Do I Qualify for Business Funding? The Underwriter's Checklist

Most eligibility pages are a list of minimums followed by a button. The minimums are the least interesting part. Clearing a floor is not an approval — it is permission to be looked at, and what happens after that is where the decision actually lives.

So this page is written from the other side of the desk: the five things an underwriter reads, in the order they read them, and what each one has to show. Work through it and you will know roughly where you stand before anyone pulls your file.

First: the floors

These are the published minimums. They are a gate you pass through, not a score you win.

Byzfunder also advertises term loans, fulfilled through the affiliated Byzwash entity. Credit is one input among several rather than the decision — the business's deposit record carries real weight, which is why two businesses with the same score regularly get different answers.

Then: the five things that are actually read

1. Is the business bank account real and separate?

This is first because it decides whether there is a file at all. Revenue routed through a personal account, or sitting with a processor that never settles into a business account, produces statements that cannot be underwritten even when the business is healthy. Everything below assumes one business account, in the business's legal name, that everything settles into.

2. Are the deposits consistent?

Not the total — the shape. Six strong weeks and six empty ones underwrites worse than a steady, smaller flow, because the question being answered is whether a fixed obligation can be met in a slow week. Volatility is the risk being priced.

3. Which direction is it moving?

Three months rising reads very differently from three months falling at the same average. Direction is signal, and it is read before the average is.

4. What does the overdraft behaviour say?

Frequent overdrafts and returned items are the single most common thing that holds up an otherwise reasonable file. They are read as evidence that the account cannot absorb a bad week — which is precisely the thing a fixed debit depends on. A few days negative across six months is a different picture from a pattern every month.

5. How long has the business been trading?

Time in business matters and it is read alongside everything above rather than as a pass mark. What underwriting needs to see is several consecutive months of statements from a business account showing consistent deposits and no pattern of overdrafts. We will not quote a month count as a promise, because tenure on its own does not decide the answer.

Check yourself against it

Answer these honestly before you apply. They are the same questions, in plain form.

1. Does every dollar of revenue land in one business account in the business's legal name?
2. Can you pull three to six complete months of statements right now, every page?
3. Looking at those months — is the deposit flow steady, or are there weeks with nothing?
4. Is the trend flat or up, rather than down?
5. How many days were negative in the last six months? Was it a bad patch or a habit?
6. Can you explain every large transfer in and out in one sentence?
7. In your worst recent week, could you have covered a fixed debit?

A no on question 1 means the work is account hygiene, not an application. A no on question 7 means the amount you have in mind is too large — that is the number to change.

If most of those are a yes, start an application and let the file be read rather than guessing at it.

What you might qualify for, and which shape fits

Clearing the bar is the start of a different question: which structure fits what you are actually doing.

A merchant cash advance is a purchase of a portion of your future receivables at a fixed factor rate. It is not a loan, it is not interest-bearing and it has no APR. Repayment is a fixed debit, agreed in writing before you sign, and it does not fall because your week was slow. That is the reason to size it against a bad week rather than a strong one. It fits a defined, time-boxed need.

ByzFlex is revenue-based revolving capital: you request capital, use it, and it becomes available again as it is repaid. It fits a gap that recurs — a seasonal swing, slow-paying customers, payroll landing before collections — rather than a one-time cost.

A term loan is fixed amount, fixed schedule, for a project with a known cost.

Paying off early earns a 2.99% discount on our paper. Ask for the exact figure before you sign, on any offer from anyone.

Which shape fits is a question the statements help answer, so it is worth starting the file rather than deciding the product in advance.

What nobody can tell you in advance

Three things, and be wary of anyone who offers them anyway.

Your amount. It comes from the deposit record. A figure quoted before the statements are read is a guess dressed as an offer.

Your rate. Same reason.

Your approval. Every file is underwritten on its own merits. No approval is promised — and any offer that treats the outcome as a formality before the statements are read deserves a much closer look.

Several states now require providers to give standardised commercial financing disclosures at the time of offer, including an APR-equivalent figure, so offers can be compared on the same basis. California administers its commercial financing disclosure rules through the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, and New York through the Department of Financial Services. When a disclosure arrives, read it, and compare it against every other offer on the table.

If you do not qualify yet

The honest answer is more useful than a redirect.

No deposit history. A pre-revenue business cannot be funded on revenue — there is nothing to purchase and nothing to read. Working capital for startups sets out what funds a young business and what shortens the wait.

Thin or damaged credit. The floors are 525 and 550 and credit is one input among several. Business loans for bad credit covers the bands properly, including what gets checked instead of the score.

A recent decline somewhere else. A decline is one institution's credit box in one quarter, not a verdict on the business. What to do after a business loan decline is the right next step.

The statements need a few clean months. That is the work, and it is finite. Separate the account, settle everything into it, avoid overdrafts, stop commingling. You are then waiting on a known number of months rather than on luck.

What you will need

Three to six months of business bank statements, a completed application, and basic business details. A complete file can fund in as little as 24 hours. If the documents are to hand, the application takes minutes — and what makes 24-hour funding possible explains what "complete" is doing in that sentence.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum credit score? 525 for a merchant cash advance and 550 for ByzFlex. Clearing it is not an approval; the file is read as a whole.

How much revenue do I need? There is no single figure that decides it, because consistency and trend are read alongside the total. A steady smaller flow regularly underwrites better than a larger, erratic one.

Does applying guarantee anything? No. Every file is underwritten on its own merits, and no amount or rate is quoted before the statements are read.

I have had overdrafts. Is that fatal? Not automatically. A bad patch inside an otherwise clean six months reads very differently from a monthly pattern. What is being judged is whether the account can absorb a slow week.

Do I need collateral? MCA and ByzFlex are not collateral-secured products. They are still real obligations with real consequences if the account cannot cover the agreed debit.