# How to fill in an application

All eleven steps, what each one is actually for, and the three that will not let you past them until they are done.

Updated: 2026-09-12

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An application is eleven steps. Most are one question. It saves after every pause, and you can do
them in any order.

The app promises three minutes and the checklist on your applications page adds its steps up to
about nine. Both are honest: three minutes is the typing, and the rest is finding your bank
statements — which is why [having them to hand](/help/before-you-start) is most of the battle.

The rail down the left groups them the way a person thinks about it rather than the way our
database is shaped: the business, where it is, what you need, then who you are and the proof.
A tick means the step is finished. An amber mark means you have been there and left something
undone.

## The eleven steps

### 1. Where the business is registered

Canada or the United States. It is the first question because it decides everything after it —
what we can offer, on what terms, and which paperwork the later steps ask for. Continuing is
also where you authorise us to take the application to lenders.

<Shot src="step-country" alt="The first wizard step, Where's your business registered, with Canada and United States as two large selectable cards." caption="Two cards, one choice. The Next button is named after the step it goes to — here, Revenue." />

### 2. Average monthly revenue

A slider rather than a box, because most people know this figure roughly and not exactly. Drag
it to the average of the last six months across the business's main account.

To qualify you need an average of at least **$20,000 a month** over the past six months. Below
that the step says so and lets you carry on anyway — we would rather look than turn you away on
a number you typed approximately.

<Shot src="step-revenue" alt="The revenue step showing a slider set to $140,000 per month, with a note that you need an average of at least $20,000 a month to qualify." caption="Roughly right is fine. The statements are what the number is checked against." />

### 3. Where it operates

The province or state first, then the street address. Choosing the region first is what stops
the address lookup offering you eight Wellington Streets in four provinces.

Pick your address from the list and the city and postal code fill themselves in — which is also
how they end up agreeing with each other. If the lookup cannot find you, **Enter it manually**
opens the fields empty. A lookup that cannot find you must never be a dead end.

<Shot src="step-location" alt="The location step with Ontario chosen, and street address, city and postal code filled in for a Toronto address." />

### 4. The business itself

In Canada, start typing the legal name and we search the public registries — pick your company
and the registration number, incorporation date and registry status arrive with it, so you do
not have to dig out the certificate.

<Shot src="step-business-search" alt="The business step with a legal name typed into the search box and a panel offering to add the details manually." caption="Nothing on the register yet? Newer companies take a while to appear. Add manually." />

Everything the registry gives us stays editable — it is a head start, not an authority on your
own company. In the United States there is no registry to search, so the fields are the step.

Then: business type, date of incorporation, industry, business phone, and your business number
(Canada) or EIN (United States). A website if you have one, and a checkbox if you do not.

<Shot src="step-business" alt="The business details step filled in: legal name, business type Corporation, date of incorporation, industry, business phone and business number." />

### 5. How much you need

An amount and one line on what it is for. Neither is binding — the note says so — and the step
tells you what businesses your size usually ask for, so you are not guessing at a range.

<Shot src="step-funding" alt="The funding step with $120,000 entered and a use of funds line reading a second oven and a payroll bridge." />

### 6. Your last six bank statements

One of the three steps you cannot walk past. Until at least one statement is attached, the Next
button stays where it is and goes grey, with the reason beside it — moving the refusal to the end,
after you think you have finished, would be worse.

PDFs straight from your bank, six months of them. See
[bank statements](/help/bank-statements) for what counts and what does not.

### 7. Your company paperwork

Proof the business is registered. The list depends on the country you chose in step one — see
[company paperwork](/help/company-paperwork). You can leave this one and come back.

### 8. About you

Your name and email came from signing up, so this asks the two things a lender wants next: where
to reach you, and how you are connected to the company. The contact details go on your account
rather than on the application, so applying a second time does not mean typing them again.

<Shot src="step-applicant" alt="The About you step asking for a mobile number, your role at the business, and your home address." />

### 9. Who owns the business

Anyone with **25% or more**. That threshold is not ours — it is the one every lender we place
with works to, and they will all ask before they fund anything. Name, role, email, ownership
percentage, phone and home address, then **Add owner**. Repeat for each one.

Like the statements, this step will not let you past it with nobody on the list.

<Shot src="step-owners" alt="The owners step, an empty owner form with full name, role, email, ownership percentage, phone and home address, and an Add owner button. The Next button is greyed out with the note add at least one owner to continue." caption="The button stays where it is and tells you why, rather than disappearing." />

### 10. Verify it is you

A photo of your ID, about thirty seconds, in a secure window run by our identity provider. Once
it passes you are never asked again — not on this application and not on any future one. See
[verifying your identity](/help/verifying-your-identity).

### 11. Check it over and send it

Everything you have entered on one page, with what is still outstanding called out. Read it, then
**Submit application**. See [sending it to us](/help/sending-it-to-us) — and note that only an
owner can press the button.

<Shot src="step-review" alt="The review step listing requested amount, use of funds, business, entity, registration number, industry, address, phone and monthly revenue, with a Submit application button." caption="The last look. After this it is fixed — what we decide on has to be what you sent." />

## On the web

The rail on the left is a map and a set of shortcuts. It groups the eleven steps into five
headings — *Business country*, *Monthly revenue*, *Business details*, *How much you need*, and
*We need to get to know you* — each with a rough time against it, and it opens the group you are
in. Click any step to jump to it.

Skipping ahead is allowed on purpose, because information arrives out of order — the bookkeeper
has last month's revenue, the accountant has the incorporation number. The rail marks what you
left rather than refusing to let you leave: a green tick is finished, an amber mark is started
and not finished.

Between the two buttons at the bottom, a quiet **Saved** appears when your typing has reached us.
On a narrow window there is no room for it, so it is hidden — the saving still happens, you just
do not get told about it.

## In the app

The same eleven steps in the same order, one per screen, because the app asks our server what the
steps are rather than carrying its own copy of them. The footer with Back and Next floats over
the form.

What is different on a phone, step by step:

- **Country, revenue, funding** — identical, and easier: the revenue slider and the amount keypad
  are better with a thumb than with a mouse.
- **Location** — the same province-then-address lookup. Type the first characters of the street
  and pick yours; if it cannot find you, enter it by hand.
- **Business** — the same registry search in Canada, the same manual fallback.
- **Statements and company paperwork** — this is where the app is genuinely better. Each document
  row opens **Choose a file** (Files and iCloud Drive) and a button for your photo library. If
  the statement came in the post, photograph it in the Camera app first and pick it here. See
  [bank statements](/help/bank-statements).
- **About you and owners** — the same fields, with the keyboard type set per field.
- **Identity** — opens the same hosted check in a Safari window, and the phone's camera is the
  easier one to hold up a licence to.
- **Review** — the same summary; if something is outstanding the app prints it where the Submit
  button would be. See [sending it to us](/help/sending-it-to-us).

Start one with the **+** at the top of the Applications tab — or **Start an application** in the
middle of the screen if you have none yet. An unfinished one says so on its row: *Not sent yet —
pick up where you left off*.

<Shot src="ios-applications" phone alt="The Applications tab in the Spark app, listing applications with their references, amounts and status badges." />

An application you started on the phone is the same one waiting at your desk ten minutes later.