The short answer
A complete file is a signed application, four consecutive months of full bank statements, a voided cheque or bank verification, and a short cover note explaining anything unusual. Complete and legible beats fast and partial — an underwriter who has to come back for a missing page moves your file to the bottom of the queue.
Underwriters work a queue. A file they can decide on without asking you anything gets decided; one with a gap goes back in the pile. That is the whole reason packaging matters.
What a complete file contains
| Item | Detail that trips people up |
|---|---|
| Signed application | Legal entity name matching the bank account, not a trading name |
| Four months of statements | Consecutive, most recent first, every page including blanks |
| Voided cheque or bank letter | Must match the account the statements came from |
| Cover note | Two or three lines on anything anomalous |
| Positions disclosure | How many, roughly what the remittances total |
Statements are where files fail
- Every page. The page that says "this page intentionally blank" still belongs, because an underwriter counting pages will notice it missing.
- Bank-generated PDFs, not screenshots or photographs. A photographed statement reads as something to verify rather than something to underwrite.
- Consecutive months. A gap invites the assumption that the missing month was the bad one.
- All accounts, if the business runs more than one. Transfers between accounts look like inflated revenue when the other side is not visible.
Sizing the ask
Ask for something the statements support. A request at three or four times what the revenue carries signals you did not read them, and that colours everything else in the submission.
If the merchant wants more than the file supports, say so before submitting and explain why. An offer that comes back at half of what they asked for lands very differently when they were expecting it.
Placement is part of packaging
- Know which funders take which industries. Sending restaurant paper to a funder who does not take it is a decline you manufactured.
- Know who takes second and third positions and who does not.
- Know the time-in-business floors. They differ and they are hard limits.
- Do not shotgun the same file to eight funders. It shows in the credit pulls and it damages how each of them reads your submissions.