The short answer
Five questions settle whether a file is worth working: monthly revenue, how long trading, how many open positions, whether there have been negative days, and what the money is for. Asked in the first few minutes they filter most of the files that were never going to fund — and the position question is the one brokers most often leave until it is too late to matter.
A rep who packages every file that answers the phone is spending their week on submissions that were never going to fund. Qualification is not gatekeeping — it is deciding where the next two hours go.
The five questions
| Ask | What you are actually establishing |
|---|---|
| Monthly revenue, roughly? | Whether the deal size justifies the work |
| How long have you been trading? | Whether they clear the funder floors at all |
| Any advances currently open? | How much of the receipts is already committed |
| Any negative days in the last few months? | The single fastest route to a decline |
| What is the money for? | Urgency, deal size, and whether an advance even fits |
Five questions, two minutes. They will not tell you whether a file funds, but they reliably tell you which files cannot.
How to ask about positions
This is the one that gets fumbled, because it sounds like an accusation and merchants often understate it. Ask it as a structuring question rather than a screening one — you are establishing what you can arrange, not checking whether they qualify.
It also matters because the statements will reveal it anyway. A position you knew about is a pricing input; one the underwriter finds costs you the submission and some standing with that funder.
The question everyone skips
What the money is for. It sounds like small talk and it is the most informative answer on the call.
- A specific, dated need — payroll, an invoice, an inventory buy with a deadline — means real urgency and a real close.
- "Just exploring options" usually means no deadline and a long cycle, which is fine to know before you invest a morning in it.
- Paying off another advance is worth hearing early. It changes the structure and it tells you about the position they may not have mentioned.
- An amount that does not match the stated purpose is worth probing. It often surfaces something the first three questions did not.
When the answers rule it out
Say so on the call rather than submitting a file you expect to fail. A merchant told plainly that they are three months short on time in business, with a note to call back, is a better outcome than a decline three days later — and they remember which broker was straight with them.
Diary those. A merchant who misses on time in business becomes fundable on a known date, and almost nobody follows up on them.