The document list, tier by tier, from a three-page application to an SBA file

Paperwork tracks two things: how much money is at stake, and how long the funder has to wait to find out whether it was right. A short advance repaid out of daily deposits can be underwritten from the deposits. A ten-year loan against a building cannot.

There are roughly four tiers. Find yours, assemble that list, and do not volunteer the next tier up.

Tier one: the application and the statements

This is the short-duration end of the market — merchant cash advances, revenue-based financing, short working capital notes.

• A one-to-three page application: legal entity name, DBA, address, EIN, entity type, ownership with percentages, date established, industry, requested amount and use, and owner details including date of birth and Social Security number for the credit pull and identity check.
• Business bank statements, commonly the most recent three to six months, every page, for every account revenue lands in.
• A government-issued photo ID for each owner above the funder's ownership threshold.
• A voided business cheque or a bank letter confirming account ownership.
• Card processing statements if a meaningful share of revenue is card-based.

That is the whole file for many approvals at this tier. Everything else that gets requested arrives later as a stipulation, after a conditional decision.

Tier two: the file starts asking about the business, not just the account

Larger advances, larger short-term notes, small lines of credit, some equipment deals. Add:

• A year-to-date profit and loss statement and balance sheet, dated, and a prior full year.
• A business debt schedule listing every obligation, including advances and leases.
• The most recent business tax return, or a signed extension if the year is not filed.
• An A/R and A/P ageing report where the business invoices rather than collects at the till.
• Entity documents: articles of organisation or incorporation, the operating agreement or bylaws, and a certificate of good standing from the state.
• A certificate of insurance naming the funder where equipment or inventory secures the deal.

Tier three: bank and bank-like credit

Term loans, real lines of credit, larger equipment finance, asset-based facilities. Everything above, plus:

• Two to three years of business tax returns, complete with all schedules and K-1s.
• Two to three years of personal returns for each owner above the guarantee threshold.
• A personal financial statement per guarantor.
• Interim financials that tie to the last filed return and to the bank statements.
• A 4506-C authorising the lender to obtain IRS transcripts.
• Projections with stated assumptions, for expansion, acquisition or start-up cases.
• Collateral documents: equipment invoices or quotes, inventory reports, appraisals, title work, environmental reports on real property.
• Third-party items: a landlord waiver where collateral sits on leased premises, an insurance certificate with the right endorsements, sometimes a subordination or intercreditor agreement.

Tier four: SBA

An SBA file is tier three plus a government eligibility layer — the forms, affiliate disclosure, a fee disclosure covering anyone you paid to help you obtain the loan, transcripts for every entity, the lease, the franchise agreement where one exists, and life insurance assignment on some deals. The mechanics are covered separately in the documents an SBA 7(a) file needs, and current forms are posted at sba.gov.

The three groups that actually matter

Forget the tiers for a moment and sort your list a different way, because this is what decides your timeline:

Identify group three at the beginning and start it immediately, even before you are approved. A landlord who takes two weeks to sign a waiver is not going to move faster because you asked late.

How to send it, which costs more days than what to send

• Every page. Statements are paginated "1 of 7". Send all seven, including the page that is blank apart from a footer. A missing page is a re-request, and a re-request is a day.
• Bank-generated PDFs. Download them from online banking rather than photographing paper or exporting from bookkeeping software. A statement that has passed through a spreadsheet has lost the thing that made it credible.
• Every account revenue touches. An operating account you did not mention is the most common reason a file gets reopened after approval.
• Named files. Entity name, document type, period. A folder of camera-roll filenames costs a processor twenty minutes and costs you their goodwill.
• One transmission, not six. Items sent one at a time re-enter the queue one at a time. Six stipulations cleared serially, a day each way, is a fortnight; the same six sent together is an afternoon.

What to have ready before you speak to anyone

A folder with the last six months of bank statements as PDFs downloaded from the bank, the last filed return, a current P&L and balance sheet, a debt schedule you have actually checked against your statements, your entity documents, and your ID. That folder answers the first request from every tier and most of the second.

What should not be in the folder you send to a stranger who has not yet told you what they are: your Social Security number, a signed blank authorisation, or an online banking password. A responsible intake asks who you are, roughly what the business does, roughly what it turns over, how long it has traded and what you are trying to fund. Find Me Funders' own inquiry form asks for no Social Security number, no bank credentials and no documents, because none of that is needed to point you at lenders who publish their terms. Documents belong in the hands of a party you have identified, after you know what they will do with them.