Guide
“What are the requirements for a business loan?” sounds like one list. In practice it is three screens, run in order, and most denials happen at an earlier screen than the applicant thinks.
Is the business a registered entity, in good standing with its state? Does it have an EIN and a business bank account in the legal name? Do the name, address, and phone match across the state record, the EIN letter, the bank, the bureau listings, the 411 directory, and the web profile? Does a business credit file exist at all? This screen is cheap for lenders to run and brutal in effect: a failure here needs no human judgement, and the applicant often hears only “unable to verify”. It is also the screen entirely within the owner's control — which is why our free checker audits exactly it.
Score, time in business, revenue. The floors we could verify from lenders' own pages in October 2026: Bluevine at 625 / 12 months / $120,000; OnDeck at 625 / 12 / $100,000; American Express's business line at 660 / 12 / $36,000 with conditions. Other big names' pages contradict themselves, and we print their floors as unverifiable rather than guess. SBA, notably, publishes no floor in its regulation at all — eligibility yes, a numeric floor no. Applying below a floor is the most avoidable denial in small business: the answer was published before you applied.
Bank statements, tax returns, profit and loss, the debt-service arithmetic — can this business's income carry its existing payments plus the new one? This is where “requirements too strict”, “too much debt”, and “weak sales” come from in the Federal Reserve's survey of denied and partially funded applicants. No paperwork product passes this screen for you; what good preparation does is make sure complete, consistent financials reach it — documentation problems alone account for a meaningful share of denials, and they are the dumbest reason to fail a screen you could have passed.
Work them in the order lenders run them. Records first (weeks, cheap, entirely yours). Floors second (free to read, saves inquiries). Financials last (prepared completely, and improved only by time and trading). Owners who run their own screens in this order stop being surprised by lenders — which, in a market where coaching programs charge $3,000–$4,000 to explain roughly this page, is most of the battle.
Two minutes, in your browser. The checker names each gap in screening order.