The order book
Signed purchase orders, blanket agreements and repeat customers turn a capacity request into a financing case. Concentration in one buyer is noted, not disqualifying.
Equipment to $2MLines in 3 daysTerm loans to $25M
Manufacturing business loans underwritten on the order book, not the brochure.
Machine tools, raw material cycles, a contract that needs capacity before it pays, a second shift. Qualified Commercial finances manufacturers and fabricators on the real operation: purchase orders, inventory turns, equipment value and the deposits already landing in the account. Equipment financing, lines of credit, fixed-rate term loans and large structured facilities, processed by our own underwriters.
Screen before applying: 1+ year in business, $50K+ annual revenue and 640+ owner credit. Individual programs ask for more and say so on their own pages. Equipment requests also need a vendor quote and $100K+ revenue.
Four things a credit desk looks at in a manufacturing file.
A manufacturer is not a restaurant with machines. The review follows the production cycle, because that is where the cash goes and where it comes back.
Raw material and WIP cycles
Days of inventory, days sales outstanding and supplier terms set how long capital is tied up. A long cycle argues for a line; a one-time buy argues for a term loan.
Equipment value and useful life
Make, model, age, hours and resale market. The term follows the asset's life so the payment never outlasts the machine that earns it.
Margin after the payment
Gross margin, shop utilization and the cash left after existing debt service. The question is whether the new payment is carried by production, not by hope.
The six requests we see most from the shop floor.
Each one maps to a different structure. Picking the structure before the amount is what keeps the payment affordable.
CNC, machine tool and automation purchases
New or used, with soft costs like tooling, rigging and installation reviewed as part of the package. Equipment financing from $25K to $2M over 24 to 84 months.
Capacity for a contract already won
Materials, labor and overtime before the first invoice pays. A line of credit or a short fixed-rate term loan, repaid from the contract's own receivables.
Raw material buys at a price that will not last
Steel, resin, aluminum or components bought ahead of a price move or a lead-time crunch. Sized to the turn, not to the maximum available.
Facility expansion and a second line
Build-out, additional equipment and the working capital to staff it, in one structured facility that can reach $25M.
Refinancing expensive short-term money
Daily-draw advances taken during a crunch, replaced with a term or hybrid structure the margin can actually carry.
Domestic production programs
Government-backed ten-year money for US manufacturers funding equipment, expansion or automation. Slower, cheaper, and worth the paperwork for the right project.
The manufacturing programs, side by side.
Typical amount, term and time to close on a complete file. The file is matched to the program that fits; you do not have to pick first.
Main Street
7 programs| Program | Amount | Term | Typical close |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment FinancingAll industries | $25K–$2M | 24–84 mo | File review |
| Lines of Credit | to $250K | Revolving | 3 days |
| EZ Term Loan | $25K – $500K | 3–5 yr | 5 days |
| Hybrid Term / LOC | to $25M | Varies | 1 day |
| Jumbo Term Loan | to $25M | Varies | 1 day |
| SBA Made in America | to $5M | 10 yr | 30 days |
| SBA 7(a)All industries | to $5M | 10–25 yr | 30 days |
Amounts, terms and timelines are typical ranges for complete files and are subject to underwriting, collateral review, documentation, third-party reports and lender approval. Nothing here is a commitment to lend. SBA programs are additionally subject to SBA eligibility and approval.
Days to close, by program.
Conventional pathQualified Commercial
Hybrid Term / LOC
1 day
Conventional
21 days
Jumbo Term Loan
1 day
Conventional
21 days
Lines of Credit
3 days
Conventional
14 days
EZ Term Loan
5 days
Conventional
30 days
SBA Made in America
30 days
Conventional
75 days
SBA 7(a)
30 days
Conventional
75 days
See which review should happen first.
Four non-personal questions. The result is a routing recommendation, not an approval, and nothing is stored.
Step 1 of 425%
This check collects no personal details and does not make a credit decision.
Capital that pays for itself on the floor.
The strongest manufacturing files share one trait: the money has a job with a visible return, and the return arrives inside the payment window.
Strong cases
- A machine that adds billable capacity or removes an outsourcing cost
- Materials for a signed order with a known delivery and payment date
- A seasonal or program-driven inventory build with a history behind it
- Replacing daily-draw advances with a payment the margin supports
Weak cases
- Equipment bought for work that has not been quoted yet
- Covering a recurring loss in a shop running below break-even utilization
- A single-customer book where that customer is already paying slowly
- Adding a third short-term position behind two advances
What a manufacturing file needs.
The business documents every commercial lender asks for, plus the three things that make a manufacturer legible to a credit desk.
The business
- Business tax returns, most recent 2 years
- Business bank statements, last 6 months
- Year-to-date P&L and balance sheet
- Business debt schedule
The production story
- Open purchase orders or contracts supporting the request
- Accounts receivable and payable aging
- Inventory summary: raw, WIP and finished goods
- Customer concentration, top five by revenue
The equipment, when relevant
- Vendor quote or invoice with make, model and condition
- Soft costs: tooling, rigging, install, training
- Existing equipment list with liens and payoffs
- Intended use and expected utilization
From quote to funded in four steps.
Direct underwriting removes the packaging, shopping and re-requesting that cost a brokered file a month.
- 01
Start the file
Pick manufacturing, answer a short set of questions and upload what you already have. A preliminary read comes back in minutes.
- 02
Underwriter review
The person who decides reads the order book, the statements and the equipment together, and asks for gaps once.
- 03
Written terms
Amount, term, payment, collateral and conditions on one sheet. Compare it against the job the money is meant to do.
- 04
Close and fund
Vendor paid directly on equipment deals; working capital lands in the operating account. Lines are ready to draw.
The manufacturing library.
How a credit desk reads a producer: order books, machine financing, raw material cycles and the file that gets a shop funded.
- Manufacturing
Financing Production Capacity Against a Real Order Book
A backlog is the closest thing a manufacturer has to evidence about the future. Here is how a credit desk reads one, and how capacity requests actually get sized.
- Manufacturing
Machine Tool and CNC Financing: Structures, Soft Costs and Timing
The invoice price is not the project cost. How machine tools get underwritten, what the structures actually differ on, and where equipment files stall.
- Manufacturing
Inventory and Raw Material Cycles as a Working Capital Problem
Profitable manufacturers run out of cash in the gap between buying steel and collecting the invoice. How that gap is measured, financed and shortened.
- Manufacturing
What a Manufacturer Needs in a Funding File
The standard document set plus the eight manufacturing exhibits that separate a file an analyst can write up from one that generates three weeks of questions.
Manufacturing loan questions.
Can I finance used CNC or machine tools?
Yes. Used equipment is financed on make, model, age, hours and resale market, with the term set to the remaining useful life. A dealer or auction invoice with a clear description is enough to start.
How fast can a manufacturer get working capital?
On a complete file, lines of credit typically close in about three days and the EZ Term loan in about five. Equipment and large structured facilities move at the speed of the asset documentation. Timelines are typical, not guaranteed.
Do I need a signed contract to borrow against an order?
A signed purchase order or contract is the strongest evidence, but a documented history of repeat orders from the same customers can also support a line. Projections alone are the weakest case.
What if most of my revenue comes from one customer?
Concentration is reviewed, not refused. The desk looks at the customer's payment history, the length of the relationship and whether the contract terms protect you. Diversification plans help.
Can equipment financing include tooling, rigging and installation?
Soft costs are commonly included when they are documented on the quote and reasonable relative to the hard asset. The final structure states exactly what is financed.
Is there a government-backed option for US manufacturers?
Yes. SBA Made in America and SBA 7(a) offer ten-year government-backed terms for domestic manufacturers. They take longer and carry SBA forms, so they fit planned expansion better than an urgent buy.
Bring the quote, the order and six statements.
That is enough to start. The underwriter sizes the structure to the production cycle and tells you what, if anything, is missing.
Amounts, terms, timelines and pricing are typical ranges for complete files, are determined file by file, and are superseded by executed documents. Screening is a preliminary review, not a commitment to lend. Final terms depend on underwriting, collateral review, documentation, third-party reports and lender approval. SBA programs are additionally subject to SBA eligibility and approval. Qualified Commercial does not provide financial, accounting or legal advice.