A buyer financing readiness checklist for a Canadian business acquisition lists the personal financial documentation, business case and supporting records a lender typically asks for — a net worth statement, tax filings, a credit review, a written acquisition proposal and a documented source of funds — organized before a buyer approaches a lender, not assembled piecemeal after being asked.
Reviewed
This checklist covers how a buyer should organize their own file before approaching a lender about acquisition financing, distinct from how much cash a purchase might require or what a specific program covers. A buyer who walks into that first conversation with an organized package moves faster and looks more credible than one who is assembling documents in response to each new request.
Organize your personal financial picture
Prepare a current, itemized personal net worth statementA lender reads this as a starting point for what you can actually contribute and what you have left as a cushion, so an incomplete or outdated version slows the whole conversation down.
Pull your own credit report and review it for errors before a lender doesA reporting error caught and corrected in advance is a minor inconvenience; the same error discovered mid-application can stall a decision at the worst possible moment.
Gather several years of personal tax returns and Notices of AssessmentA lender wants a documented income history, not a verbal estimate, and a buyer who cannot produce past returns quickly raises an avoidable first impression.
Document the source of your down payment funds and be ready to show its paper trailSavings, a gift, a home-equity draw and a business sale all read differently to a lender, and an unexplained source of funds is one of the most common causes of a stalled application.
Build the business case a lender will actually read
Put together a short written summary of relevant industry or management experienceA lender is financing you as much as the business, and a buyer with no documented relevant experience should expect closer scrutiny of the operating plan.
Prepare a written acquisition proposal covering the target business, structure and proposed use of fundsA one-page verbal pitch is not what moves an application forward; a lender wants a document it can actually circulate internally for approval.
List existing personal debts and obligations, including any co-signed or guaranteed loansAn obligation that surfaces later in the lender’s own check, rather than in your own disclosure, reads as a credibility problem even when the debt itself is manageable.
Get the supporting pieces in order
Identify what collateral you can offer beyond the business being acquiredKnowing this in advance lets you have a real conversation about structure rather than discovering mid-application that a lender wants security you had not planned to offer.
Line up references who can speak to your experience or character on short noticeA reference who takes a week to respond can cost a buyer real time in a process where the seller is also watching the calendar.
Decide which financing sources you will approach in parallel, not in sequenceWaiting to hear back from one lender before contacting the next adds weeks to a process that a seller and a competing buyer are not waiting on.
Know what changes the answer
Ask directly how the target’s own financial statements will affect what a lender is willing to advanceA lender lends against the business’s demonstrated ability to service debt, not only against your own personal readiness, so this conversation needs the seller’s numbers at the table.
Confirm with the seller or their advisor whether vendor financing is something they would considerA seller open to carrying part of the price can change what a conventional lender is willing to advance, and it is worth raising before financing terms are finalized elsewhere.
Deavo is an advertising and listings platform, not a brokerage, law firm or valuation firm. This page is general information, not legal, tax, accounting or valuation advice, and rules differ by province. Confirm anything you rely on with a qualified professional before you act on it.