Short answer: a pest control company can generally borrow between 75% and 150% of one month’s business bank deposits on a Routebook Capital working capital advance, within the published range of $10,000 to $2,000,000. As a labeled illustration only: a company depositing $40,000 a month would usually see offers somewhere between $30,000 and $60,000. The minimum to apply is $15,000 a month in deposits and 6 months in business; there is no minimum credit score. Where you land inside the band is the rest of this guide.
The one rule behind the number
The advance is sized so that the payment survives your slowest month in the statement window, not your average. Everything else is detail. The underwriter takes the deposits month by month, finds the floor, works out what fixed daily or weekly ACH that floor can carry, and sizes the advance backward from the payment. That is why two pest companies with the same annual revenue can get different numbers: the one whose deposits are flat gets more than the one whose deposits spike around spring termite season and sag in January.
What moves you toward 150%, and what moves you toward 75%
Five things, and you can read most of them off your own statements before you apply.
- Recurring share. Pest control has the best recurring book in the trades: monthly and quarterly plans that renew without a sales call. Routebook Capital reads service agreements as forward revenue, not one-off jobs. A book that is mostly on plans sits at the top of the band. A book that is mostly one-time treatments sits lower.
- Average daily balance. An account that holds a cushion between payroll Fridays supports a larger payment than one that touches zero, even if the top-line deposits are the same.
- NSFs and negative days. A few in 90 days is normal in a trade with weekly payroll and commercial accounts that pay slowly. A pattern pulls the number down because it says the account is already carrying all it can.
- Deposit count. Many deposit days a month reads as a working route. A pest company that batches card autopay daily and deposits commercial checks as they arrive looks stronger than one with three lump deposits.
- Open positions. An existing advance comes out of the approval first on a consolidation. See funding with an existing MCA for how that is handled.
Why quarterly billing changes how you should apply
A quarterly plan deposits three months of service in one hit. Over a 3-month statement window that can make one month look like the business and the other two look like a slump. The fix is simple and it is a published criterion: send four months of statements if your billing has a shape. Four months lets the underwriter see the quarterly rhythm as a rhythm, not as a drop, and the floor is set correctly. Tell the underwriter which deposits are quarterly prepayments; they are the strongest kind of deposit a pest company has, because the service is already sold.
What the money costs
A working capital advance is the purchase of a fixed amount of future receivables, so the cost is a fixed dollar figure agreed up front, not a rate that floats. The published representative example: a $150,000 advance over 12 months has a total payback of $190,500, a cost of funding of $40,500, a daily payment of $756 across 21 business days a month, or a weekly payment of $3,664. That is an illustration, not an offer; your figure depends on your file.
Two published terms change the cost in your favor. First, repayment is a fixed daily or weekly ACH from your operating account: no split funding, no holdback percentage, no lockbox, so a strong month does not cost you more. Second, pay the advance off within the first 30, 60 or 90 days and you keep up to 30% of the remaining cost of funding. A pest company that funds in February ahead of termite season and clears the balance out of spring deposits uses that discount as designed.
When deposits are not the ceiling
The 75%-to-150% band is a working capital rule. Three other products size differently and can go past it.
A term loan ($50,000 to $5,000,000, 6 to 60 months) is underwritten on statements, returns and financials together, with a 650+ FICO, 24 months in business and $40,000 a month in deposits. It is the route acquisition and consolidation product, and the number is built on the whole business, not one month of it.
Invoice factoring ignores deposits entirely and sizes on your open commercial receivables. If your pest company bills property managers, schools or HOAs on net-30 to net-60, up to 90% of an approved invoice is advanced within 24 hours, with facilities to $5,000,000 and no minimum credit score.
A line of credit ($25,000 to $500,000, 600+ FICO, 12 months in business, $25,000 a month in deposits) is sized once and drawn as needed, with no cost on an undrawn balance. It is the product for a pest company whose need is lumpy rather than one-time.
What you’ll need
- The application, with a phone number you answer.
- Your 3 most recent months of business bank statements as PDFs from the bank; 4 months if your billing is quarterly or seasonal.
- Your recurring share: the portion of last month’s billing that came from monthly or quarterly plans.
- A note on which deposits were quarterly or annual prepayments.
- Payoff figures for any open advance.
- For a term loan: your last two years of business tax returns and a current profit-and-loss statement. Tax returns are not required under $500,000 on working capital.
The number you are quoted is a real one, built from your statements, delivered in about four business hours on a complete file. For the trade-specific picture see pest control on the who-we-fund page and the working capital criteria.