Dockdoor Capital places distributor term loans from $50,000 to $5,000,000 over 6 to 60 months, with a 650 minimum FICO, 24 months in business, and $40,000 a month in deposits. Files up to $500,000 are underwritten in-house; above that we package the file and place it with our bank lending partners. Decision in 3 to 7 business days.
What are the criteria?
Term loan — criteria
- Amount
- $50,000 – $5,000,000
- Term
- 6 – 60 months
- Minimum credit score
- 650
- Minimum time in business
- 24 months
- Minimum monthly deposits
- $40,000
- Documents
- Application, 6 months of business bank statements, 2 years of business tax returns, YTD P&L and balance sheet, debt schedule
- Repayment
- Fixed monthly or bi-weekly ACH, fully amortizing
- Collateral
- UCC-1 blanket lien. Personal guarantee required.
- Prepayment
- No prepayment penalty on in-house files up to $500,000. Partner-placed files vary — disclosed in the term sheet.
- Decision
- 3 – 7 business days
- Path
- In-house to $500,000; placed with bank lending partners above
What jobs does a term loan do for a distributor?
A bigger warehouse
Racking, dock levelers, a cooler or freezer box, a WMS, and the first months of rent on the new lease before the extra SKUs carry it. Match the term to the life of the build-out.
36 to 60 monthsTrucks, trailers and material handling
A reefer trailer, two box trucks, a fleet of reach trucks and pallet jacks. Term debt matched to the asset’s working life, not a nine-month advance.
Matched to the asset’s useful lifeBuying a competitor’s route or book
A retiring distributor sells you the accounts, the trucks and the relationships. Common at the point where one owner wants out and the other has the volume but not the cash. SBA 7(a) explicitly allows this use too, and costs less if you can wait.
Term loan or SBA 7(a)Consolidating stacked advances
This is the one we get called about most. Three or four daily positions with overlapping debits will take a profitable distributor down. A 36-month term loan at a single monthly payment is almost always the fix, and the earlier you call, the more room we have.
One monthly payment instead of four daily debitsAdvance or term loan — which one?
Same money, two very different shapes. The advance buys speed. The term loan buys a payment you can live with.
| Working capital advance | Term loan | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | $10K – $2M | $50K – $5M |
| Speed | 24 hours | 3–7 business days |
| Minimum FICO | None | 650 |
| Time in business | 6 months | 24 months |
| Payment frequency | Daily or weekly | Monthly or bi-weekly |
| Cost | Highest of the five products | Mid-range |
| Paperwork | 3 bank statements | Statements, returns, P&L, debt schedule |
| Best when | The supplier wants the wire this week | You can wait a week and want the lower payment |
Who underwrites a distributor term loan?
Up to $500,000 — in-house
Dockdoor Capital underwrites and funds these directly. You deal with the desk that makes the decision, and there is no prepayment penalty.
Decision in 3 to 7 business days on a complete file.
Above $500,000 — bank partners
We package the file — statements, returns, P&L, balance sheet, debt schedule, inventory summary — and place it with our bank lending partners. The partner is identified to you in writing before you sign.
Prepayment terms on partner-placed files vary and are disclosed in the term sheet.
What does a distributor term loan cost per month?
A term loan is priced as an interest rate on a fully amortizing schedule: a fixed monthly or bi-weekly payment that retires the balance over 6 to 60 months. The rate is set by underwriting your credit, your time in business, your deposits and your existing debt, and is stated on the term sheet before you sign.
A longer term lowers the payment and raises the total interest. A shorter term does the reverse. On in-house files up to $500,000 you can prepay with no penalty, so you can take the longer term for safety and pay it down when a strong season allows. Nothing on this page is an offer.
What a consolidation looks like. A distributor carrying three daily-debit advances sends us the three payoff letters. We size one term loan to retire all three, with one monthly payment, and the daily debits stop the day the payoffs clear. If the file is under $500,000 it stays in-house and there is no prepayment penalty.
Bring the payoff letters and the debt schedule to the first call. It is the difference between a decision in three days and a decision in seven.
What a distributor needs to qualify.
Every number below is a real criterion. If you clear these, apply. If you don’t, call us and we’ll tell you what would change it.
| Minimum monthly revenue | $15,000 in business bank deposits |
|---|---|
| Minimum time in business | 6 months |
| Minimum credit score | None for working capital or factoring. 600+ for a line of credit. 650+ for a term loan. 680+ for SBA. |
| Funding range | $10,000 to $2,000,000 for working capital. Up to $5,000,000 for term loans, SBA, and factoring facilities. |
| Time to a real offer | About 4 business hours on a complete file. |
| Time to funding | 24 hours. Same day if a clean file is signed before 11:00 AM ET. |
| Documents required | Application plus your 3 most recent months of business bank statements. 4 months if your business is seasonal. Factoring adds your A/R aging and sample invoices. |
| Contract length | 2 pages. |
| Repayment | Fixed daily or weekly ACH from your operating account. No split funding. No holdback percentage. No lockbox. |
| Prepayment discount | Up to 30% off the remaining cost of funding when a working capital advance is paid off within the first 30, 60, or 90 days. |
| Receivables on terms | Factorable. Net-30 to net-90 invoices owed by grocery chains, convenience stores, food-service operators, institutions and other business accounts. Up to 90% advanced. |
| Supplier deposits, containers & duty | Approved uses. Purchase orders, supplier deposits, landed cost, customs duty and freight are what working capital and a line of credit are for here. |
| Business types approved | Broadline and specialty food-service distributors, produce, meat and seafood wholesalers, beverage distributors, importers and container buyers, grocery and convenience wholesalers, cash-and-carry warehouses, packaging and disposables suppliers, frozen and cold-chain distributors, DSD route distributors, smallwares dealers, industrial and MRO wholesalers, building-materials supply, e-commerce and marketplace wholesalers, apparel and general-merchandise wholesalers. |
| Not required | Collateral for working capital. A business plan. Tax returns under $500,000. A warehouse you own. A minimum SKU count or customer count. Domestic-only sourcing. |
| Open to | U.S. businesses with a U.S. business bank account. All 50 states. |
Four minutes. Three bank statements. No credit impact to apply.
Term loan questions, answered.
Can I use a term loan to pay off merchant cash advances?
Yes. Consolidating stacked advances into a single amortizing term loan is one of the most common uses of this product. Three or four daily positions with overlapping debits will take a profitable distributor down; a 36-month term loan replaces them with one monthly payment. Call before you take a fourth position — the earlier you call, the more room there is to work with.
What does the bank partner need that Dockdoor doesn’t?
On in-house files up to $500,000 we work from six months of bank statements, two years of business tax returns, a YTD P&L and balance sheet, and a debt schedule. Above $500,000 a bank partner will typically also want personal tax returns, a personal financial statement, entity documents, a lease or mortgage, an inventory summary and interim financials.
Is there a prepayment penalty on a distributor term loan?
Not on in-house Dockdoor Capital term loans up to $500,000. Partner-placed term loans and SBA loans follow the partner’s and the SBA’s prepayment terms, which are disclosed in the term sheet before you sign.
Do you lend against the warehouse itself?
Not as a term loan. Owner-occupied warehouse real estate is an SBA 504 or a commercial mortgage — see SBA loans, where real-estate-secured financing runs up to 25 years.
Can a distributor with 18 months in business get a term loan?
Not at the 650 FICO and 24-month minimum this product carries. Working capital is your path until you cross 24 months — no minimum credit score, 6 months in business, $15,000 a month in deposits.
Can I finance trucks and racking with a term loan?
Yes. Reach trucks, racking, refrigeration, a box truck or a reefer trailer are ordinary term-loan uses here, matched to a term that fits the asset’s working life rather than one season.
A single monthly payment beats four daily debits.
$50,000 to $5,000,000 over 6 to 60 months. Decision in 3 to 7 business days. If you are carrying stacked advances, call before you take another position.