Business Funding Inside Your Accounting Software: QuickBooks, Square, Shopify & PayPal Offers Explained (2026)

A few years ago, getting business funding meant a bank application, a stack of documents, and weeks of waiting. Then the software a business already runs every day started offering money directly: open QuickBooks and a loan offer is sitting in the Capital tab; open Square and a loan offer is in the dashboard; open Shopify and a funding offer is in the admin. The pitch is convenience — the platform already has your data, so the application is nearly pre-filled and the decision can be fast.

The convenience is real. The catch is that convenience is not the same as a good deal, and a platform offer is built on a partial picture of your business. This post covers what each major platform actually offers in 2026, what it costs, where the gaps are, and how to compare a platform offer against an outside offer before accepting.

Why the offer appears inside your software

Traditional underwriting starts from documents you supply: bank statements, tax returns, financials. Platform underwriting starts from data the platform already holds. QuickBooks sees your invoices, expenses, and revenue history. Square sees your daily card sales, payment frequency, and chargeback history. Shopify sees your store sales, order counts, and selling days. That data lets the platform pre-screen you and size an offer without asking for a file — which is why decisions can come in seconds or minutes rather than weeks.

But the data advantage cuts both ways. A platform can only underwrite what it can see. A restaurant that takes half its revenue in cash, a contractor paid by check, or a store selling on both Shopify and Amazon will look smaller to any single platform than it really is. The offer reflects the slice, not the whole business.

The five in-app offers, compared

Figures below are the platforms' own published terms and widely reported offer ranges as of 2026. Individual offers vary with your history on that platform.

Platform	What it sees	Published size	Cost shape	Repayment	The catch
QuickBooks Capital	Your books: revenue, invoices, bank transactions	Term loan up to $5 million; line of credit up to $1 million	Interest, APRs reported roughly 9.99% to 34%; no origination or early-payoff fees	Fixed schedule; weekly payments on many offers	Needs $50,000+ revenue over the past year and a guarantor FICO of 620 or higher
Square Loans	Your Square card sales and processing history	Up to $250,000 advertised; reports of larger offers for heavy sellers	One fixed loan fee, no ongoing interest or late fees	A percentage of daily Square sales; 18-month maximum term	Invite-only — you cannot apply without an offer; fee shown only inside your offer
Shopify Capital	Your store sales, order counts, selling days	Up to $2 million	Fixed fee or monthly fee, depending on the offer	A percentage of daily store sales; 18-month maximum term, with 30% due by month 6 and 60% by month 12	Invite-only; eligibility weighs sales volume and frequency, no published revenue minimum
PayPal Working Capital	Your PayPal sales history	Up to $250,000 first-time; up to $400,000 for repeat borrowers	A single fixed fee	A percentage of PayPal sales until repaid	Only counts PayPal volume; a business that also sells elsewhere is sized on part of its revenue
Stripe Capital	Your Stripe payment volume	Varies by account	Flat fee	A percentage of Stripe sales	Stripe-only view, same single-slice limit as the others

QuickBooks Capital in detail

QuickBooks Capital is the most bank-like of the platform offers, and the most transparent about its terms. Intuit publishes two in-house products, both originated through WebBank: a term loan of up to $5 million and a line of credit of up to $1 million. Published eligibility guidelines ask for at least $50,000 in revenue over the past year, a personal guarantor FICO score of 620 or higher, no bankruptcies in the last two years, and an active QuickBooks Online account in good standing. Decisions can come in as fast as 30 seconds, funding lands in 1 to 2 business days, and checking eligibility uses a soft credit pull that does not affect your score. There are no origination fees, maintenance fees, or early-payoff penalties, and you pay interest only on what you borrow.

Two honest caveats. First, the published maximums are ceilings, not typical offers — third-party reviews of actual in-house offers report a much smaller working range, roughly $1,500 to $150,000, with terms of 6 to 18 months. Second, QuickBooks also runs a partner marketplace: if the in-house loan is not a fit, you may see offers from partner lenders with different terms, and those are not QuickBooks loans at all. Read which one your offer actually is.

Square Loans, Shopify Capital, and PayPal Working Capital in detail

Square Loans, formerly Square Capital, is the classic invite-only platform loan. Square evaluates accounts daily and notifies eligible sellers through the dashboard and email — but you cannot request an offer, and receiving one is never guaranteed even if your indicators look good. The loan carries one fixed fee that never changes, no late fees, and no ongoing interest; repayment takes a percentage of your daily Square card sales, so slow days mean smaller payments. The hard floor is real, though: at least 1/18 of the loan must be repaid every 60 days, and Square can debit the shortfall from your linked bank account if card sales do not cover it. The full term runs up to 18 months, and most businesses repay within about a year.

Shopify Capital works the same way for store owners: invite-only, generated from store performance, with repayment as a percentage of daily sales. Shopify publishes two cost structures — a fixed-fee loan (its example: a $100,000 loan at a 13% factor rate costs $13,000 total) and a monthly-fee loan (its example: $100,000 with a $1,400 monthly fee costs $4,200 over 3 months or $15,400 over 11 months). The milestone schedule matters: 30% of the loan is due by month 6 and 60% by month 12, inside an 18-month maximum term. A store with a slow season needs to check those milestones, not just the daily percentage.

PayPal Working Capital follows the same pattern against PayPal volume: a single fixed fee, repaid as a percentage of PayPal sales, up to $250,000 for first-time borrowers and up to $400,000 for repeat borrowers. The single-slice limit is sharpest here — a business doing half its sales outside PayPal is underwritten on half its revenue.

What the platform offer does not tell you

Your whole business is bigger than any one platform sees. A contractor billing through QuickBooks but paid by check, a restaurant splitting sales between Square and cash, a store on Shopify plus Amazon — each platform sizes its offer on its own data. An outside funder underwriting your full bank statements may offer more, or cheaper, simply because it sees everything.

Pre-qualified is not approved, and invite-only means no leverage. You cannot negotiate with an offer you cannot request, and you cannot shop an offer that expires when your platform data shifts. Square says plainly that offers change or expire as processing fluctuates. The platform offer is a starting point, not a verdict.

Fixed fees hide the annualized cost. A $100,000 Shopify loan at a 13% factor rate costs $13,000 whether you repay in 3 months or 11 — but the annualized cost of the fast repayment is far higher. A monthly-fee loan flips the other way: $1,400 a month costs $4,200 over 3 months but $15,400 over 11. Always convert to total dollars for the same amount, then ask what the same dollars would cost as an interest-bearing term loan.

The repayment shape can hurt seasonal businesses. Percentage-of-sales repayment flexes with your revenue, which helps in slow weeks. But milestone schedules (Shopify's 30% by month 6) and minimum-payment floors (Square's 1/18 per 60 days) can still force payments in a dead month. Run any offer against your worst recent month, not your best.

How to compare a platform offer against an outside offer

Take the platform offer and get one outside offer on the same amount, then compare four numbers: amount received, total amount repaid, the difference between them, and the repayment schedule against your worst month. For a revenue-based outside offer, the core requirement is three months of business bank statements — complete PDFs, every page, from the business account. A photo ID and a voided check are optional verification items that some funders request, never upfront requirements that should stop you from applying.

Decide on the total cost and the payment shape together. The cheapest total dollars with a payment that breaks in your slow season is the wrong product; the flexible product at a much higher total cost is the wrong product too. The right answer is the offer that survives both tests: total dollars you can accept, and payments your worst month can carry.

What if your software shows no offer?

Most businesses on these platforms never see an offer — invite-only programs cover a fraction of users, and eligibility shifts with your platform data. No offer in your dashboard is not a rejection of your business; it means the platform has not invited you. That is exactly when an outside application makes sense: a funder underwriting your full bank statements does not care which software you use, and a same-day decision with funding in 24 to 72 hours for revenue-based products is standard for a clean file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is a QuickBooks Capital loan a bank loan?
A: No — QuickBooks Capital loans are issued through WebBank and arranged by Intuit Financing. Published guidelines ask for $50,000+ in annual revenue and a guarantor FICO of 620 or higher, with decisions as fast as 30 seconds and funding in 1 to 2 business days.

Q: Can I apply for Square Loans or Shopify Capital directly?
A: No. Both are invite-only — the platform generates offers from your sales data and notifies you. You cannot request an offer, and an offer appearing is not a guarantee of approval.

Q: Why is a platform offer smaller than I expected?
A: Because the platform only sees its own slice of your revenue. Square sees card sales, Shopify sees store sales, PayPal sees PayPal volume. A funder underwriting your full bank statements sees everything and may offer more.

Q: How do I compare a fixed-fee platform loan with a term loan?
A: Convert both to total dollars on the same amount: amount received versus total repaid. A 13% factor rate on $100,000 is $13,000 in cost however fast you repay; a monthly-fee loan gets more expensive the longer it runs. Compare totals, then compare payment schedules.

Q: What documents does an outside funder need if my platform shows no offer?
A: Three months of business bank statements are the core requirement for revenue-based funding. A photo ID and a voided check are optional verification items, never upfront requirements.

Q: Is percentage-of-sales repayment safer for a seasonal business?
A: Usually yes, because payments shrink in slow weeks — but check the floors. Square requires at least 1/18 of the loan every 60 days, and Shopify requires 30% repaid by month 6. Run any offer against your worst recent month before accepting.