Lantern Capital

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08/31/2026

5 Issues That Commonly Appear in Commercial Underwriting (And How to Fix Them)
Top issues that account for the majority of delayed, repriced, or declined submissions.

1. Stale or Unsupported Financial Statements
→ What it means: Your accountant is still closing last year while the lender is pricing off current reporting, and a year-end past six months moves the file onto interim statements and tighter assumptions.
→ The fix: Submit the latest year-end, interim statements, and an AR/AP aging dated the same day, before the file reaches credit.

2. Add-Backs With No Paper Trail
→ What it means: The business earns more than the statements show, and every add-back you claim gets stripped unless it ties to a specific GL account.
→ The fix: List each add-back with the account, amount, and a one-line rationale, confirmed in writing by your accountant.

3. Undisclosed Short-Term Debt
→ What it means: The advance taken to cover a slow month appears in the bank statements regardless, reduces DSCR, and raises a disclosure question at the worst point in the process.
→ The fix: Disclose every facility upfront with balance, payment frequency, and payout figure, so the takeout is structured into the request.

4. Related-Party Leases and Shareholder Loans on a Handshake
→ What it means: Owning both the building and the operating company does not make the rent your decision, lenders underwrite at arm's-length market rent and treat undocumented shareholder loans as ranking debt.
→ The fix: Execute a market-rate lease with term, rate, and escalation, and postpone shareholder loans in writing before submission.

5. Customer Concentration
→ What it means: A nine-year relationship reads as strength internally and as a covenant and pricing issue at the credit desk once that customer passes 30–40% of revenue.
→ The fix: Provide contract terms, renewal history, AR aging by customer, and current pipeline to demonstrate replaceability.

Lantern Capital prepares files to underwriting standard before they are submitted; across 1,000+ transactions and $2.98B+ deployed.

1-855-LANT-CAP

08/27/2026

Covenant pressure can surface while an industrial business is still fundamentally sound.
For the CFOs, controllers, and accountants managing that growth, the trigger is often operational.

These could be a customer disruption, margin compression, acquisition, or heavier working capital needs can temporarily move results outside the original lending terms.

The practical questions usually become:

→ Is the issue temporary or structural?
→ Can updated forecasts support a waiver or covenant reset?
→ Would amortization relief or additional liquidity help?
→ Does the current facility still fit the business?

The solution may involve revised covenants, additional working capital, debt consolidation, or refinancing.

The right combination depends on whether the pressure is temporary or structural, and on presenting the lender with a credible, forward-looking plan.

Lantern Capital works alongside management teams and their advisors to assess the options and structure a practical path forward.

Get in touch with our team at:
1-855-LANT-CAP
[email protected]
Lantern Capital | Corporate Debt Advisory

Hidden cash? Where?Many business owners assume financing starts with real estate, hard collateral, or perfect financials...
08/25/2026

Hidden cash? Where?
Many business owners assume financing starts with real estate, hard collateral, or perfect financials.
But financing potential is not always sitting in obvious places.

Sometimes, it is reflected in the way your business already operates:
-Invoices and receivables
-Bank deposits and cash flow movement
-Payroll activity
-Payment history
-Customer quality
-Revenue consistency

These may not all be “assets” in the traditional sense.
But they can become important lender signals.

They help lenders assess risk, stability, repayment ability, operating maturity, and financing readiness.

That is why a business may be able to explore options such as:
-Line of credit
-Working capital financing
-Invoice financing
-Equipment financing
-Refinancing
-Debt restructuring

The goal is not just to collect documents.
The goal is to understand whether your existing business activity can support a financeable structure.

Lantern Capital helps businesses assess financing options based on real operating activity, available assets, and lender requirements.

Disclaimer: “Hidden cash” does not refer to cash physically sitting inside the business or guarantee that funding is available. It refers to potential financing capacity that may be supported by existing business activity, such as receivables, invoices, bank deposits, payment history, payroll, customer quality, or other operating signals. Any financing approval is subject to lender review, credit assessment, collateral evaluation, repayment capacity, and underwriting requirements.

Cash flow and working capital are often used interchangeably, but they measure two different things.Cash flow tracks how...
08/17/2026

Cash flow and working capital are often used interchangeably, but they measure two different things.

Cash flow tracks how money moves in and out of a business over time.

Working capital shows whether the business has enough short-term assets to cover its short-term obligations.

In simple terms:

Cash flow = movement
Working capital = capacity

A business can report strong working capital and still face a cash shortage if customer payments are delayed. It can also generate positive cash flow while carrying weak working capital.

Understanding both gives owners and finance teams a clearer view of liquidity, day-to-day financial health, and the company’s ability to fund operations.

“I check my bank balance” is not cash flow management.So what is?Your bank balance is a photograph.Cash flow management ...
08/14/2026

“I check my bank balance” is not cash flow management.
So what is?

Your bank balance is a photograph.
Cash flow management is the forecast.

For a growing business, that means knowing what is coming before the account balance tells you.

→ A 13-week rolling forecast
Cash in and cash out, by week, updated regularly. Include payroll, rent, supplier payments, taxes, debt payments, inventory, marketing, hiring, and planned investments.

→ Receivables and payables tracked as numbers
Know how long customers actually take to pay and when suppliers expect payment. Revenue on paper does not fund payroll until the cash arrives.

→ A known low point
Most businesses have a week or month when cash becomes tight. You should know when it is coming, what causes it, and how much liquidity you will need.

→ Committed liquidity before you need it
Operating lines and credit facilities are easier to arrange when performance is strong. Financing negotiated under pressure usually costs more and comes with less flexibility.

→ Large investments separated from daily operations
Equipment, renovations, technology, acquisitions, and major inventory purchases should not automatically come from the same cash needed for payroll and operating expenses.

→ Growth plans tested against cash timing
A new contract, location, employee, product line, or customer can increase revenue and still create a cash shortage. Growth often requires cash before it produces cash.

Healthy cash flow management is not about keeping the largest possible balance in the bank.

It is about knowing what the business can afford, when it can afford it, and how to keep growing without being forced into reactive decisions.

How does a carrier take delivery of three new trailers without putting 20% down?A regional dry van operator picked up ad...
08/11/2026

How does a carrier take delivery of three new trailers without putting 20% down?

A regional dry van operator picked up additional lane volume. The freight was contracted. The trailers were not yet in the fleet.

A conventional purchase would have required a large upfront deposit at the point in the cycle where cash was tightest.

The file was structured as an equipment lease and placed with a specialty equipment finance platform.

→ Asset: 3 x 2027 tandem axle dry van trailers
→ Amount financed: $165K
→ Structure: 60 months with first payment in advance
→ Sector: transportation and logistics

The trailers went into service against the new volume.
The cash stayed in the business.

Equipment leasing is often reviewed for tax and balance sheet treatment. It is also a working capital decision.

If you run a transportation or logistics business and seeking to fund fleet expansion to take your business to new heights:

Call 1-855-LANT-CAP or visit http://lanterncapital.ca

We will help you finance re**er trailers, dry vans, flatbeds, day cabs, sleeper tractors, and the full fleet behind your growth — and more with fast approvals.

A financing decline does not always mean the business is weak.Tanbir S., COO at Lantern Capital, shares three issues tha...
08/06/2026

A financing decline does not always mean the business is weak.

Tanbir S., COO at Lantern Capital, shares three issues that can derail an otherwise financeable transaction:

→ How the request is structured
→ Whether the lender has appetite for the file
→ Whether the business acted early enough

The best time to arrange capital is before the need becomes critical.

Have questions about your business that you’d like her advise on?
Comment below or write to [email protected] and we’ll get right back to you!

08/03/2026

How do you prepare working capital before your busy season?

We sit on the lender side of these conversations every week.

Here are six working-capital moves we recommend to seasonal operators every spring:

→ Resize your operating line four months in advance.

Lenders assess requests based on trailing financials and current utilization.

A request made when the line is 40% drawn looks like planning. The same request made at 90% utilization can look like distress—and may be priced accordingly.

→ Test your borrowing base at peak volume.

Concentration caps, cross-aged accounts, contra balances, and receivables more than 90 days old can all reduce availability. Their impact is usually greatest during peak season.

Take last year’s August AR aging and apply your current borrowing-base formula. That will show your actual borrowing capacity. Many operators discover it is 20% to 35% below the stated facility limit.

→ Remove ineligible related-party balances.

Most borrowing bases deduct related-party, intercompany, and shareholder receivables dollar-for-dollar.

A $400,000 intercompany receivable can quietly reduce your available borrowing capacity by the same amount.

→ Model the cash-flow trough—not the annual average.

Peak cash requirements often arrive six to eight weeks after peak revenue.

Payroll, fuel, materials, and inventory must be paid before the related receivables are collected. A 13-week cash-flow forecast identifies the lowest cash point. An annual budget usually hides it.

→ Match each facility to the asset it funds.

Equipment purchased using an operating line consumes the liquidity needed for payroll, inventory, and seasonal expenses.

At the same time, short-term inventory should not be financed with debt that remains outstanding long after the inventory has been sold.

→ Arrange a secondary funding source early.

An AR or purchase-order facility can supplement the bank line during periods of peak demand. When unused, it may carry little or no borrowing cost, depending on the structure.

Call 1-855-LANT-CAP or email [email protected].

07/31/2026

Almost every CFO and controller is looking at the best borrowing window in years that just opened
Is business financing actually hard to get for mid-market companies in Canada?
The cost of business capital in Canada actually fallen. And most mid-sized firms haven't repriced their debt to reflect it.

The Bank of Canada's benchmark rate sits at 2.25% in 2026, down from a 5.00% peak in 2024. Prime has followed it down.
For CFOs and controllers, that is the most favourable borrowing backdrop in years.

But here's the part the headline number hides:
The benchmark rate is not the rate on your deal.

What you actually pay is the benchmark plus a spread, and that spread is set by things a rate cut doesn't touch:

→ How your financials are packaged and underwritten
→ Whether the facility is matched to the use of funds
→ Which lender sees the file, and how the story is told

Two firms can walk into the same rate environment and leave with materially different pricing. The gap between them is preparation, not the policy rate.

So the opportunity in 2026 isn't just "rates are lower." It's that a well-structured refinance or new facility can capture that drop in full, instead of leaving basis points on the table.

We've structured deals through every rate environment, from the 2022 climb to today's easing, across equipment financing, commercial real estate, and business lending. After enough files, you learn where the spread is won and lost. And you've seen it all.

That experience is what turns a lower benchmark into a better deal.

📞 1-855-LANT-CAP
Lantern Capital | Commercial Debt Advisory | Mortgage Alliance

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L4W0G7

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