The clocks, by lender type
A bank or SBA lender reads the credit file, and a bankruptcy sits on it for seven years after a Chapter 13 filing and ten after a Chapter 7. Most want three to five years after discharge and a rebuilt score before they will look.
A revenue-based funder reads the bank statements. Its concern is whether the case is discharged — an open case is a decline almost everywhere except a Chapter 13 with the trustee's blessing — and whether the deposits since show a business that runs. Twelve months after discharge is where files start being considered; twenty-four is where they are priced normally.
Equipment lenders sit in between: the asset carries some of the risk, so a discharged case with a larger down payment can be financed sooner than an unsecured product would allow.
Chapter 7 versus Chapter 13
Lenders generally read a Chapter 13 more kindly than a Chapter 7, because it shows a repayment plan being kept. Some funders will write a small advance to a business whose owner is inside an active Chapter 13, provided the court or trustee approves the new obligation and the deposits are steady. A Chapter 7 discharge is a clean slate on the debts and a harder read for a year or so afterward.
A business bankruptcy and a personal one are read differently too. If the business itself filed and the owner did not, the owner's personal file is what most small-business funders pull, and it may be intact.
What makes the application work
Twelve months of business statements with no returned items and no negative days. Deposits at or above the market's floor, consistently. The discharge order, sent with the application rather than discovered in underwriting. And a sentence on what caused the filing and why it is behind you — a divorce, a medical bill, a failed prior venture — because an underwriter who is given the reason reads the file as a story rather than a flag.
Start small. A modest first advance repaid on schedule is the fastest way back to normal pricing, and it is the only thing that will move a bank's answer sooner than the calendar does.