The short answer
Stipulations are the documents a funder requires before releasing money — commonly a driver’s licence, a voided cheque, proof of ownership, a landlord or lease document, and recent statements to bridge the gap since submission. They rarely change an approved decision; what they change is the timeline, and a deal that slows down at the stip stage is a deal a competing broker can still take.
Approval is not funding. Between the two sits a list of documents, and the merchant’s enthusiasm has a half-life measured in days. Treat stips as a race rather than as paperwork.
| Stip | Why it is asked for |
|---|---|
| Photo ID | Identity, and matching the personal guarantee |
| Voided cheque or bank letter | Confirming the account that will be debited |
| Proof of ownership | That the person signing can bind the business |
| Lease or landlord contact | That the business operates where it says |
| Most recent month’s statements | Bridging the gap since submission |
| Tax ID confirmation | Matching the entity to the filing |
Collect what you can before you submit
The ID and the voided cheque are asked for on essentially every deal. Getting them on the same call as the statements costs the merchant one extra minute while they are already engaged, and removes a day from the funding timeline later — which is the day a competing offer arrives in.
When a stip is really a warning
- A request to see other accounts usually means the deposits do not reconcile with the stated revenue.
- Landlord verification on a business with a residential address means they are checking it operates at all.
- A request for the last two weeks of transactions usually means something recent looked off.
- Repeated ownership questions can mean the entity name does not match the account.
None of these is fatal, but each one tells you what the underwriter is uncertain about — which is useful information you can address directly rather than waiting to see whether it kills the file.