How to Prepare for a Working Capital Facility: What Ecommerce Lenders Actually Look For
Co-authored by Dwight Funding and Blue Onion
When a brand comes to us for a working capital facility, the quality of their financials tells us immediately whether the business is a fit for our financing solutions and how quickly we can move.
Clean, reconciled books signal operational sophistication. They tell us that the business is being run with discipline, that the numbers can be trusted, and that when we ask a question we will get a reliable answer quickly. Messy books signal the opposite, not necessarily that the business is in trouble, but that there are gaps we will have gaps we need to fill and that the process is going to take longer for everyone.
This is not a judgment. eCommerce and omnichannel businesses are complex. Finances that run across DTC, Amazon, retail, and wholesale, with payments flowing through multiple platforms (e.g. Stripe and Shopify) and returns coming in across channels – that puts real strain on even the most experienced teams. The data exists, but getting it into a clean, reconciled state that a lender can rely on is the hard part.
What we want brands to understand is that solving that problem is not just an accounting win. It is integral to the growth strategy.
What Do Asset-Based Lenders Look for in Ecommerce Brands?
Asset-based lending is underwritten against the real assets of the business, primarily inventory and accounts receivable. That means the quality of our analysis depends entirely on the quality of the data behind those assets.
Here is what we focus on:
Inventory health and turnover
Eligible collateral under an asset-based facility depends on accurate inventory reporting. Clean inventory data tells us not just how much stock a brand is holding, but how well they are managing it: are the SKUs current and sellable, is inventory turning at a healthy rate, and are stock levels aligned with demand?
Accounts payable and supplier terms
Clean accounts payable reporting gives us visibility into how a brand is managing its obligations. We want to see that key supplier terms are being met and there are no disruptions to the supply chain from overdue payables. A clean AP aging report tells us the business is managing its cash well and suppliers are not at risk of pulling terms.
Accounts receivable quality and aging
For brands with wholesale accounts, we need to know what is collectible, what is aging, and what concentration risk looks like by customer. AR that lives in a spreadsheet with manual updates, or that cannot be broken down at the invoice level, is hard to underwrite against with confidence.
Cash conversion cycle
How long from purchase order to cash in the bank? Understanding the specific working capital need we’re solving for comes from detailed records of cash in and out, from the point of deposits to suppliers through the point of collections from customers. That kind of data only exists when the books are clean and current.
GAAP-compliant P&L, balance sheet, and projections
Gross margin and EBITDA tell us the real story of a business’s financial health, but approximations only get us so far. Without GAAP-compliant financials and projections, we are working from an incomplete picture. The earlier a brand builds this foundation, the better.
The brands that move through our process fastest are not always the fastest-growing. They are the ones who can answer these questions accurately and in a timely manner.
How Financial Data Affects Your Ability to Access Capital
Some brands do not think about their financial data as a bottleneck until they need capital and the process stalls. By then, the options are limited: spend weeks cleaning up months of unreconciled data under time pressure, or put the process on hold until the books are in a lender-ready state. This can be a real problem if you are seeking capital for a time-sensitive opportunity.
The brands that avoid this are not necessarily the ones with bigger finance teams. They are the ones that either built clean data infrastructure early and maintained it, or put automation tools like Blue Onion in place to handle reconciliation without the manual lift. When they come to us, the conversation moves quickly because the work is already done.
There is also a bigger case for clean books that has nothing to do with raising capital. Brands with clean, current financials make better decisions. They can plug their numbers into a 13-week cash flow model and see a cash flow problem coming weeks before it arrives. They can answer questions from their own leadership team without a two-week close cycle. Clean books compound over time, and so does the cost of not having them.
How to Know if You Are Ready for a Working Capital Facility
If you are planning to access a working capital facility in the next six to twelve months, the time to get your financial house in order is now, not thirty days before you need the money.
A few honest questions worth asking:
- How long does your month-end close take? If the answer is more than 15 business days, there are almost certainly manual processes that could be automated and discrepancies that are being caught too late.
- Can you produce accurate channel-level revenue on demand? If producing that number requires pulling from multiple systems and a day of manual work, that is a gap.
- Can you drill into any line item on your financial statements to the transaction level? For inventory, AR, and AP, the answer needs to be yes.
- Are your last twelve months of financials auditable? Not just closed, but defensible, with supporting documentation that could be ready in real-time.
If any of those answers give you pause, the monthly close checklist we built with Blue Onion is a good place to start.
Download the Free Monthly Close Checklist
It walks you through the full close process in six phases, from pre-close data validation through lender and audit readiness, with specific steps for multi-channel brands managing complexity across channels, processors, and platforms.
Clean Books, Smarter Capital: How Blue Onion and Dwight Funding Work Together
Blue Onion and Dwight Funding came together because we solve complementary pieces of the same puzzle.
Blue Onion gives brands the financial data infrastructure to operate with precision, automating reconciliation, ensuring accuracy, and delivering the clean data that drives confident decision-making.
Dwight Funding provides fast-growing brands with the working capital support needed to scale, with flexible structures and a streamlined process designed for the unique needs of modern ecommerce businesses.
Together, we are delivering a new standard for growth-stage brands: clean financials that power smarter capital decisions, and capital partners who can move quickly because the data is clean and accessible in real-time.
About Blue Onion
Blue Onion is an AI-powered subledger built for multi-channel ecommerce brands. The platform automates order-to-cash reconciliation across every sales channel, payment processor, and bank account, delivering audit-ready financials daily. Learn more at blueonion.ai.
About Dwight Funding
Dwight Funding is the leading lender to growth-stage companies across DTC, CPG, F&B, and other high-growth sectors. Informed by unparalleled industry experience and powered by a modern, custom-built lending platform, we deliver the right way to access capital for scaling businesses. Our revolving lines of credit and term loans range from $1MM-$15MM and are secured by Accounts Receivables, Inventory, and Fixed Assets. Learn more at dwightfunding.com.
