How to get a file through faster, how we read your industry, what to check in any advance agreement — ours or anyone else's — and the things we refuse to do.
After thirty years, the honest truth: most delays aren't underwriting. They're these six things, and five of them are on you.
The same revenue means something different in trucking than in a restaurant. Knowing that pattern is most of the job.
| Industry | What the deposits look like | How we structure it | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trucking & logistics | Weekly settlements, fuel-heavy, lumpy | Weekly ACH; factoring on open invoices | 24–48h |
| Restaurants & food | Daily card volume, thin margins | Daily holdback at a low percentage | 24–48h |
| Construction & trades | Milestone-driven, seasonal, slow pay | Weekly ACH on a longer term | 48–72h |
| Retail & e-commerce | Daily card plus platform payouts | Daily holdback, holiday-aware | 24–48h |
| Medical & dental | Insurance lag of 30–90 days | Monthly or weekly, extended term | 48–72h |
| Wholesale & distribution | Invoice-driven on 30–60 day terms | Factoring or purchase-order financing | 48–72h |
| Staffing & services | Payroll-cycle driven, receivables lag | Weekly ACH aligned to payroll runs | 48–72h |
| Auto repair & service | Steady daily card, low seasonality | Daily holdback | 24–48h |
Turnarounds assume a complete file submitted during business hours. Structures shown are typical, not guaranteed — final terms are set by the funding partner.
This applies to ours and everyone else's. Print it, take it to your signing call, and ask every question out loud. Any funder who resists these questions is telling you something.
The difference between those two numbers is your cost. Everything else in the agreement is decoration. Write both numbers on one line of paper before you sign anything.
A 1.24 factor on $75,000 is $93,000 back — $18,000 in cost. Say the dollar figure out loud. A factor rate sounds like a number; $18,000 feels like money.
A fixed ACH payment does not care that you had a slow Tuesday. A percentage holdback moves down when sales do. Know which one you are signing — it is the single biggest difference between a survivable advance and an unsurvivable one.
Daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly are all offered. Daily comes out before you have looked at the day's deposits. Weekly or bi-weekly usually costs marginally more and is materially easier to survive. Ask for it.
Can you pay it off early? If you do, do you save anything? Some agreements reduce the total; some do not. Get the answer in writing, not on a call.
If you sign one, your personal assets — not just the business — are in play. Find that page. Read it twice. Ask what triggers it.
Some states still permit a confession of judgment, which can let a funder obtain a judgment without a trial. Check whether your state allows it, and whether it is in your agreement. Also read what counts as default — some contracts treat a second advance as an event of default.
Ask for the funder's legal entity name in writing. Not the brand on the website — the entity on the contract. If the person on the phone will not tell you, that is your answer about how the rest of the relationship will go.
Anyone can list what they offer. After thirty years, the more useful list is what we refuse to do — because those are the deals that end relationships.
We were doing this before it had a name. Receivables purchasing, then merchant cash advance, then whatever it is called in ten years. The product changed. Reading a bank statement did not.
Ready when you are. One short application, multiple funding partners competing, and every number shown in plain dollars before you sign anything.