Six things an underwriter reads in your statements before anything else

When your statements land on an underwriter's desk, six things get read in the first few minutes. They decide whether the file is strong, what structure fits, and whether the honest answer is not right now. Here they are, in the order they are read.

1. Real revenue, not gross deposits

Transfers between your own accounts are not revenue. The proceeds of another advance are not revenue. An underwriter separates those out before sizing anything, and if they cannot be separated, the file gets read conservatively. Moving money between accounts to make deposits look bigger is spotted in the detail every time.

2. The trend across every month

Not the best month. All of them. A business that is rising reads very differently from one that is falling, even at the same average. One strong month against three weak ones is a warning, not a result.

3. Negative days and NSFs

These set the risk tier and therefore the pricing. A single negative day from an equipment purchase or a chargeback is fine if you explain it in a sentence. A pattern of them says the account is already stressed, and that is the conversation an underwriter has first.

Write one paragraph explaining any unusual debit before you send. It saves a phone call and it changes how the file is read.

4. Existing advances

Regular daily or weekly debits to other funders are added up, including any you forgot to mention. Undisclosed positions are found in the statements anyway, and a file that hid one is read differently from then on.

5. Daily load

Total daily debits to funders, divided by daily revenue. Past roughly fifteen to twenty per cent the business is choking, and another position makes it worse rather than better. That is a consolidation conversation or a decline, never a stack. This is the single most important number in the file.

6. Deposit rhythm

Five or more steady deposits a month is a strong file and fits a daily remit. Lumpy deposits, a few large ones from draws or invoices, point to a weekly remit instead. Neither is bad. The structure just has to match.

What to do before you send

• Consolidate to one business bank account if you can
• Do not move money between accounts to inflate deposits
• Explain any one-off negative day or unusual debit in a sentence
• Tell us about every position you carry; we will find it anyway, and disclosed reads better