Getting Ready to Borrow: The 30-Day Checklist

The difference between a decline and a good offer is often thirty days of preparation. Not thirty days of paperwork, just a short list done in the right order so that when a lender opens your file, every question already has an answer. This checklist is organized by week. If you need money sooner, compress it; the order still holds.

Lenders ask the same handful of questions. Have the answers written down before you start.

• Average monthly revenue for the last six months, and the trend: up, flat or down.
• Time in business, measured from the date you first took revenue, not the date you incorporated.
• Every existing loan, advance, lease and credit card balance, with its monthly payment.
• Your personal credit score, pulled from a free source, so nothing surprises you.
• The amount you need, what it buys, and when it pays back. Vague requests get vague offers.

Download the last six months of business bank statements as full PDFs. Export a year-to-date profit-and-loss statement and a balance sheet from your accounting software, even if they are rough. Locate last year's business tax return and your formation documents. If the request is for equipment, get the quote or invoice. Put everything in one folder named for the month. Most online applications need only the statements; the rest is for lenders that ask for more, and having it ready turns a week of follow-up into an hour.

This is the week that changes your pricing.

• Pay revolving balances down below 30% of their limits; utilization updates within a statement cycle.
• Dispute any error on your personal report. Resolve or set up a payment plan on any tax lien.
• Keep a floor balance in the business account so the month you apply has zero negative days.
• Pay off any small advance whose daily debits clutter the statement.
• Stop applying elsewhere. Every hard inquiry in the last ninety days is a question you will have to answer.

Size the request to the job plus a 10% cushion, and check that the payment fits: as a rule, total loan payments should stay under about 10% of monthly deposits for online products and well under your operating cash flow for bank products. Decide which product fits the job using the financing guide, but do not over-think it; a broker will match you to several. Apply early in the week and early in the day so lenders can decide and fund before their cutoffs. Then compare offers on APR, total payback, payment frequency and prepayment terms, not on the headline rate.

For reference, everything a lender might ask for, from most to least common.

• Three to six months of business bank statements, or a read-only bank connection.
• Government ID for every owner with 20% or more of the company.
• Year-to-date profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet.
• Most recent business tax return; two years for SBA and bank loans.
• Formation documents, EIN letter and any licenses the business needs to operate.
• Accounts receivable and payable aging, for invoice financing and larger requests.
• Equipment quote, purchase agreement or lease, when the loan buys something specific.
• Existing debt schedule listing each lender, balance and payment.

If you have the statements and the numbers from week one, you are ready enough to check eligibility today; the rest improves the offer rather than gating it. One application on FundLine reaches more than 75 lenders and does not affect your credit score. Start there, and use the remaining weeks to make the best offer better.