BCRS Business Loans always aim to provide its clients and introducers with a professional and reliable service – right from the initial enquiry stage through to the final payment, and even after that.

In fact, strong values are at the forefront of everything BCRS Business Loans does, as the organisation and the whole of its team work towards five common core values that represent our high standards.

Sometimes, external influences such as missing or incomplete documents or unexplained anomalies can slow down the loans process.

BCRS Business Loans analyse loan applications closely to determine whether each business is viable and would be able to realistically meet the loan repayments expected of them. As BCRS operates with a strong ethical ethos, it is important that we are able to see a sufficient amount of information to make a responsible decision.

To ensure that your loan application is processed as quickly as possible Tony Wood, a Business Development Manager and member of the sanctioning team at BCRS Business Loans, has provided a checklist of useful tips to tick off before you submit your application:

1. Primarily, ensure that your loan application has no gaps – if a particular field is not applicable for any reason, please mark it accordingly

2. As a lender, we provide loans to create and safeguard jobs and project the growth of businesses

3. We require a full Experian or Equifax report for each director/ owner/ partner

4. Experian/ Equifax report should correlate to the information found on the personal assets/ liabilities/ income/ expenditure forms

5. Accounts for the past 3 years – not applicable for start-up businesses or ones that have been trading for less than 3 years

6. Any adverse credit information should be accompanied with a good explanation/ evidence of satisfaction

7. We require a letter/ email from a bank confirming that you have been declined for a loan/ overdraft – if you can’t supply this, please explain why

8. Cash flow projections would usually need to show VAT

9. Cash flow projections should account for loan repayments and, if applicable, include the anticipated increase in wages for new jobs to be created

10. Profit & Loss projections should be net of VAT

11. Projected income/ sales figures need to supported with a sales and marketing plan, to judge whether these projections are realistic. This is particularly important for start-up businesses

12. Don’t forget to include the new pension provisions and new national living wage (April 2016) in your financial projections.

In addition, Tony recommends that if you are not familiar with compiling financial projections to ask an accountant to prepare them – the information that they present will make for a stronger case in the loan application process.

Finally, please bear in mind that BCRS Business Loans do not lend to pay off outstanding debts with banks or other creditors.

We hope this checklist helps!