Uploading documents for Shopify Capital applications
When you apply for Capital financing, you might be required to submit further documentation such as balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements to verify your current finances. This is used to qualify your eligibility for financing. You can submit these documents in your admin using the secure upload tool.
On this page
When to upload documents
During your application, if further documentation is required, then the account owner has the option to start the upload process after submitting the initial part of the application, and receives a notification through email. Both options lead to the same secure upload page to submit your documentation. If you don't have all these documents available, then you can indicate that documents are missing, what documents are missing, and provide context on why they're missing. You can also submit optional, supplementary documentation to support your application.
Document types
The documentation you're required to submit is outlined on the application overview page as well as in the email you receive. The documents you might be required to submit include, but aren't limited to, the following types:
- Balance sheet: A financial report that summarizes the financial state of a business at a point in time. It provides an overview of the value of a business’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity.
- Income statement: Also known as a profit and loss (P&L) statement, it displays a business's earnings and expenses over a specific period of time and typically includes sales/revenue, costs, operating expenses, interest, taxes and net income.
- Cash flow statement: Displays the amount of cash that enters and leaves a business over a specific period of time showing cash flow from operations, cash flow from investing, and cash flow from financing
The upload tool supports documents in any of the following formats:
- CSV
- PNG
- JPEG
- DOC
Documented periods
When submitting these documents, you must submit documents that cover a certain date range:
- Fiscal year: You need to submit documentation for the previous 2 fiscal years. A fiscal year covers a 12-month period, and the start and end dates are dependent on your business’s operations.
- Year to date: This means the period from the start of your business’s fiscal year to the current date. For example, if the documents are requested on July 1 and your fiscal year starts on January 1, then the date range is January 1 to July 1. If your fiscal year starts June 1, then the date range is June 1 to July 1. You must submit documentation for the same, matching time period, for both years.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Finance > Capital, or from your notification email, click Upload, to go to the Upload financial statements page.
- In the Upload financial statements page, do any of the following steps, as required:
- Click Next when all available documents for that period have been uploaded. You can submit multiple documents to meet each requirement.
- Click Skip if you've fulfilled the document requirements for that period in another upload field.
- Click I'm missing documents for this period if you don't have the requested documents at the time of application, and then give a written explanation in the Provide details text box.
- In the Submit for Review section, you can do any of the following steps:
- Add any optional, useful information such as details of the documents provided, further reason for missing documents, or anything that might help support your application.
- Click Upload to submit optional, additional documents that might help support your application.
- Click Submit to complete your application.
Failing to meet a document requirement can result in your application taking longer to review.
When you've completed the document submission process, you receive a notification that the review is in progress. Reviews usually take 3-7 business days, but might take longer if additional information is needed. Additional requests for information are also sent to the account owner's email address.
You can check the status of your application by navigating to the Capital page in the Shopify admin.
Upload additional information
When the documents that you upload are reviewed, you might need to submit more information to complete your application review. If more information is required, then you're contacted at the account owner email address. You might be asked to upload additional documents or answer questions about your application.
You can check on the status of your application and whether additional information is required by navigating to the Capital section of the Shopify admin.
Steps
- From your Shopify admin, go to Finance > Capital, or from your notification email, click Upload.
- In the Upload documents section, review the documents being requested from you, and then take one of the following actions:
- Click Upload files to select the relevant documentation, and then click Upload files.
- Select I'm missing one or more documents if you don't have the requested documents at the time of application, and then add further information in the Provide details text box.
- In the Follow-up questions section, enter your answers for any questions that require more information.
- Optional: Select Attach additional files, and then click Upload files to provide further supporting documentation.
- Click Submit.
Delegate document uploads to a third party
If you're notified that documentation is required to complete your Shopify Capital application, then you can delegate an authorized third party to fulfill your document upload request for you. By providing the email address of a third party, you give Shopify permission to contact them, and authorize the third party to share your financial information with Shopify. You receive a copy of the email that's sent to the third party, so that you can be updated on the progress of the document submission process.
The third party doesn't have access to the Shopify platform, or any information about your Capital application. They're instructed to provide the requested documents using the specified email address. If you delegate to a third party, then you're no longer able to upload documents unless you reply to the email and request to cancel the third party delegation.
Steps
- From your Shopify admin, go to Finance > Capital, or from your notification email, click Upload to review your current application.
- In the Upload financial statements section, select Forward request to a contact to provide statements on my behalf.
- In the Contact email field, enter the email address of the third party that you want to delegate document uploads to.
- Click Forward request.
You can cancel the third party delegation at any time by replying to the email you receive when you choose to delegate the task.