The Underwriting Desk
How to Analyze Bank Statements for MCA Underwriting
A practical guide to reading business bank statements for MCA underwriting, including deposit quality, negative days, NSFs, existing debt, cash cushion, and repayment capacity.
Bank statements are the center of MCA underwriting.
A credit report can tell you how a business or owner handled obligations in the past. A bank statement tells you what is happening right now: deposits, cash cushion, existing payments, returned items, negative days, and whether the business can carry another daily or weekly payment.
For brokers and ISOs, good pre-underwriting matters before a file ever reaches a funder. Cleaner submissions get reviewed faster. Weak files get spotted earlier. Explainable risk gets packaged with context instead of being left for the funder to guess.
What you are trying to answer
When you review bank statements, you are not just looking for revenue. You are trying to answer five questions:
- Is the revenue real and recurring?
- How stable is the cash flow?
- How much debt pressure is already in the account?
- Does the business maintain enough cushion to handle another payment?
- Are there red flags that need explanation before submission?
Start with the right statement set
Most MCA reviews start with recent business bank statements. Three to six months is common, and longer history can help when the business is seasonal or recent activity looks unusual.
| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Account ownership | Business name, DBA, or related operating entity |
| Statement period | Full months, not screenshots or partial exports |
| Account type | Primary operating account, not a rarely used account |
Calculate gross deposits, then clean them up
Gross deposits are the starting point. Add all deposits for each month, then separate operating revenue from noise.
Transfers, owner contributions, tax refunds, loan proceeds, MCA advances, one-time settlements, reversals, and returned deposits should be reviewed before they are counted as revenue.
The goal is not to punish every unusual deposit. The goal is to avoid underwriting borrowed money as operating revenue.
Look at deposit quality
Deposit quality matters as much as deposit volume. A healthy operating account usually shows revenue that matches the business model.
- Number of deposit days per month
- Average deposit size
- Largest single deposit as a percent of monthly deposits
- Card processor deposits vs checks, wires, ACH, cash, or transfers
- Customer concentration and seasonality
Count negative days, NSFs, and returned items
Negative days are one of the simplest ways to see cash stress. Track the count and trend, not just whether it happened once.
NSFs, overdrafts, returned ACH items, returned deposits, and stop payments can signal payment pressure. One NSF tied to a processor delay is different from repeated returned ACH payments across three months.
Identify existing MCA and debt payments
Existing obligations are easy to miss if you only look at deposits. Review withdrawals for daily or weekly patterns that look like financing payments.
- Same recipient every business day
- Daily ACH debits in similar amounts
- Weekly debits on the same day
- Multiple funder names
- Payments labeled as working capital, revenue advance, remittance, or ACH debit
Estimate repayment capacity
MCA underwriting often comes down to whether the business can handle the proposed payment without breaking cash flow.
| Estimated true monthly revenue | $160,000 |
| Existing daily or weekly payment burden | $13,300 |
| Proposed monthly payment burden | $9,800 |
| Combined burden as percent of revenue | 14.4% |
The acceptable burden depends on funder policy, business type, margin profile, and cash-flow stability.
MCA bank statement checklist
Documents
- Three to six recent complete business bank statements
- All pages included
- Same operating account across months, or explanation included
- Business name or DBA matches application
- No cropped screenshots or partial exports
Revenue
- Gross deposits calculated by month
- Non-revenue deposits identified
- True revenue estimated
- Deposit frequency reviewed
- Seasonality or revenue concentration noted
Cash stress
- Negative days counted
- Low-balance days reviewed
- NSFs and overdrafts counted
- Returned items reviewed
- Ending balance trend reviewed
Existing debt
- Daily and weekly ACH debits reviewed
- Existing MCA payments identified
- Other recurring debt payments identified
- Estimated monthly debt burden calculated
- Payoff or renewal context requested if needed
Where AI helps
AI should not replace underwriting judgment. It should reduce the manual work that slows judgment down.
In bank statement analysis, AI can help extract deposits and withdrawals, categorize recurring payments, flag likely MCA debits, count negative days, spot unusual deposits, summarize trends, and produce a first-pass underwriting memo.
The human still decides what matters. The system should surface the signal, show its work, and let the underwriter override it.
That is the Plutus view: humans decide, AI surfaces.
Final thought
MCA underwriting does not start with a model. It starts with the cash moving through the business. Plutus is built to make that review faster and more consistent by turning statements into structured signals and helping teams apply good judgment on every file.
