Bookkeeper QuickBooks ProAdvisorWhen a lender wants assurance

Lender letters use a handful of nouns, and they are not synonyms. Statements. A year that ties. A projection. A compiled report. A review. An audit. The first three can be prepared from closed months by this practice, and a projection will be labeled as a projection. The last three are the short list, and they go to a firm that signs.

Bring the letter. On the call we will point at the noun. If we can do it, we say what the file still needs. If we cannot, we say that before a proposal pretends otherwise.

A lender's analyst is trying not to be surprised. Twelve months that match the bank, with deposits that are actually sales and checks that are actually outstanding, is a file they can sample. A year that was coded in a weekend is a file they will send back. The close is the useful part. The signature, when they truly need it, sits on top of that close and is done by someone else.

We do not add a comfort paragraph that sounds like a signed report. Comfort paragraphs are how a file gets mistaken for an attestation. The statements say what they say. The tie-out says the months matched. That is the pack.

We will not round a month to make a covenant look met. We will not move a deposit into the month the application prefers. We will not call owner money sales so the revenue line clears a hurdle. If the hurdle is missed, the letter can say the hurdle is missed. A file that lies to clear it is a worse problem than a missed hurdle.

If the application deadline is close and the months are open, we will say the months are open. Being close to a deadline does not excuse an unmatched month. Bring the deadline date with the letter so the call can say what is still possible.