Glossary · Underwriting
True revenue
True revenue is a merchant's real monthly sales on the bank statements: total deposits minus transfers, loan and MCA proceeds, refunds, reversals and owner money.
Also called true deposits, net deposits, qualified revenue
Gross deposits overstate revenue. A merchant might move money between its own accounts, deposit the proceeds of a previous advance, receive refunds or put in owner cash. None of that is sales, and none of it can pay back an advance.
Funders size offers and check holdback against true revenue, usually averaged over the last 3 to 6 months. Brokers who submit gross deposits as revenue waste submissions and lose credibility with underwriters.
Keep both numbers per month, gross and true, and note what was excluded. A clear exclusion list speeds up underwriting.
Formula
true revenue = total credits − transfers between own accounts − loan and MCA funding deposits − refunds and reversals − owner contributions
Example
$112,000 of deposits includes a $15,000 transfer from the merchant's savings account, a $10,000 deposit from a prior advance and $2,000 of refunds. True revenue: $85,000.
Track it on every deal
Statements, offers, positions and commissions with the math worked out, in one CRM for lending companies.
Related
- FeatureBank statement analysisEnter each month's deposits, ADB, NSFs and negative days per bank account and get averages, revenue trend, holdback and an affordability check on the deal.Read
- Free toolHoldback calculatorWork out an MCA holdback percentage from the daily or weekly payment and monthly revenue, or the payment a target holdback allows. Free, no signup.Read
- GlossaryHoldbackHoldback is the share of a merchant's revenue that goes to repaying a cash advance, either a fixed split of card sales or the effective share taken by fixed ACH payments.Read
- GlossaryAverage daily balance (ADB)Average daily balance (ADB) is the mean of a bank account's end-of-day balances over a month. Funders use it to judge whether a merchant can carry daily payments.Read
- GlossaryNSFNSF means non-sufficient funds: a payment bounced because the account was short. In MCA underwriting, NSF counts per month are a core risk signal.Read
- GlossaryMTD statementAn MTD (month-to-date) statement shows a merchant's bank activity from the start of the current month to today, so funders see what happened after the last full statement.Read
- GlossaryStackingStacking means a merchant takes more than one cash advance at the same time, so several funders debit the same bank account and the combined holdback climbs.Read