Merchant cash advance requirements (2026)

A merchant cash advance is a purchase of a business's future receipts: a funding company pays a lump sum now and collects a fixed total out of the business's deposits. To be considered for one, a business has to clear the minimums the funding company publishes: time in business, monthly revenue and the owner's credit score.

Clearwater Capital Group, which publishes this page, states its own as 6+ months in business, $10K+ monthly revenue and FICO from 450, for advances of $10K-$2M over 3 to 36 months.

What other companies publish varies. The Clearwater Published Requirements Check (November 2026) found that 7 of 9 national funding companies publish a minimum credit score, from 500 to 625 with a median of 550. Of the same 9, 8 publish a minimum time in business, most often 6 months. Of those 9 companies, 3 are lenders that sell loans and lines of credit and no advance. Among the 6 that sell an advance, 5 publish a minimum credit score, from 500 to 570.

A minimum is where review starts, not an offer. Past the minimums, underwriting reads the business bank statements: what is deposited, how steadily, how often the balance goes negative and what existing advances already take out. The Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey found that 48% of merchant cash advance applicants were offered the full amount they applied for, 40% were offered part of it and 12% were turned down. (Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Report on Employer Firms.)

A funding company's published minimums are a credit score, a time in business and a revenue figure. Clearwater Capital Group publishes FICO from 450, 6+ months in business and $10K+ monthly revenue. Among 9 national funding companies whose websites were read on November 10, 2026, published credit minimums run from 500 to 625, and the most common time-in-business minimum is 6 months. Those are not all minimums for a merchant cash advance. Of those 9 companies, 3 are lenders that sell loans and lines of credit and no advance. Among the 6 that sell an advance, 5 publish a minimum credit score, from 500 to 570. The table shows all 9, then the 6 that sell an advance, then Clearwater.

Company websites read November 10, 2026 for the Clearwater Published Requirements Check. This site names no other company, so the two middle columns are counts. The 9 include 3 lenders whose listed products are loans and lines of credit, with no advance, and the third column leaves them out. Where a company's own pages disagree, its advance product page is used. The right-hand column is what Clearwater publishes on its own site.

What credit score do you need?

Of 9 national funding companies, 7 publish a minimum credit score, and the median of those minimums is 550. Among the 6 that sell an advance, 5 publish a minimum credit score, from 500 to 570. Clearwater Capital Group publishes FICO from 450. The score Clearwater works from at this stage is the owner's own estimate, given on the application, and there is no hard credit pull to apply.

For scale, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says most credit scores range from 300 to 850 (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, What is a credit score?). The score in question is usually the owner's. The Federal Reserve Banks' 2026 chartbook on firms by credit risk shows that among the firms it classes as high credit risk, 3% use only a business credit score to obtain financing, 45% use the owner's personal score and 52% use both (Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Credit Risk, page 27, 312 firms).

That chartbook defines high credit risk as a personal credit score of less than 620 or a business credit score of 1 to 49. The median published minimum, 550, sits inside that band: in the survey's terms, it is a high-credit-risk score.

How long do you have to be in business?

The most common published minimum is 6 months, both among all 9 funding companies and among the 6 that sell an advance. Clearwater Capital Group publishes 6+ months in business. A time-in-business minimum asks for a track record: enough months of deposits for someone to read.

Young businesses do close. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 78.9% of the private sector establishments opened in the year ended March 2025 as still operating in March 2026, and 47.2% of those opened in the year ended March 2021 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 7: Survival of private sector establishments by opening year). Clearwater's own applicants are mostly well past the minimum. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that the median time in business among applicants was 5.7 years, and 16% of applicants had been operating for less than two.

How much revenue do you need?

Clearwater Capital Group publishes $10K+ monthly revenue. Revenue here means what is deposited into the business bank account in a month, because deposits are what the bank statements show and what an advance is collected from.

Read the unit before you compare companies. Of the 7 national funding companies that publish a minimum revenue, 3 state it per month and 4 per year. An annual figure divided by twelve is the monthly one.

What the minimums do not tell you

They do not tell you the price. The Clearwater Published Requirements Check (November 2026) found that 5 of 9 national funding companies publish no factor rate range, starting rate or APR on their own websites. Clearwater Capital Group publishes a factor rate range of 1.05 to 1.44; a factor rate is the multiplier applied once to the amount advanced to set the total owed. Where a company publishes no price, the written offer is the first place the price appears.

Enter three numbers and the self-check shows, line by line, whether each is at or above Clearwater Capital Group's published minimum. It compares numbers and does nothing else: it sends nothing, keeps nothing and is not a decision.

A worked example

Round numbers, for illustration only, not a real file: a business open 4 months that deposits $18,000 a month, whose owner estimates a credit score of about 610. The self-check reads it this way.

The self-check knows Clearwater's minimums and no one else's. Another company's may sit higher or lower; the table above shows the spread of what is published.

To apply to Clearwater Capital Group, the documents are the last four months of business bank statements. A government-issued photo ID and a voided business check or a bank letter come later, once you accept an offer. The list below is what Clearwater asks for, when, and why. Other funding companies set their own lists, and this page does not speak for them.

• To apply: business bank statements. Clearwater asks for the last four months, ideally as the PDFs the bank produces, plus the current month to date. They are asked for because an advance is sized off real deposits and collected from the same account, so the statements are the evidence for both.
• Basic business details. The legal name, how the business is registered, its tax ID, its address, its industry, the month it opened and who owns it. They identify the business being funded and tie it to the name on the bank account.
• After you accept an offer: a government-issued photo ID. A driver's license or another government ID for the owner. It is not asked for to apply. It confirms that the person signing the contract is the owner.
• After you accept an offer: a voided business check or a bank letter. It is not asked for to apply either. It confirms the account and routing numbers, so that the money goes to, and the payments are collected from, the right account.
• For larger amounts, more. A larger request can need a recent tax return or a profit and loss statement, because it is weighed against more of the business's finances than four months of deposits show. Clearwater says so at the start when a request needs them.
• If you have an advance open. What you still owe on each one and what each one collects. Existing payments come out of the deposits a new advance would be collected from, so they are part of the file.

One thing an application does not need is a fee. Clearwater Capital Group charges nothing before funding and is paid out of the funded deal.

Underwriting reads four things in the business bank statements: how much is deposited, how consistent the deposits are, how many days the balance is negative, and what existing advance payments already come out. Clearwater Capital Group publishes no pass mark for any of the four, and this page does not invent one.

• Deposits. The total deposited each month is the revenue the published minimum is measured on and the base an advance is sized against. Transfers between the owner's own accounts are not revenue and are taken out of the count.
• Their consistency. The same monthly total reads better arriving in a steady pattern than in one or two irregular deposits, because an advance is collected from deposits as they come in. Direction counts as well: the most recent month is read against the months before it.
• Days the balance is negative. Each day the account ends below zero is counted, and so is each payment returned for insufficient funds. An advance is collected by a debit every business day or every week, and an account that already runs short cannot carry another debit.
• Existing advance payments. Payments on advances the business already has appear in the statements as recurring debits, and they are added up. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 39% of applicants with an open advance or loan were carrying two or more, and 19% were carrying three or more.

The statements are also read against the application. Revenue and open advances stated on the form are compared with what the account shows, so the plain figure is the one to give. Clearwater's desk goes through each of these readings in its guide to what funders look for in bank statements.

The businesses that applied to Clearwater Capital Group for funding are mostly established, mostly small, and often already repaying an advance or a loan. They applied for business funding, not for an advance alone. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data covers 698 applications and quote requests sent to Clearwater from April 24, 2026 to October 31, 2026. Every figure is what the owner reported, and each line says how many owners answered.

5.7 years

Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that the median time in business among applicants was 5.7 years, and 16% of applicants had been operating for less than two. The published minimum at Clearwater is 6+ months in business. Basis: 573 applicants.

25%

Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 25% of applicants reported a credit score under 600 and 31% reported 680 or higher. The published minimum at Clearwater is FICO from 450. Basis: 557 applicants; self-reported, some as a range.

55%

Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 55% of applicants reported monthly revenue under $50,000, and 19% reported $100,000 or more. The published minimum at Clearwater is $10K+ monthly revenue. Basis: 381 and 134 of 692 applicants.

49%

Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 49% of small businesses applying to Clearwater for funding already had at least one open cash advance or business loan. An open advance is counted in the file and does not rule it out by itself. Basis: 261 of 538 applicants who answered.

Three more lines from the same data, none of which is a requirement:

• Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 65% of applicants were organized as LLCs. No form of organization is among Clearwater's published minimums. (382 of 584 applicants.)
• Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 41% of applicants asked for $100,000 or more, and 14% asked for $25,000 or less. Clearwater's published range is $10K-$2M. (284 and 98 of 691 applicants.)
• Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 47% of applicants said they needed funds the same day or within 24 hours, and 81% within a week. The application asks how soon; it is a question, not a test. (183 and 313 of 387 applicants.)

The national picture points the same way: a larger share of small firms, and of firms with weaker credit, seek an advance. The Federal Reserve's 2026 chartbook on credit risk shows that 28% of high-credit-risk firms sought a merchant cash advance, against 18% of medium-risk and 5% of low-risk firms. (Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Credit Risk. Basis: 312, 1,116 and 3,373 firms; the chart is titled as a share of applicants but counts every firm in each group.) The Federal Reserve's 2026 chartbook on firm size shows that 9% of firms with 1 to 4 employees sought a merchant cash advance, against 5% of firms with 50 to 499 employees. (Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Employment Size. Basis: 2,564 and 426 firms; the chart is titled as a share of applicants but counts every firm in each group.) The rest of Clearwater's applicant figures are on its merchant cash advance statistics page.

The Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey found that 48% of merchant cash advance applicants were offered the full amount they applied for, 40% were offered part of it and 12% were turned down. That comes from 298 applicants, a small sample (Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Report on Employer Firms). Two more lines from the same survey put it in context:

• Loans and lines of credit. The Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey found that 37% of business loan applicants, 45% of business line of credit applicants and 32% of SBA loan or line applicants were offered the full amount they applied for. (683, 977 and 359 applicants.)
• Every kind of financing together. The Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey found that 42% of financing applicants received the full amount they sought, 36% received some or most of it and 22% received none. (3,654 applicants.)

Credit shifts the outcome. The Federal Reserve Banks' 2026 chartbook on firms by credit risk reports it for applicants for a loan, a line of credit or a merchant cash advance taken together, not for advances alone. Among firms it classes as high credit risk, 37% were turned down, 33% were offered part and 30% were offered the full amount.

Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Credit Risk, pages 38 and 59, read November 12, 2026. The scores are self-reported, and where a firm uses both scores the weaker one sets its group. The three outcome columns restate the chart's own labels in plain words.

For a business checking itself against a list of minimums, the point is this. Clearing a minimum puts a file among those that get read. It does not put it among the 48%.

Weak credit, an advance already open or a young business does not rule a file out by itself. What makes a file harder is mostly in the bank statements.

Not disqualifying by itself

• A low credit score. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 25% of applicants reported a credit score under 600 and 31% reported 680 or higher. Clearwater's published minimum is FICO from 450.
• An advance already open. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 49% of small businesses applying to Clearwater for funding already had at least one open cash advance or business loan. The payment on it is counted against your deposits.
• A young business that is past the minimum. Clearwater's published minimum is 6+ months in business. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that the median time in business among applicants was 5.7 years, and 16% of applicants had been operating for less than two.
• A small business. The Federal Reserve's 2026 chartbook on firm size shows that 9% of firms with 1 to 4 employees sought a merchant cash advance, against 5% of firms with 50 to 499 employees. (Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Employment Size. Basis: 2,564 and 426 firms; the chart is titled as a share of applicants but counts every firm in each group.)
• How the business is organized. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 65% of applicants were organized as LLCs. The rest were organized some other way, and no entity type is among Clearwater's published minimums.

What makes a file harder

• A number below a published minimum. The file starts short of the figure that company prints, and a published minimum tells you nothing more than that. Clearwater's own line on it: Below the line? Call anyway. We take the files the big lenders decline. Its number is (727) 303-2220.
• Negative days and returned payments. They count for more when they are in the most recent month.
• Deposits that are falling. A month-over-month decline with no seasonal reason reads as a business getting smaller.
• Deposits that are irregular, or not really revenue. A few large deposits at uneven intervals, or money moved in from the owner's other accounts.
• Several advances at once. Each one is another debit against the same deposits. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that 39% of applicants with an open advance or loan were carrying two or more, and 19% were carrying three or more.
• Trouble on earlier financing. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data shows that at least 15% of applicants disclosed missed payments or a default on earlier business financing. The full application asks about it, and it is weighed with everything else.
• An application that does not match the statements. Stated revenue or open advances that the account does not bear out.
• A missing statement. A file with a month missing waits until the month is supplied.

• Publisher. Clearwater Capital Group, a business funding broker and the trade name of Clearwater Capital Solutions LLC. It arranges funding and is paid from the funded deal. It is not the company that funds an advance.
• What funding companies publish. Counts from the Clearwater Published Requirements Check: the public websites of 9 national funding companies, read on November 10, 2026. The revenue row was counted from the same read. The 9 are funding companies, not all advance companies: 3 are lenders whose listed products are loans and lines of credit, with no advance, so what they publish are minimums for a loan or a line. The counts for the 6 that sell an advance were made for this page from the same read. A company counts as selling an advance when its listed products include a merchant cash advance, a revenue advance or revenue-based financing. Companies change what they publish, so the counts hold for that date. This site names none of the companies.
• Clearwater's own numbers. Its minimums, amount range, terms and factor rate range are the ones it publishes on its own site. The self-check reads the three minimums from that published wording.
• Applicant figures. Clearwater 2026 Applicant Data: 698 applications and quote requests, April 24, 2026 to October 31, 2026, self-reported, as published on Clearwater's statistics page, last updated November 10, 2026. They describe who applied to one broker for funding, not for an advance alone. They are not a sample of all businesses, and they do not show who was funded.
• Federal Reserve figures. Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Report on Employer Firms, published March 3, 2026; Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Credit Risk, published April 2, 2026; and Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Employment Size, published April 2, 2026. The outcome and usage sentences are printed from Clearwater's statistics data, last updated November 10, 2026. The credit risk definitions, the outcomes by credit risk and the type of score used were read in the credit risk chartbook on November 12, 2026.
• Other sources. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 7: Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, What is a credit score?, both read on November 12, 2026.
• Illustrations. The worked example uses round numbers and says so. No real file is behind it. The self-check compares three numbers with Clearwater's published minimums and is not a decision of any kind.
• What this page cannot tell you. Whether a particular business will be funded, for how much, or at what price. It also cannot tell you what a company that publishes no minimum will ask for, or where any company draws the line on what it reads in bank statements.
• Not advice. This page explains requirements. It is not legal, tax or financial advice.
• Corrections. Write to efras@clearwatercapitalgrp.com.