To ensure that your loan application is processed as quickly as possible, Tony Wood, our Head of Credit, has put together a list of detailed tips to tick off before submitting your application.

BCRS Business Loans analyse loan applications closely to determine whether each business is viable and would realistically be able to fulfil loan repayments. 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.

Sometimes, external influences such as missing or incomplete documents or unexplained anomalies can slow down the loans process, so ensure you have everything you need by checking out Tony’s list:

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. Do remember that we provide loans to create and safeguard jobs

3. We require a full personal Experian or Equifax report for each director/ owner/ partner – unfortunately we can’t accept credit reports from Noddle

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 businesses 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 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 evidenced and should ideally include a sales and marketing plan, to analyse 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 (2017) 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!