What date should determine time in business?
Formation date, first deposit, acquisition date, and date under current ownership can differ. Which date belongs in matching, and when should the answer be sent to manual review?
10 replies
We often receive an entity date that predates actual operations, so using formation alone can overstate operating history.
Use the lender’s definition when sourced. Many reviews care about active operations and revenue history, not just registration.
Ownership changes, entity conversions, and acquisitions may need documents before prior operating history can be credited.
Should the matcher reject when the formation date passes but the first bank activity does not?
No. Return the conflicting dates and mark the time-in-business check for review unless the lender’s rule resolves it.
That avoids telling a merchant the business is ineligible based on one administrative date.
We can capture formation, operations start, current ownership start, and first statement activity as distinct fields.
Exactly. Never overwrite one date with another merely to satisfy a single lender field.
A claimed lender profile can specify which date it uses and what continuity documents qualify.
Store all relevant dates, apply only sourced definitions, and send genuine date conflicts to human review.