Working capital for auto repair, tire and muffler shops

A repair shop spends before it earns on every ticket: the parts are ordered Monday, the tech is paid Friday, and the customer pays at pickup — if the car is done, if the part came in, if the fleet account pays on its terms. A working-capital program moves cash to where the bay calendar needs it, typically up to 2X monthly revenue, depending on how the file looks. Two minutes and no documents shows you your options, and qualifying files typically hear back within one business day.

Where the cash goes in a shop

Into parts, people and the equipment that makes both productive. Parts are bought per job and tie up cash until the car leaves. Technicians are the shop’s whole product, and they are not cheap to find or keep: the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median annual wage for automotive service technicians and mechanics at $50,620 as of May 2025, projects employment to grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035, and expects about 66,200 openings a year over the decade, most of them replacing people who leave the trade. A good tech who walks across the street to a dealership takes a bay’s revenue with them. Then there is the equipment: a lift, an alignment rack, a tire machine, the scan tools that newer cars demand, each one a lump the week’s tickets were not built for.

The Federal Reserve’s 2024 Small Business Credit Survey found that among employer firms that sought financing, 56% did so to meet operating expenses, and 51% named uneven cash flow as a financial challenge. In a shop the unevenness looks like this:

• The slow weeks after the holidays or in the heat of summer, when the bays are half full and payroll is not.
• Fleet and commercial accounts — a delivery company, a rental lot, a municipality — that pay on 30–90 day terms while the parts were paid on delivery.
• The big job that needs a transmission or an engine ordered before the customer’s deposit covers it.
• A second bay or a second location, with a lift and a rack to fill it.

Which structure fits a repair shop

Match the structure to the job the money is doing. For a lift, a rack, a tire machine or a buildout, a working capital or term program advances general-purpose capital repaid on a schedule spelled out before you sign; terms run out to 48 months at the ceiling — most files land 12–24. For the recurring gap between the parts order and the pickup, a business line of credit fits, with limits that typically scale with monthly revenue and cost tied to what is drawn; the guide on a line of credit vs. a term program has a decision table. If your money is sitting in invoices to fleet or commercial accounts, invoice factoring turns those business-to-business invoices into cash now; it does not fit retail customers who pay at the counter. If revenue swings hard with the season, revenue-based financing repays as a share of what the business actually brings in. Rates can start around 1% a month for the strongest files, depending on the file, and every figure on this site is an illustrative range, not an offer.

What the review desk reads on a shop’s file

Deposits, balances, and what comes out between them. A repair shop is usually a steady file: card and cash deposits most days, parts-supplier debits every week, payroll on a rhythm. Underwriters weigh how consistent the deposits are, whether the balance holds between the parts bill and the weekend, bounced payments, and existing debits, including any daily or weekly payment already on the account. A shop that invoices fleet accounts shows a lumpier pattern, and a desk that reads trade files expects that; say which deposits are fleet money so the lumps read right. The guide on what underwriters look for in bank statements covers what helps and what you cannot fix in a week.

What the desk does not need to see your options: your repair orders, your parts invoices, or your lease. The two-minute form asks for the basics of the business. Bank statements and ownership details come later, on the secure application or by phone, never by text or email. The same plainness you owe a customer — the Federal Trade Commission tells drivers to expect a written estimate, approval before any extra work, and an itemized repair order — is what you should expect from a funding desk: the amount, the term and the full cost in writing before you sign.

When an equipment lender, a parts supplier or a bank is the better tool

Take the cheaper money when it fits and can land in time. A terms account with your parts supplier is the cheapest parts financing there is. An equipment lender who takes the lift or the rack as collateral usually prices below general-purpose capital. A bank line, if the bank will open one and the need can wait for it, costs less than anything on this site. Working-capital programs are for the file the bank turned down, the lift that cannot wait for underwriting at the bank, or the slow month that arrived before the busy one.

Where the desk fits

We’re not the cheapest desk. Files that fit usually leave with a longer term and one payment instead of three — and you’ll know exactly what it costs before you sign anything. Speed and flexibility typically price above a bank line; if your bank can fund the file in time, take it. Aglet Funding is a DBA of Lendera Capital LLC, based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and programs are available to businesses across the United States; availability can vary by state and by file. We also work with contractors, trucking companies, restaurants and healthcare practices. How it works walks through the three steps; the quick assessment shows what files of your shape typically reach.

Sources

1. Federal Reserve Banks, 2025 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2024 Small Business Credit Survey — the share of firms seeking financing to meet operating expenses, and the share citing uneven cash flow
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics — median pay, projected employment growth and yearly openings for technicians
3. Federal Trade Commission, “Auto Repair Basics” — what customers are told to expect from a shop: a written estimate, approval before extra work, and an itemized repair order