What documents do you need for a merchant cash advance?

What documents do you need for a merchant cash advance? Start with the last four months of business bank statements, downloaded as PDFs from your online banking, because those statements decide most of the offer. Along with them you send a short application covering the business, the owners and any advances you are already paying. Later in the process a funder asks for a voided check from the account the money will go into and a photo ID. Some funders also ask for card processing statements or a recent tax return, depending on how they collect and how large or long the offer is. This guide is the checklist, with what each document is for and how to prepare it so the file does not come back asking for more.

Merchant cash advances are a common choice for owners who need money quickly. In the Federal Reserve Banks' 2026 Report on Employer Firms, 12% of businesses that applied for a loan, line of credit or cash advance applied for a merchant cash advance, and 48% of those applicants were fully approved, with another 40% partly approved.

What documents do you need for a merchant cash advance?

The table below is the full list we see on revenue-based files. The first four rows are on every file. The rest depend on the funder, the business and the offer, so treat them as things to have ready rather than things every file needs.

Every funder sets its own requirements, and they vary widely. If a funder asks for something not on this list, your rep will tell you what it is and why before you spend time on it.

What bank statements are needed for a merchant cash advance

We decide mainly on four months of business bank statements, and our application asks for exactly that: the last four months from the business checking account, downloaded from your online banking. The application counts them, and it is complete once all four months are in. Four months shows a pattern while still reflecting how the business runs now.

Four details decide whether the statements work on the first pass.

• Send complete statement periods, so if the current one has not closed yet, send the four most recent closed statements.
• They should come from the business account, because deposits that land in a personal account are hard for a funder to count as business revenue.
• If sales land in more than one business account, send four months for each account and say which account takes which kind of deposit.
• If you moved banks during the four months, send the months from the old bank and the new one, so there is no gap.

The SBA's guide to opening a business bank account makes the case for keeping business money separate from personal money for liability reasons, and it helps here too. When every sale runs through one business account, the statements show the business at its real size.

What funders read on the statements

A funder reads your statements to answer two questions: how much the business reliably brings in, and how large a payment it can carry without running the account dry. Our guide to how to qualify for a merchant cash advance walks through each item line by line, so here is the short version, tied to what it means for the documents you send.

Deposits come first. The funder adds up the sales deposits for each month and looks at how evenly they arrive. The average daily balance shows what sits in the account on a normal day, which tells the funder whether a daily or weekly payment would leave room to operate. Days below zero and returned items get counted too. The CFPB's bank account glossary describes a non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee as one a bank may charge when a check or electronic payment is not paid because the account lacks the money, and each of those fees shows up as a line on the statement. Payments to other funders show up as repeating debits, often daily, and each open advance lowers what a new funder can offer. Our guide to how much you can get with a merchant cash advance shows how those numbers turn into an amount. What a funder needs from you is a complete statement, plus a word of explanation wherever the numbers could be misread.

Explain one-off deposits before a funder asks

Funders take money that is not sales out of the revenue figure. Transfers from savings, loan proceeds, owner deposits and the sale of an asset all count as deposits on the statement but not as revenue. If you leave them unexplained, the funder either removes them anyway or stops to ask, and a question costs time.

Here is an example. Say a September statement shows $62,000 in deposits. Of that, $10,000 is a transfer from the business savings account and $7,500 is the sale of an old delivery van. The funder would count about $44,500 as sales for the month. Tell us about the transfer and the van sale up front and the file goes out with the right figure. If one month is low because the business closed for a week for a remodel, or a large customer paid two months at once, a one-line note keeps a funder from reading the dip or the spike as how the business usually runs.

The application, ID and voided check

Our application starts with five quick questions: how much you need, time in business, monthly revenue, a rough credit range and how to reach you. The full application then covers the business (legal name, any trade name, start date, state of incorporation, EIN, industry, address and whether you take card payments), the funding you need, any advances you are already paying with each one's balance, and the owner's details. That includes the owner's Social Security number, date of birth, an estimated credit score and home address. Typing in an estimated score does not check your credit, and getting matched does not need a hard credit pull. Our guide on whether a merchant cash advance affects your credit explains when a funder might run one.

If you share ownership of the business, the application asks for each partner's name, contact details and percentage. Each co-owner gets a link to review the application, add their own identity details and sign it, so it helps to tell them it is coming.

The voided check and the photo ID come later. Once the statements are in and the file is moving, your rep sends a separate link for both. The check should come from the business checking account with VOID written across it, and a clear photo is fine, because the funder uses it to confirm the account and routing numbers the money will be paid into. The ID is the front of a driver's license or state ID, with all four corners in the frame and no glare.

What else a funder may ask for

Most revenue-based files stop at the statements, the application, the check and the ID. Two other documents come up often enough to know where to find them.

Card processing statements

Some advances are collected as a share of your card sales, taken by your card processor before the rest reaches your account. Our guide to how a merchant cash advance works explains this split and the more common set daily or weekly payment from the bank account. A funder that collects through the processor may want the processor's monthly statements, since they show card volume on its own. You can download them from your processor's online portal. If customers pay you by card, the IRS notes that your card processor sends you a Form 1099-K each year showing what came in through cards, which is a quick check that the monthly statements add up.

Tax returns for larger or longer offers

For larger advances or longer terms, some funders ask for the business's most recent tax return to see a full year rather than four months. A lender can verify a return through the IRS Income Verification Express Service, which sends a transcript of your return to a lender only with your consent, using Form 4506-C. If you are asked to sign one, check that the business name, EIN and tax years on it are right. Long-term loans ask for more again: two to three years of tax returns, a personal financial statement and a debt schedule, which is part of why they take weeks rather than days.

How to prepare your bank statements

Ten minutes in your online banking covers most of what a funder checks before it starts reading the numbers.

1. Download each statement as a PDF from your bank's website or app. Our application takes statements as PDFs only, because the bank's own file carries the full text a funder reads, while screenshots, photos of paper statements and spreadsheets do not.
2. Send every page of every month, including pages that look empty, so the funder never has a gap in the month to ask about.
3. Check that the business name and account number match across all four months and match the account on your voided check.
4. Include every business account that takes sales deposits, four months each.
5. Write a short note on anything unusual, such as a transfer in, an asset sale, a closed week or a customer who paid early.
6. List every advance you are paying in the application, with its balance, so the debits on the statement match what you told us.

If uploading is awkward, you can email the statements to us instead, and we attach them to your file. Our guide to same-day business funding shows how much a complete file in the morning matters when the money is needed the same day.

Can you get a merchant cash advance with no bank statements?

In practice, a funder almost never makes an offer without them. A merchant cash advance is a purchase of future sales, and the bank statements are how the funder sees those sales and sizes a payment the account can carry. A tax return or a profit and loss statement shows a year's totals, but neither shows the daily balance a set payment comes out of, so neither replaces the statements for a revenue-based offer.

There are some things that can help when the statements are the problem. If the business is newer and has fewer than four months, send what you have and tell us, because a shorter history narrows the options without always ending them. A funder that collects through your card processor will read card processing statements alongside the bank statements. And if the statements show a rough patch you can explain, the explanation travels with the file. Our guide to no doc business loans covers what each kind of funding still asks for when you want the lightest paperwork possible.

The funders we work with generally look for about a year in business and about $20,000 a month in deposits. If you're not there yet, apply anyway. Some funders work with newer or smaller businesses, and we'll tell you what's realistic.

What happens after you send the documents

One application goes to the funders in our network whose requirements fit your business, and offers come back side by side. We go through the amount, the factor rate, the total payback, the payment and the term of each with you before anything is signed. Once you choose an offer, the funder finishes its review, and most applicants are funded within one to two business days of choosing, some the same day. Revenue-based financing through our network runs from $5,000 to $2,000,000 and usually needs no collateral. If the need will come back every few months, ask about a line of credit too, since the same statements are the start of that file. There is nothing to pay to apply or to see offers.

Have your four months of statements downloaded, then start the application, or call (818) 351-0225 if you want to check a document with us first.

Frequently asked questions

What documents do I need for a merchant cash advance?

You need a short application and the last four months of business bank statements as PDFs to get offers, then a voided check from the business account and a photo ID before funding, and some funders also ask for card processing statements or a recent tax return for larger or longer offers.

How many months of bank statements do I need for a merchant cash advance?

We ask for the last four complete months from the business checking account, and if sales land in more than one business account, four months from each one.

Can I get a merchant cash advance with no bank statements?

Almost never, because the bank statements are how a funder sees your sales and sizes a payment the account can carry, though a newer business can send the months it has.

What are the requirements for a merchant cash advance?

Funders mainly want a business checking account with steady sales deposits, a balance that rarely runs below zero and room for one more payment alongside any advances you already have, and each funder sets its own thresholds for time in business, revenue and credit.

Do I need tax returns for a merchant cash advance?

Usually not for a standard advance, which is decided mainly on bank statements, but some funders ask for the most recent business tax return on larger advances or longer terms, and long-term loans ask for two to three years.