Questions, answered at length.
The short answers are on the front page. These are the same questions with the detail left in.
Timing
From first keystroke to money in the account - realistically?
Statements alongside the form generally produce an answer inside the working day, with the money a day behind the executed paperwork. Statements promised for later stop the clock before it starts, and that single fact explains nearly every slow file this office has.
Is there a faster route for an urgent case?
Exactly one, and it is free: attach the statements in the same sitting as the form. No expedited queue exists to be bought into, and an adviser who is told a matter is urgent simply takes it first.
What we need from you
Why a full quarter of statements?
A single month describes an accident. Three consecutive months describe a business - whether receipts are level, seasonal or receding, which is precisely what a funder is pricing. Additional months are welcome where they exist.
Which account, if the business banks in two?
The one trading receipts pass through. Where turnover is genuinely divided, send both and say which is which; an adviser would rather read two sets than guess at one.
Can somebody else complete the form?
Provided they hold the link and the authority to bind the business. The signature at the end should belong to a person entitled to give it.
Money already owed
There is a facility running. Does that finish us?
No, and it is asked about on the form for a reason: what remains outstanding shapes what can sensibly sit on top of it. Understating a balance does not help - it appears in the statements a few minutes later.
Our credit is not strong.
The record in the account carries the weight here. A sparse file, or a bad stretch some years back, seldom ends a discussion by itself.
What happens to the file
Who sees it?
The adviser holding it, and the funders it is presented to. Nobody else, and nothing is sold. The privacy notice sets that out in full.
What if we decline the terms?
Nothing happens. Declining costs nothing, closes nothing, and does not prevent a later application. An advance is only live once you have signed for it.
If it goes wrong
Trading has turned since we signed.
Ring before the instalment rather than after it. Arrangements are possible on the near side of a miss and thin on the far side, and an early call is received very differently from a late one.