Why this matters more than your credit score
A revenue-based funder is about to take a payment out of your account every business day or every week. The question it cares about most is whether that payment will bounce. Returned items and days the balance went below zero are direct evidence about exactly that, in a way a credit score is not. A business with a 550 score and a spotless account is a better file than one with a 700 and six overdrafts.
The common thresholds: fewer than three non-sufficient-funds items in ninety days keeps a file in its grade; more than that downgrades it, which means a smaller offer at a worse factor. Zero negative-balance days is the preference, and a run of them is a decline at most funders. Many also want the average daily balance to be at least ten to fifteen times the daily payment they are about to set.
What an underwriter is actually counting
Returned or reversed ACH debits and checks, overdraft fees, days with a negative ending balance, and — the one people forget — existing daily debits from another funder that leave no room for a new one. They count them per month and look at the trend. Three in the oldest month and none since reads as a problem you fixed. None in the oldest month and three last week reads as a problem starting.
Repairing it
A clean ninety days is the usual cure, and the most recent months weigh most. Keep a cushion in the account equal to a couple of weeks of outgoings; set up overdraft protection from a savings account so a timing miss does not become a returned item; and if a specific debit keeps bouncing, move it to the day after your deposits land.
If you have to apply now, send a short note explaining each item. A customer's check that bounced on you, one bad week with a reason, a debit that was stopped deliberately: those read differently from a pattern, but only if you say so.