When should you ask for bank statements?

On the first call, while the merchant is still engaged, and ideally while you stay on the line. The drop-off between an ask made on the phone and one made by email afterwards is the largest single loss in the process.

How many months of statements do funders need?

Four is the standard ask and covers most funders. Some will take three, and a file with six is stronger where the business is seasonal, but four months of complete PDFs is the request to make.

Why do merchants refuse to send statements?

Usually because they think it is a credit check or a fishing expedition, which one sentence about pricing solves. Where the reluctance survives that explanation, it is often positions or negative days they have not mentioned — which you need to know before you submit, not after.

Are screenshots of online banking acceptable?

No. Underwriters want the bank-generated PDF with every page present. Screenshots and photographs read as concealment even when they are only convenience, and they colour how the rest of the file is read.

What if the merchant has multiple business accounts?

Ask for all of them. A single account showing part of the revenue understates the business and produces a smaller offer or a decline, and an account discovered later damages your standing with the funder.

Getting the bank statements without losing the merchant

The short answer

Ask for them on the first call, while the merchant is still engaged, and make the ask small and specific: the last four months as PDFs from online banking, sent to one address, today. Deals die here because the request arrives by email after the call has ended, is vague about what is wanted, and asks a merchant to do unfamiliar admin with nobody on the phone to unblock them.

Between "yes I am interested" and a file you can submit sits one task the merchant has to do alone, and it is where most of the loss happens. Everything about how you ask should be aimed at shrinking the gap between the ask and the documents arriving.

Ask on the call, not after it

The strongest version is asking while you are still on the phone and staying on it. "Log in now and I will wait" converts far better than any follow-up email, because the merchant is engaged, the request is fresh, and you are there when they cannot find the download button.

Ask	Result
"Send over your statements when you get a chance"	Vague, unowned, arrives never
"I will email you a list of what we need"	Moves the work to a channel they will not open
"Last four months, PDF from your online banking, to this address — can you do it now while I hold?"	Specific, small, and supervised

Be exact about what you want

Four months, most recent first. Say the actual month names.
PDFs downloaded from online banking, not screenshots and not photographs of paper.
Every page, including the blank ones. Missing pages read as concealment.
The business account. If they run several, all of them — a partial picture is worse than a complicated one.

If they will not send them

Distinguish between cannot and will not. A merchant who does not have online banking set up needs a different route — a bank login through the funder’s secure portal, or a trip to a branch, and a diary date. A merchant who is unwilling is usually protecting something in the statements, most often positions they have not mentioned, and that is worth finding out now rather than after you have submitted.

Questions.

Keep reading.

Book 15 minutes with Alex.

We will tell you straight up if we cannot help you.

Book a 15 min call Rather not book? Text my number

Read this before you book.

✗We do not offer free trials.
✗We do not give discounts.
✗We do not do commission deals.
✓We require an upfront investment to work with us.

If you are not able to invest into getting more leads for your brokerage, do not book a call.

— Alex