Preparing for a lender, and what underwriting reads
They are not buying the business. They are pricing repayment.
Lenders read four things: closed months that tie to the bank, a forward cash view, an aged debtor book, and current filings. Applications stall because the books are behind. Close the months first.
Work it out in a minute
Eighteen questions across six areas. Names the one weakness holding the others in place, and the first ninety days in order.
The plan
Do these six, in order
A time against each one and a way to tell it is finished.
Find out which months they will read
Usually the last twelve closed months, sometimes two years. Ask before you start.
20 minutes · Done when the period is written down
Close those months to the bank
Finished months that tie. An open month is a month underwriting cannot use.
1 to 4 weeks · Done when every month in the period is closed and reconciled
Build a thirteen week cash view
From what is committed: invoices raised, bills due, payroll, the known lumps.
1 day · Done when the next thirteen weeks are on one page with a closing balance each week
Age the debtor book
Who owes what, and for how long, in the usual buckets.
2 hours · Done when every open invoice sits in an age bucket
Check good standing in every state
Formation state, every state you registered in, and anything that lapsed.
2 hours · Done when every registration is current or a correction has been filed
Put one person on the request list
Underwriting asks in batches. Track what was asked, sent and outstanding.
ongoing · Done when one list exists and nothing on it is older than two days
What underwriting reads
Closed months, not current ones
Underwriting reads finished months that tie to the bank. A month still open is a month they cannot use, and being three months behind quietly removes a quarter of the evidence you were counting on.
A cash view that looks forward
Thirteen weeks out, built from what is committed rather than from hope. It is the document that answers the only question underwriting is really asking.
A debtor book somebody has aged
Who owes what, and for how long. An unaged receivables list reads as a business that does not know which of its revenue is real.
Filings current, everywhere
Good standing in the state you are formed in and every state you registered in. A lapsed registration is quick to fix now and a hold on the file later.
Personal and business money apart
Spending through the company, informal loans and director balances, separated and explainable. It is normal in a private company and it always gets asked about.
One person who answers
Underwriting comes back with questions in batches. A named person with the files already assembled turns a three week round trip into a two day one.
What to do, and in what order
A lender is doing something narrower than an investor or a buyer. They are not forming a view on how large this could become. They are pricing the chance of being repaid on a schedule, and every document they ask for serves that one question.
Then age the debtor book. Who owes what, and how long it has been outstanding. A list with no ages on it tells a reader that nobody here knows which revenue is collectable, which is the impression you least want to give.
Questions we get
How far ahead should we start?
Two months, mostly because of the books. Closing months properly cannot be compressed.
Everything else on the list is assembly and can be done in a fortnight.
Do you advise on whether to borrow, or from whom?
No. That is a financial decision and there are licensed people whose job it is.
This is operational preparation: making sure what you hand over is complete, current and consistent.
Our books are months behind. Where do we start?
With which months the lender will read, then with closing those. Catching up everything at once is rarely the fastest route to an answer.
The rest of the file can be assembled while that work runs.
What slows applications most often?
Books not closed, no forward cash view, a receivables list with no ages on it, and a lapsed state registration.
None of those is a judgment about the business. All four are housekeeping.
More in the guides and every answer in one place.
Read next
Closing the months, the catch-up question underneath it, the filings, and the other reader who wants the same file.
Shaheer leads the work, with engineers, writers, filers and analysts behind him. C-suite operations for a San Francisco AI company, Six Sigma on the process side, Anthropic certified on the Model Context Protocol, ten years across eight industries. See what we have built