Realistic timelines, by product
Merchant cash advance: decision in hours, funding in one to three business days. Same-day happens but should be treated as the exception.
Working capital loan: much the same. Three to eighteen month terms, repayment taken daily or weekly.
Equipment financing: one to five days. Slightly slower because the equipment has to be verified and the seller paid directly.
Business line of credit: one to three days to open, then draws land same or next day. Slower to set up, faster forever after.
Bank loan or SBA: four to eight weeks, and that is when it goes well.
What actually causes delay
Missing bank statements. Every funder wants three to six months, and applications stall here more than anywhere else.
Applying to lenders who do not write your industry or state. This is invisible to you and wastes days.
Existing advances you did not mention. They show up in the statements, and discovering them late restarts the conversation.
Mismatched details between your application and your statements — a different legal name, a different address.
How to compress it
Download six months of statements as PDFs before you apply. Not screenshots.
Know your average monthly deposits. Not revenue on paper — money that actually landed.
Apply once, to a network, rather than to four lenders separately. Four applications means four credit conversations and four different documents requests.