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Merchants ask for what they want. Funders lend against what the account can service. When those two numbers are far apart, the file is declined for a reason that had nothing to do with the business being good or bad.
Work backwards from the remittance
- Look at average daily deposits and the average daily balance.
- Estimate a remittance the account could absorb without routinely running to zero.
- Work back from that remittance and the likely term to the advance it supports.
- Compare with what the merchant asked for. If the gap is large, that is the conversation.
How to raise it with the merchant
Frame it as the daily payment rather than as a refusal. "At $80,000 the daily comes out around $740, and your account does not have that most days without going to zero. At $45,000 it is around $420, which your statements do support" is a factual conversation about their bank account, not a negotiation about ambition.
| What the merchant hears | Framing |
|---|---|
| "You cannot have $80,000" | A refusal. They shop elsewhere |
| "Your account supports about $420 a day" | Arithmetic. They engage with it |
| "Let us start here and renew" | A path, which most merchants accept |
The renewal framing does most of the work. A merchant who takes $45,000, services it cleanly for a few months and renews at a larger number has ended up where they wanted to be, and you have two deals instead of a decline.
Questions brokers ask
What happens if a merchant asks for too much?
Usually a decline rather than a smaller counter-offer, because an oversized ask reads to an underwriter as a broker who did not read the statements — and that judgement attaches to the entire submission.
How do you work out what a file supports?
Start from the average daily balance and deposits, estimate a remittance the account absorbs without running to zero, then work back from that remittance and the likely term to the advance it implies.
How do you tell a merchant they cannot have what they asked for?
Talk about the daily payment rather than the advance. "Your account supports about $420 a day, which is roughly $45,000" is arithmetic about their bank account rather than a refusal of their ambition.
Does resizing actually improve the outcome?
It is the single most effective fixable intervention available before submission. Oversized asks are among the most common declines and among the cheapest to prevent.
Should you mention renewals when resizing?
Yes — it converts a smaller number from a disappointment into a first step. A merchant who services $45,000 cleanly and renews larger ends up where they wanted, and you have two deals rather than a decline.
Reference
Holdback and daily paymentWhat the resized ask actually debits, and what share of receipts that is.
Alex Makowski
Founder, Infinite Bookings
Runs the lead generation operation behind Infinite Bookings — paid traffic, the funding application, and the delivery pipeline that puts records into brokers’ CRMs.
Reachable directly at alex@infinitebookings.com or 732-609-7182.