> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nextlevelmca.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How do I set a lender's criteria?

> Record who a lender funds so NextLevel MCA can score it against every deal, and check what your criteria do before you save.

A lender's criteria are its underwriting guidelines: minimum revenue, time in business, the states and industries it avoids, how many positions it takes, and so on. NextLevel MCA checks every deal against them and gives each lender a [match score](/help/match-score). A lender with no criteria can't be scored or recommended.

<Note>
  Saving criteria needs the **Edit Lenders** permission. Admins have it.
</Note>

## Edit the criteria

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the lender">
    Go to **Lenders** and click the lender, then the **Criteria** tab. From the list you can also use a row's **⋯** menu → **Edit criteria**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Click Edit criteria">
    The fields become editable. The header shows how many of the 25 criteria are set.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Fill in what the lender restricts">
    Leave a field blank (or **Any**) when the lender has no rule for it. Blank means no restriction, not zero. Hover the small **i** beside a field for what it means.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check the impact, then Save criteria">
    The **Match impact** card previews your edits live. Nothing changes live matching until you click **Save criteria**. **Cancel** throws your edits away.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The payback windows, payment frequencies and products are on the **Terms & products** tab, which works the same way with **Edit terms** and **Save terms**. When you add a new lender, the same fields appear in the **Eligibility** and **Terms** steps.

## What each criterion means

### Business profile

| Criterion | What it means |
| - | - |
| **Min time in business** | Minimum months the business has been operating. |
| **Min monthly revenue** | Average monthly true deposits. Once bank statements are analysed, the bank figure is used instead of what the merchant stated. |
| **Min deposits / month** | Minimum number of deposits per month. |
| **Min average balance** | Minimum average daily bank balance. |
| **Allowed industries** | If set, only these industries match. Blank means every industry except the prohibited ones. |
| **Prohibited industries** | Deals in these industries never match. |
| **Prohibited states** | The lender won't fund merchants based in these states. |

Industries can be picked one at a time or a whole category at once. See [Industries and categories](/help/lender-industries).

### Credit & risk

| Criterion | What it means |
| - | - |
| **Min credit score** | Minimum credit score of the primary owner. If no owner is marked primary, the lowest score among the owners is used. |
| **Credit score range** | A band such as 580 to 669. It works as a minimum at the bottom of the band. A better score never counts against the deal. |
| **Min positions** | Minimum number of existing MCA positions. Leave blank unless the lender only takes second position or later. |
| **Max positions** | Maximum number of existing MCA positions. |
| **Max NSFs** | Maximum NSFs in a month, using the worst of the latest three months. |
| **Max negative days** | Maximum negative-balance days in a month, using the worst of the latest three months. |
| **No recovery activity** | On: deals with recovery or collections debits in their statements don't match. |
| **Funds prior defaults** | On: the lender takes merchants with a prior MCA default. Off: those deals never match. See [Funds prior defaults](/help/funds-prior-defaults). |
| **Funds reversals** | On: the lender takes merchants with recent ACH reversals (marked on the deal). Off: those deals never match. |

### Funding size

**Min funding amount** and **Max funding amount** are the advance sizes the lender writes. They're compared with the deal's requested amount.

### Term & payment (Terms & products tab)

| Criterion | What it means |
| - | - |
| **Typical term** | The lender's usual term in months, for your reference. |
| **Lowest days** / **Highest days** | The shortest and longest payback window, in calendar days (a month is about 30). |
| **Supports daily / weekly / bi-weekly / monthly** | The payment frequencies the lender offers. |

These are compared with the **Desired term** and **Desired frequency** a rep sets on the deal. If the deal has neither, they don't affect the score.

### Products offered

The products the lender writes: **MCA**, **Term loan**, **Line of credit**, **Equipment leasing**, **Factoring** and **Reverse consolidation**. A deal asking for a product the lender doesn't write never matches it. If no product is set, matching assumes MCA only.

### Additional rules

For guidelines the fields above don't cover, click **Add rule** and pick a rule:

| Rule | How it's checked |
| - | - |
| **Sole proprietor allowed** | Set it to **No** to rule out sole proprietors. |
| **Bankruptcy lookback (months)** | Rules out a deal whose bankruptcy (entered on the deal) is more recent than this many months. |
| **Seasonal business allowed** | Set it to **No** to rule out deals marked seasonal, or whose monthly revenue swings by more than about 60%. |
| **Min franchise years** | Only applies to franchises (years entered on the deal). |
| **Requires personal guarantee** | For your reference only. It doesn't affect matching. |
| **Min gross margin %** | Not checked yet: deals don't carry margin data. |

Deal facts like bankruptcy, franchise years and seasonality come from the **Matching inputs** card on the deal's **Submissions** tab.

### Paper grades

The paper grades (**A** to **D**) are set in **Edit lender** or the first step of **New lender**, not on the Criteria tab. They count toward the score: a deal whose computed paper grade is one the lender writes scores best.

## How criteria are used

Criteria fall into two kinds, and they behave differently:

* **Yes/no rules** rule a lender out. These are products, prohibited states, allowed and prohibited industries, prior defaults, reversals, recovery activity and the additional rules.
* **Numeric limits** hold the score down when missed, but don't rule the lender out on their own. These are revenue, time in business, credit score, NSFs, negative days, positions, funding amount, balance, deposits, paper grade and term.

[How the match score works](/help/match-score) explains the numbers.

## Check your criteria before saving

* **Match impact** shows how many of your last 150 deals would be eligible under the criteria on screen, how many would be recommended, and which rules exclude the most deals. A red warning means the criteria exclude every deal in your pipeline, which usually means a typo such as an extra zero.
* **Test deal** (on the Criteria tab), **Test against a deal** (in the **⋯** menu or under the Match impact card) lets you pick one deal and see **Eligible** or **Not eligible**, the score, and each criterion with what it requires, the deal's value, and whether it passed. While you're editing, **Test against a deal** under the Match impact card uses your unsaved criteria.

## Common problems

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The lender shows “No criteria” on deals">
    Nothing is set on its Criteria or Terms & products tab and it has no paper grades. Add at least its main limits.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="An industry shows with a dashed amber outline">
    NextLevel MCA didn't recognise that entry, so it only matches deals with exactly that text. Remove it and pick a listed industry or category. See [Industries and categories](/help/lender-industries).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A leaving-the-tab warning appears">
    You have unsaved edits. Save them first, or choose **Discard** to throw them away.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>


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