MCA funder ISO broker portal deal flow — the eight stages from broker submission to funded.

The eight-stage pipeline

MCA funders run their ISO channel through one or two portals — Heron, OnDeck Partner, Rapid Finance Pulse, Credibly Connect, Forward Financing Bridge, Lendica, plus a long tail of funder-specific tools. The technology differs; the deal flow does not. Every deal moves through roughly the same eight stages from when the broker first creates the file to when the ACH wire hits the merchant's account.

Knowing the stages matters because the merchant is always one phone call away from the truth. If your broker tells you "we're waiting on underwriting" three days in a row, you should know whether that means the file is genuinely with a human reviewer, or whether it has been sitting in a "stips outstanding" state because the broker forgot to ask you for a voided check.

Stage 1: Lead intake and pre-submission scrub

The broker collects the merchant's basics over a phone call or web form — legal name, EIN, FICO range, monthly revenue, existing positions, requested amount. Then the broker requests the last 3–6 months of business bank statements (PDF) and a one-page application form signed by the owner. This stage happens before the portal opens. Brokers who skip it and submit blind get a high decline rate, which damages their standing with the funder.

The pre-submission scrub is where the broker decides which funder to submit to first. A good broker shops 2–4 funders in parallel. A mediocre one submits to the funder that pays the best commission, even if that funder is not the best fit for the merchant. The merchant has no visibility into this routing decision unless they ask directly which funders the broker is shopping the deal to.

Stage 2: Portal submission and auto-decisioning

The broker logs into the funder portal, creates a new deal record, enters the 30–70 fields covered in our ISO portal data fields walkthrough, uploads the bank statements and application, and clicks submit. What happens next depends on the funder's tech stack:

• Modern auto-decisioning funders (OnDeck, Forward Financing, BlueVine, Rapid Finance for clean deals) run the file through an automated underwriting engine in 30 seconds to 3 minutes. The engine pulls Experian for FICO, runs the bank statements through a parser (Plaid, Heron, Decipher, MX), checks stacking detection, checks restricted industries, and either approves with terms, counter-offers, or declines.
• Hybrid funders (Credibly, Kapitus, IOU Central, most mid-market players) auto-decision A-paper but route everything else to a human credit analyst. Auto-decisioned deals get a response in minutes; human-reviewed deals get a response in 2–12 business hours.
• Manual funders (a shrinking minority of smaller funders) require a human credit analyst on every file. Response time 24–72 hours.

Stage 3: Pre-qualification offer (the soft offer)

If the auto-decisioning passes, the portal returns a soft offer — typically a range, not a single number. Example: "approved up to $75,000 at 1.32–1.38 factor, 10–12 month term." The broker sees this immediately. The merchant does not, unless the broker chooses to share it.

This is the stage at which the broker's incentive matters most. The funder has set a floor (1.32). The broker can quote the merchant anywhere from 1.32 to the funder's ceiling (in some portals, up to 1.49) and pocket the difference as a commission markup. A broker quoting 1.45 on a 1.32 floor is taking roughly 13 points of factor markup, which on a $75,000 advance is about $9,750 of additional cost the merchant pays to the funder, of which roughly $7,500 flows back to the broker as commission.

The merchant rarely knows this is happening. Our broker markup calculator reverse-engineers the markup once you have an offer in hand.

Stage 4: Term sheet generation

The broker accepts the soft offer in the portal and selects a specific factor, term, and advance amount within the approved range. The portal generates a one-page term sheet with the headline numbers — funded amount, payback amount, daily payment, term length, holdback percentage (if split-funded), prepayment terms, broker fee. The broker forwards the term sheet to the merchant by email, typically asking for a same-day or next-day signature.

State disclosure laws (CA SB 1235, NY NYDFS 803, VA SB 1027, UT SB 184, FL after July 2026, NJ after January 2026) require the funder to attach a standardized disclosure form alongside the term sheet showing APR-equivalent, total cost of financing, and other comparable terms. Compliance varies; in states with weaker enforcement, the disclosure is sometimes "forgotten" and the merchant only sees the broker's marketing copy.

Stage 5: Merchant agreement and digital signature

When the merchant signs the term sheet, the broker triggers the merchant agreement (the long-form contract) to be sent via DocuSign or HelloSign. The contract is the binding legal document — receivables purchase language, personal guarantee, reconciliation clause, ACH authorization, default and acceleration provisions, confession of judgment (where state law permits), choice of law and venue, attorneys' fees. Our contracts library has clause-by-clause walkthroughs.

Most deals are signed within 1–4 hours of the contract being sent. Funders typically require both signatures (merchant and personal guarantor — usually the same human) and a wet-or-digital signature on every page that requires initial. Missing initials are the #1 reason a contract is bounced back for re-signature, costing 4–8 hours.

Stage 6: Stipulations (the stips clearance)

With the signed contract back, the portal posts a stipulations list — documents the funder requires before wiring funds. Typical stips:

• Voided business check (for ACH setup)
• Owner driver's license or government ID
• Most recent business utility bill or commercial lease (proof of physical address)
• Most recent month of bank statement (if the submission was 3-month and a fresh month has since closed)
• Landlord verification call or signed landlord letter (some funders, larger advances)
• Proof of insurance certificate (industry-specific — trucking, construction, healthcare)
• Equipment invoice (if use-of-funds is equipment purchase)

The broker collects each item from the merchant and uploads to the portal. Each uploaded item moves through "submitted → in review → cleared" status. Once all stips are cleared, the file moves to funding queue. This is the stage where most A-paper deals stall — not because of the funder, but because the merchant takes 36 hours to email a photo of the driver's license.

Stage 7: Funding verification call

Almost every funder runs a final funding call — sometimes called a "welcome call" or "verification call" — directly with the merchant before wiring funds. The funder's verification team calls the owner, confirms the deal terms aloud (advance amount, payback, daily payment, term), confirms the business address, confirms the owner identity, and confirms the bank account on file. The call lasts 5–15 minutes and is recorded.

The funding call exists for fraud protection (the funder is wiring real money to an account they have only seen on a voided check) and for compliance (in disclosure-law states, the funder is required to verbally confirm the APR-equivalent figure). Deals fail at this stage when the merchant says something that contradicts the application — different DBA, different revenue, an undisclosed business partner, an undisclosed open MCA. About 3–5% of deals that reach funding-call stage do not survive it.

Stage 8: Funding and post-funding

The funder wires funds via ACH (1–2 business days) or instant ACH / RTP for faster rails (same day, available at most major funders for an extra $25–50 fee). The ACH repayment schedule begins on the next business day or 1–3 business days later depending on funder convention.

The portal closes the deal record and assigns it to the funder's servicing system — where the next 6–18 months of daily ACH withdrawals, reconciliation requests, and renewal eligibility windows are tracked. See our portal payment tracking walkthrough for the servicing side.

Where deals quietly stall (and what to do)

• Stage 3 (soft offer). The broker may delay sharing the term sheet with you because they are still shopping the deal to a higher-commission funder. Push back if it has been more than 24 hours.
• Stage 5 (contract signing). Read every paragraph before signing, even if the broker pressures you to sign by end of day. The most expensive contractual surprises (confession of judgment in non-NY states, weak reconciliation clauses, defined-event default clauses) are not in the term sheet.
• Stage 6 (stips). Have your stips package ready the day you sign. Voided check, driver's license, lease, last bank statement, insurance certificate. Email them all in one message rather than dribbling them in.
• Stage 7 (funding call). Be honest. The call is recorded. If you said your monthly revenue is $52,000 on the application and you tell the verification team $40,000, the deal dies and the broker's relationship with that funder takes a hit. If something on the application is wrong, fix it before the call.

What this means for you as a merchant

Ask your broker for the portal status by stage name, not by vague assurance. "Where is my file in the portal right now — soft offer, term sheet, contract, stips, funding queue, funded?" A broker who can answer that question quickly is a broker who actually has visibility. A broker who hand-waves is either unfamiliar with the portal, or the file is not where they implied it was.