Short answer
Lenders look first at repayment ability (cash flow and DSCR), clean and current financial records, the owners' and business's credit history, how long the business has operated, and basic legal standing. This checklist scores those items; it is our weighting, not a lender's model or a credit score.
How the score works
Each item carries a weight from 1 to 5 based on how central it usually is to lending decisions: repayment capacity, records and credit history weigh most; identifiers like a D-U-N-S Number weigh least. Your score is the share of total weight you've checked, from 0 to 100.
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 80–100 | Well prepared | The basics lenders check first are in place |
| 60–79 | Getting close | A few gaps; fix them before applying |
| 35–59 | Still building | Expect higher costs or more conditions if you borrow now |
| 0–34 | Early days | Start with foundations and records |
The weights and bands are our judgment, published here so you can disagree with them. Nothing you tick is saved or sent anywhere.
What the checklist can't see
The quality of your industry, your collateral, the size of the request, customer concentration, the owner's experience and the lender's appetite all matter and aren't on the list. Treat a high score as "worth applying with a well-prepared file," never as a prediction of approval.