What Documents to Collect Before Submitting a Merchant Application

Last Updated on July 1, 2026

The fastest way to get a merchant approved is to submit the right documents the first time. A complete, well-organized package gets reviewed faster, generates fewer back-and-forth requests, and gives underwriting everything it needs to reach a decision. This guide covers what to collect by vertical so that you can walk into a submission knowing you have what’s needed rather than finding out one document at a time.

Why the Document List Matters More Than Most Agents Realize

Every item that comes back on a pending list after submission is a separate round trip to the merchant. Some merchants handle those easily while others go cold. Either way, a long pending list signals to the merchant that the process is disorganized. And since they associate the process with you, that reflects on your relationship, not on the acquirer’s back office.

The goal is to arrive at submission with a package that closes as many open questions as possible before underwriting has to ask. This guide helps you do that.

A few principles that apply across every vertical before getting into the specifics:

Bank statements and processing statements are separate asks. Bank statements are used to verify the business exists, confirm revenue, and check the overall financial picture. Processing statements are used to evaluate chargeback history and transaction volume. Both are typically needed. Don’t assume one substitutes for the other.

Financial statements are not a default requirement. Prepared financials (P&L and Balance Sheet) are triggered by deal size, not collected on every merchant. The two triggers are monthly volume above $250,000 (with substantiated evidence to support it) and future delivery exposure above $100,000 on merchants who collect ahead of fulfillment. Below both thresholds, bank statements cover the financial analysis. Collecting financials on a small deal with no deferred-delivery exposure is over-asking and creates friction for the merchant without any underwriting benefit. The two triggers are covered in detail in the baseline section below.

Personal financial statements and personal tax returns are never asked for. This comes up often enough to be worth stating plainly. Neither is part of any standard underwriting package. Personal tax returns are typically over a year old by the time they reach underwriting and don’t reflect current liquidity. Personal financial statements are self-prepared and unaudited. If a merchant asks why you’re not requesting them, the answer is that bank statements provide a more reliable and current picture of financial position.

Don’t collect explanations. A letter explaining why the merchant left their prior processor, a narrative about a difficult chargeback period, a written account of a prior termination — none of these are useful underwriting inputs. The processing statements contain the actual story. Explanation letters signal that there’s something to explain, which draws attention to exactly what you’d rather have read in context.

The Universal Baseline

Every merchant submission, regardless of vertical, starts with the same core package:

Signed merchant application. The application is the foundational document that authorizes everything that follows. Without a signed application, the submission is a pre-vet, which can be useful for getting an early read on the deal, but not sufficient to reach a boarding decision.

Business bank statements, three most recent months. Used for processor identification, revenue verification, and the overall financial picture. The three months should be the most recently closed calendar months at the time of submission. Business bank statements are required for virtually every merchant outside low-risk card-present verticals like standard retail and restaurants.

Processing statements, three most recent months, if the merchant is currently processing. The signed application answers whether the merchant is currently processing, so check that before making the ask. If they’re not currently processing, no statement ask is needed. If they are, collect three months from every processor they’re actively using, not just the largest one. Underwriting evaluates the merchant’s overall processing health across all active processors, so partial coverage means a follow-up request. Merchants on Shopify Payments or Stripe often don’t have formal monthly statements; a dashboard export showing transaction counts, chargeback ratios, and payout history through a recent date works for most deals.

Financial statements — P&L and Balance Sheet, most recent year-end plus YTD — when the deal crosses one of two thresholds. The first is monthly volume above $250,000. The second is future delivery exposure above $100,000 (the amount the merchant has collected for goods or services not yet delivered). That second trigger matters for any merchant who collects well ahead of fulfillment (travel, service contracts, memberships, pre-orders), because a merchant under $250,000 in monthly volume can still carry six figures of future delivery exposure. Underwriting calculates that exposure from annual volume and the average delivery window, so financials can be required on a deferred-delivery deal even when monthly volume looks modest. For straightforward deals with no deferred delivery, only collect financials once the processing statements in hand show volume above $250,000. Don’t ask based on what the merchant claims their volume is. The statements substantiate the volume; the volume, or the delivery exposure, triggers the financial ask.

That’s the package that covers most straightforward deals in non-restricted verticals. Everything below is additive based on what the merchant does.

By Vertical: What to Add

Subscription and Recurring Billing Merchants

The core package above applies. The additional consideration isn’t a document to collect, rather, it’s a site review that happens on the acquirer’s end before boarding is finalized. For subscription merchants, the live checkout flow is reviewed to confirm that the recurring charge is disclosed before the consumer commits, the opt-in isn’t pre-checked by default, and cancellation is as easy as enrollment.

This review happens internally. You don’t collect the evidence. What you should know going into the submission is whether the merchant’s checkout meets those standards, because if it doesn’t, site changes will be required before boarding. The earlier the merchant knows that, the faster the process moves.

If the checkout requires a login to complete, collect dummy login credentials to include with the submission. The acquirer can’t review what it can’t access, and gated checkouts are common on subscription platforms.

DTC Nutraceuticals and Supplement Subscriptions

Start with the universal baseline. The vertical-specific addition is awareness of two prohibited structures that end the conversation if present: a free trial combined with a nutraceutical product, and a negative option enrollment that consumers can’t cancel as easily as they enrolled. If either of those is in the merchant’s model, address it before submission rather than after.

If the merchant’s site shows disease claims, such as language suggesting the product diagnoses, treats, cures, or prevents a condition, those need to come down before boarding. This is a site change the merchant needs to make, not a document you collect.

Otherwise, the standard package plus the subscription checkout review above covers most DTC supplement deals.

Telehealth (Prescribing, with Online Payment for Prescriptions)

The controlling question is whether the merchant takes online payment for prescriptions. If yes, LegitScript Healthcare Certification or NABP certification is required regardless of monthly volume. This is the one document that changes everything in this vertical.

LegitScript or NABP certification — active and verifiable in the database. The seal on the merchant’s site isn’t sufficient; the certification is verified against the database directly. If the merchant doesn’t yet hold certification, they can apply at legitscript.com/certification/healthcare-certification. Using the referral code CMS-RS gives them priority review and a discount on the certification cost.

Beyond certification, the standard package applies. No additional document collection is typically needed on a telehealth deal once certification is confirmed and the standard package is in order.

If the merchant is telehealth but doesn’t take online payment for prescriptions — a mental health platform, a wellness coaching service, a doctor’s office with ancillary virtual visits (LegitScript is not required). These merchants are treated as standard low-risk medical practices. The standard package applies.

Online Pharmacy and Compounding Pharmacy

Same LegitScript or NABP certification requirement as prescribing telehealth, with no volume threshold exception. For compounded GLP-1 programs, weight management platforms, and peptide dispensing through licensed channels, the certification covers the pharmacy partners and the prescribing relationships. If the merchant can’t demonstrate active certification, the deal doesn’t have a path.

Standard package plus certification. Everything else the acquirer verifies internally.

CBD and Hemp Products

Certificates of Analysis (COA) for all CBD products. These need to be issued by an accredited third-party laboratory within the past 12 months and must include heavy metals screening. A COA that’s expired, missing heavy metals, or from an unaccredited lab doesn’t satisfy the requirement — collect current ones.

State hemp license where applicable. Some states require hemp merchants to hold a license; others don’t. Know which states the merchant operates in.

Beyond the COA and licensing, the standard package applies. The acquirer verifies THC content (must be at or below 0.3% dry weight) against the COA.

One note on synthetically derived cannabinoids — Delta-8, Delta-10, THC-O, HHC: these route exclusively to one of the two primary sponsor banks. If your merchant sells any of these products, that routing constraint shapes where the deal can go. Something to know before submission.

Travel Agencies and OTAs

Travel is the vertical with the most document-intensive requirements, for reasons that go directly to the risk profile: the gap between when a consumer pays and when they receive the service can be months, and that forward exposure needs to be documentable.

Processing history is required. There is no path to boarding a startup travel merchant under standard policy. If the merchant doesn’t have processing history to submit, the deal isn’t workable until they’ve built it.

Financials are required regardless of volume. The deferred-delivery exposure in travel means financial statements are needed on virtually every travel deal, even those below the standard $250,000 threshold. Collect the most recent year-end P&L and Balance Sheet plus YTD P&L and Balance Sheet. If the entity is young and hasn’t closed a full fiscal year, inception-to-date financials work.

Licensing documentation — ARC, IATA, or CLIA accreditation depending on the merchant’s operating model. ARC covers airline ticketing. IATA covers international travel and is used by agencies that don’t want or qualify for ARC. CLIA covers cruise sales. Know which applies to this merchant and collect the relevant documentation.

One structural note: fulfillment obligations beyond two years are a hard policy disqualifier. If the merchant sells packages, certificates, or memberships marketed with “never expires,” “use anytime,” or any equivalent indefinite-redemption language, that needs to be resolved before submission. It’s not a conditions issue — it’s a structural one.

Vehicle Service Contracts (VSC) and Home Warranty

Contracts and agreements with each third-party insurance provider or obligor. The companies backing the contracts need to be identifiable and verifiable.

State licensing — this is verified independently on the acquirer’s end, but knowing going in which states the merchant operates in is useful context.

The A.M. Best rating on the obligor is verified internally. You don’t collect this; you should know whether the obligor is likely to have a positive rating before submitting, because if they’re unrated or carry a negative rating, that’s a material issue the deal needs to address.

Credit Repair

CROA compliance — the Credit Repair Organizations Act — is the controlling framework. The compliant model is monthly subscription billing where clients pay for each month’s work as it’s performed. No upfront fees, a three-day right to cancel, and monthly billing. That structure is standard across the industry and doesn’t disqualify the merchant.

If the merchant’s consumer contract and service terms aren’t already in the submission, and the site doesn’t make the billing structure clear, the customer service agreement is a useful addition. It answers the CROA compliance question directly.

State registration and bonding where required. Credit repair regulation varies significantly by state; know the states where the merchant actively markets and confirm whether registration is required in each.

Credit repair routes exclusively to one sponsor bank. Not something the agent needs to do anything about, but useful to know that the routing decision is made for you on this vertical.

MLM and Network Marketing

Three documents beyond the standard package:

Compensation plan — the current version in use, not an executed copy. This is reviewed to assess FTC compliance under the Koscot standard. The question being answered is whether the structure rewards recruitment independent of product sales. Collect whatever form the merchant uses to document the current compensation mechanics.

Brand Partner Agreement (or Distributor Agreement, Consultant Agreement, or whatever the merchant calls the participant contract). This is the controlling document that governs what participants agree to. It typically incorporates the policies and procedures and any tier-specific terms, so separate standalone policy documents aren’t usually needed.

Income Disclosure Statement. Required for this vertical. If the merchant publishes it on their site, the acquirer captures it from there. If it’s not publicly posted, collect it directly.

One procedural note: at one of the primary sponsor banks, MLM submissions require a pre-authorization from the bank before the merchant processing agreement can be submitted. This is a step the acquirer manages, but it adds time to the process. Know that going in.

Business Coaching, Tech Support, and Real Estate Training

These verticals carry a higher documentation standard because of the elevated compliance requirements that apply to them. The most important document implication is the processing statement window: six months of processing statements are required rather than the standard three.

Otherwise, the universal baseline applies. The compliance review on these merchants is more extensive on the acquirer’s end, but the additional work is internal rather than something that generates a longer agent-facing document list.

What You Don’t Need to Collect

A few things agents commonly over-collect, which adds friction without adding value:

Social media presence or review history. The acquirer researches this independently. Asking the merchant to compile screenshots of their Google reviews or Instagram following isn’t useful because the acquirer is going to look this up against the public record regardless.

Secretary of State documentation. This is an internal lookup. You don’t need to collect entity formation documents, registered agent filings, or operating agreements as a standard matter.

An explanation of why the merchant left their prior processor. As covered in a prior post, the processing statements are the evidence. A written explanation isn’t.

Supplier or manufacturer agreements. Not a standard document ask in any vertical. In specific situations a particular relationship needs to be verified, but that’s the exception rather than the rule.

Personal financial statements or personal tax returns. As noted at the top, this is not part of any standard package, never.

Knowing What a Specific Merchant Needs Before You Collect Anything

Everything above is the general framework. But the fastest path on any individual deal is knowing what that merchant needs before you start collecting — because the by-vertical additions stack differently depending on the specifics, and a merchant who looks like a standard subscription deal might carry a wrinkle that changes the list.

This is what a pre-vet is for. Before gathering a single document, you can run the merchant — a URL, a processing statement, a bank statement, etc — through Chip, Nexio’s agentic AI deal consultant, and get back a read on the deal along with the specific documents that merchant will need. Instead of working from the general checklist and hoping you’ve covered the vertical-specific items, you get a list tailored to the actual merchant in front of you.

The practical value is sequencing. If you know on day one that a telehealth merchant needs active LegitScript certification, you raise it in the first conversation rather than discovering it after you’ve already collected everything else. If a deal has a structural issue that no document resolves, you find out before you’ve invested the merchant’s time assembling a package that was never going to board. A pre-vet turns the document collection from guesswork into a known quantity.

You don’t need a signed application to run a pre-vet — that’s the point. A pre-vet on a URL or a short description gives you the document list before you’ve asked the merchant for anything, so the first real ask you make is the complete one.

A Final Note on Timing

The three-month window for processing statements is calibrated to what’s actually available at the time of submission. Processors don’t finalize and publish statements for a month until several business days into the following month. Asking for the just-closed month in the first few days of the new month puts the merchant in a chase-the-statement situation that creates a delay without any analytical benefit.

The practical rule: collect the three most recently completed and available months. If it’s early in the month and the prior month’s statements haven’t been published yet, collect the three months before that. A clean three-month package from the right window moves faster than a request for the freshest possible month that the merchant can’t produce yet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need financials if the merchant says they’re doing $300,000 a month? Not until you have processing statements or other substantiated evidence in hand confirming that volume. The merchant’s stated volume on the application isn’t the trigger — what the statements actually show is. Collect statements first, and if they confirm volume above $250,000, add the financial statement ask on the next pass or include it conditionally in the initial request.

My merchant is an NPP — no prior processing history. What changes? The processing statement ask drops off entirely if the application confirms no prior processing. The rest of the standard package applies. NPP merchants are capped at $50,000 monthly volume under standard policy unless there’s substantiated basis for more — ACH processing history, an existing MID at Nexio, or bank statements that clearly support the higher volume projection.

My merchant processes across three different processors. Do I need statements from all of them? Collect statements from all of them. Underwriting evaluates a merchant’s overall processing health across every active processor — the combined chargeback and refund picture is what determines whether the merchant is operating within threshold, and whether an ongoing reserve or a chargeback mitigation plan is warranted. A single processor’s statements only show part of that picture. Beyond the analytical value, completeness is the right posture: the bank statements reveal deposit credits from every active processor, so any processing relationship that isn’t covered by submitted statements will surface and get requested anyway. Submitting all of them upfront is faster than a follow-up round, and it reflects the transparency underwriting expects on processing history.

Does the merchant need to provide their terms and conditions or privacy policy? No. The acquirer reviews the merchant’s site directly, including the terms and conditions, privacy policy, and refund policy. Asking the merchant to copy and paste their T&Cs or provide them as a separate document is redundant and unnecessary.

What if the merchant is a startup with only one month of bank statements? Submit what exists. A one-month bank statement is more useful than no bank statement, and the underwriting assessment will note what’s available versus what’s pending. For a startup with minimal history, the assessment flags what’s still open rather than refusing to proceed. You get a verdict with the current information and a clear picture of what resolves as the account ages.

My merchant’s business account is very new. Can I submit personal bank statements instead? Yes — for merchants where the business account is too new to support meaningful analysis, personal bank statements from the signer are an acceptable substitute. This is a substitute, not a supplement: you’d ask for one or the other, not both. Personal statements carry less analytical weight than business statements and are a fallback for genuinely new entities, not an alternative for established merchants who simply prefer not to share their business account.

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