Restaurant funding options in New Iberia, LA come down to three products: an equipment loan for a fryer line, coolers or a dish machine; a credit line for food orders and payroll that come due before card deposits land; and a card-sales advance collected as a share of daily sales. This article works each one with invented figures.
Kitchen machines fit an equipment loan with a fixed payment; a food order or payroll due before deposits fits a line draw repaid within days; a card-sales advance trades a fixed total collected for payments that move with sales. Twelve months of bank and card statements make any two offers comparable.
Equipment loans for fryer lines, reach-in coolers and dish machines
A fryer line, a pair of reach-in coolers and a dish machine are kitchen equipment with serial numbers, which makes them a fit for an equipment loan. An invented list:
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Fryer line with filtration | $14,460 |
| Two reach-in coolers | $7,180 |
| Dish machine | $9,950 |
| Total | $31,590 |
With 54 months at an annual rate of 11.75%, the $31,590 quote works out to $756.02 per month. Over the whole term the restaurant pays $40,825.08, which includes $9,235.08 of interest.
A dish machine needs plumbing and a fryer line may need gas and electrical hookups; that hookup work is property work outside this site. The machines themselves are what the loan covers.
Restaurant funding options between deposits: a credit line draw for a seafood order or a payroll
Card deposits can take a day or two to land, while the seafood supplier and the payroll each want payment on their own dates. A business line of credit covers those days: the restaurant draws when a bill is due and pays the draw back when deposits catch up, paying interest only on what is out.
Invented figures: an $8,700 draw covers a seafood order and part of a payroll, and comes back 19 days later from deposits. The interest on those 19 days, at 13.7% a year, comes to roughly $62.04.
Accommodation and food services in Iberia Parish counted 116 employer establishments and 1,663 employees in 2023, and 31.0% of those establishments had fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns, NAICS 72).
Card-sales advances: how collection follows daily sales
A card-sales advance is not a loan. A funding source buys a share of future card sales for a fixed total and collects it as a percentage, the holdback, of each day’s card sales until the total is reached. The merchant cash advance page lays out the product in full.
An invented case: a restaurant accepts a $15,000 advance at a 1.29 factor, so the total amount collected is $19,350. With a 10% holdback and average card sales of $2,150 a day, collection runs about $215 a day and finishes after about 90 business days. On a $1,400 day, the collection drops to $140.
The cost in this invented case is $4,350 on $15,000, fixed from the start; collecting ahead of schedule does not lower it unless the agreement says so. That fixed cost is simple to budget day to day; setting it against the interest on any loan offer of the same size shows what the flexibility costs.
Statements to pull before comparing restaurant offers
Before comparing an equipment loan, a line and an advance, a restaurant can gather:
- Twelve months of business bank statements
- Twelve months of card processor statements
- A current profit and loss statement, plus last year’s business tax return
- Quotes for any equipment, with model and serial numbers
- A list of current loans or advances and their daily or monthly payments
With these in hand, each offer can be compared on its total cost, its payment pattern and what it would do to a slow week. For limited-service restaurants alone, the 2023 count was 51 employer establishments, and only 14 of those ran with a staff under five (County Business Patterns, NAICS 722513). More on kitchens, catering and dining rooms is on the restaurant page.
By Marbleline Business Loans · Updated
