Fund it now, or build it first
This is the single most important judgement you will make. Get it right and you hand a senior advisor something fundable. Get it wrong and you either bury a live deal or waste a senior advisor's day.
The decision tree
Start with the hard gate
Run these in order. The moment one of them fails, you have your answer — do not keep looking for a way to make it a clean file.
Clean File — Fund Upfront
The file is bankable today. Real, consistent, on-rail revenue. Send it to the banks.
- $10,000+ monthly revenue — strict. $9,999 fails.
- 90 days of statements standard; 4 full months in New York and California.
- 1–3 positions max, and still plenty of cash flow left after them.
- Clean ACH. Minimal to no heavy Zelle, Cash App or Venmo.
- Not heavy Square or Stripe.
- Low cash and check volume — or properly reported through a system.
- No crazy negative days, no low or zero balances.
- AI stack check passes.
Your next move
Self-review, run the AI stack check, push to the appropriate banks, and book the senior advisor to close.
Build File — Install Rails
Real sales exist, but they are not bankable yet. Put the business on the rails, season it, then fund.
- Heavy Zelle, Cash App or Venmo volume.
- Heavy Square or Stripe processing.
- Lots of cash or unreported checks with no AR receipts.
- Over-stacked — too many existing positions.
- Negative days, low balances, or the account is being managed to dodge fees.
- Real sales exist but they do not show up cleanly on the statement.
The build process
Install Clover → season 30–60 days of clean deposits → then fund, and climb from there.
The rules people get wrong
Three gates that decide a file
The $10,000 floor is strict
Monthly revenue has to clear $10,000. There is no rounding, no close enough, no counting a good month and averaging up. A file at $9,999 does not fund.
$9,999/month → fails the gate, no matter how clean everything else looks.
New York and California need 4 full months
Nationwide the standard is 90 days of statements. In New York and California you need four full months. Four months that stops at three is a dead file in those two states.
3 clean months in NY → not enough. Ask for the fourth before you submit.
Off-rail money does not count
Revenue that never touches the bank account is invisible to a funder. $12,000 a month with 60% running through Zelle and Cash App is not a $12,000 file.
$12k/month, 60% Zelle → build. Install the rails, season, then fund.
The pattern across months beats any single deposit.
Module 10 — file quality
Red flags, green flags
One red flag does not sink a file. Three of them together tell you this is a build, and no amount of good sales pitch changes that.
Green flags
- Clean ACH — deposits landing directly into the account.
- Consistent monthly revenue across the full statement window.
- Healthy balances and no negative days.
- Card volume processed through a real system, on the statement.
- Few or no existing positions, with real room left in the cash flow.
- Time in business the bank can actually see and verify.
Red flags
- Heavy Zelle, Cash App or Venmo movement.
- Heavy Square or Stripe volume sitting off the bank relationship.
- Lots of cash or unreported checks with no AR receipts.
- Over-stacked — too many positions already in place.
- Negative days, low balances, or fees being actively dodged.
- Real sales that never show up cleanly in the account.
Now go read the money
The decision tree means nothing until you can read a statement. The next module walks the six things you look for, with real class examples.