lender-pack

---
name: lender-pack
description: Assembles the documents a lender asks for into one dated folder before the lender asks for them: a numbered document index, the last two filed accounts and the current management accounts, six months of bank statements, the aged debtor and creditor lists, the existing debt schedule with every personal guarantee already given, the directors and ownership picture that matches Companies House, and a gap list naming every missing item and who has to produce it. Use in the week before you approach anyone for money.
---

# The folder a lender asks for, complete and dated, sitting on your desk before the first phone call

You give this your filed accounts, your management accounts, your bank statements, your sales ledger and purchase ledger, your existing finance agreements and your Companies House record. You get back a numbered index of every document a UK business lender routinely requests, each item marked present, out of date or missing, a debt schedule showing every facility you already have and every personal guarantee already signed, a reconciliation between what Companies House shows and what you believe is true, and a gap list with a name and a date against each missing item. It will not write your accounts and it will not fill a gap with an estimate. A number an owner cannot evidence is worse than a blank, because a lender who finds one stops trusting the rest of the file.

## What it does

1. **Build the index first and populate it second, so the shape of the pack is decided by what lenders ask for and not by what you happen to have.** The routine request list for a UK business facility is: the last two years of filed accounts, current management accounts no more than three months old, six months of business bank statements, an aged debtor listing, an aged creditor listing, a schedule of existing borrowing, VAT returns for the last four quarters, details of directors and shareholders, proof of identity and address for each director or partner, and a statement of what the money is for. Write the index with all ten rows before you open a single file. An index built from what you found is an index that is missing exactly the things you were going to be asked for.

2. **Start with Companies House, because that is where the lender starts and it is public.** Anyone can get, free, "company information, for example registered address and date of incorporation", "current and resigned officers", "document images", "mortgage charge data", "previous company names" and "insolvency information". Read your own record as an underwriter would. A private company must "File annual accounts with Companies House" by "9 months after your company's financial year ends", and the late filing penalties run from 150 pounds up to 1,500 pounds for more than six months, doubling "if your accounts are late 2 years in a row". A late filing marker is visible before you have said a word, so know whether it is there.

3. **Reconcile the mortgage charge data on the register against what you believe you owe, line by line.** Every registered charge is a lender's security interest sitting in public. Satisfied charges that were never marked satisfied, charges from a finance company you settled two years ago, and charges you had forgotten all read as current encumbrances. Build the list from the register, put your own record beside it, and mark every line matched, unmatched on the register or unmatched in your records. Unmatched lines go on the gap list with a named person to fix them, because fixing a stale charge takes weeks and nobody starts it during an application.

4. **Build the existing debt schedule with one row per facility and no aggregation.** Lender, product, original amount, outstanding balance at a stated date, monthly payment, rate, term remaining, security given, and whether a personal guarantee was signed. Include the ones people leave off: the director's loan account, the card machine advance, the equipment finance on the glass washer, the VAT time to pay arrangement. A lender will find them in the bank statements in step 5, and finding one that is not on the schedule costs more credibility than the facility costs money.

5. **Read six months of your own bank statements the way an underwriter reads them, and annotate what you find.** Returned direct debits, unauthorised overdraft days, payments to short term lenders, gambling transactions on a business account, and round sum transfers to a personal account are the five things that get looked for. You cannot change what happened. You can explain it in one line, in advance, in writing, attached to the statement. An explanation offered before the question is evidence of a business that watches its own account. The same explanation offered after the question sounds like an excuse.

6. **Get the ageing right on both ledgers, because the two lists together are the business in miniature.** The aged debtor list shows who owes you and for how long, with the invoice date, the due date and the days overdue for each. The aged creditor list shows the same in the other direction. For hospitality most sales are settled on the day, so a thin debtor book is normal and needs a sentence saying so, otherwise it reads as a missing document. Function deposits, corporate accounts and wholesale lines are where the debtor book actually lives. State the basis and the date on both lists.

7. **Record every personal guarantee already given before you consider giving another one.** For each: the lender, the date, whether it is capped or unlimited, the cap amount if there is one, whether a charge was taken over any property, and whether a solicitor reviewed it. The cumulative position matters more than any single line, because the question a new guarantee actually asks is what happens to the household if every business facility defaults at once. That question is the owner's to answer with their own solicitor. This skill lists the facts and stops.

8. **Date stamp everything and write the as at date on the cover.** Management accounts have a period end. Bank statements have a last transaction date. A debtor list is as at a day. Ageing that is six weeks old is not current and a lender will ask for it again, which adds a fortnight. Put the as at date beside every item in the index, and put the oldest of them on the cover, because that date is the real age of the pack.

9. **Hand the assembly, the indexing and the gap counting to Codex, and keep the reading to yourself.** Write the inputs into a working folder, then run:

   ```
   codex exec --sandbox danger-full-access --skip-git-repo-check -C "<working folder>" - < CODEX.md
   ```

   Claude hands over the file list with each document's type and period, the Companies House extract, the facility list with terms exactly as the agreements state them, the guarantee list, the ledger exports and the owner's written annotations on the bank statements. Codex returns the numbered index with a status against every row, the debt schedule, the guarantee register, the charge reconciliation, a currency check on every dated item and the gap list. Codex never opens a gap by guessing at the content of a document it was not given.

10. **Finish with the gap list on the front, not the back.** One page: every missing or out of date item, who has to produce it, and the date it is expected. The pack is not ready when the folder is full. It is ready when the gap list is empty, and the gap list on the front is the only thing that makes that visible at a glance to the person who has to chase the accountant.

## Then it checks

1. Every one of the ten routine request rows appears in the index with a status of exactly present, out of date or missing, and none is absent from the index.
2. Every document in the index carries an as at date or a period end, and the cover carries the oldest of those dates.
3. Every facility found in the bank statements appears in the debt schedule, and the schedule states the outstanding balance as at a named date.
4. Every registered charge shown on the Companies House record appears in the charge reconciliation with a status, and no charge is omitted because it looked old.
5. Every personal guarantee already given is listed with its lender, its date and whether it is capped or unlimited, and no row is completed by inference.
6. The gap list names a person and a date against every missing or out of date item, and no gap has been closed with an estimated figure.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never state a typical lender document list length, a usual time to decision, a normal leverage multiple or a standard debt service cover ratio. No published figure exists for a single independent UK hospitality business, and an owner who believes a borrowed ratio will either stop applying when they should apply, or apply with a plan built to hit a number nobody actually uses.
- Never predict whether the pack will lead to an approval. A complete pack removes a reason to decline. It does not create a reason to accept, and saying otherwise sets an owner up to take a decline personally.
- Never sign anything and never complete a lender form on an owner's behalf. Identity documents, proof of address and signature blocks are handled by the named person and nobody else.
- Never fill a gap with a figure from memory, a prior year, or an averaged month. A blank with a name and a date beside it is a working instruction. A plausible number in the same cell is a defect that survives every later check.
- Never omit a facility because it is small or embarrassing, and never omit a personal guarantee already given because it relates to a settled account. A guarantee can survive the facility it was written for, and only the deed says whether it has.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own agreements and statements, and for their own accountant to review before anything is sent. Where any existing or proposed security is a personal guarantee or a charge over a home, and wherever the borrowing is regulated, it is also for their own solicitor and an FCA authorised adviser. It is not advice, it is not an audit, and it is not a statement that the accounts or the pack are correct.

## Built from
- Companies House and GOV.UK, "Get information about a company", https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the free public fields including officers, document images, mortgage charge data and insolvency information, in steps 2 and 3.
- HM Revenue and Customs, Companies House and GOV.UK, "Accounts and tax returns for private limited companies", https://www.gov.uk/prepare-file-annual-accounts-for-limited-company, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the nine month filing deadline and the 21 month first accounts deadline, in step 2.
- Companies House and GOV.UK, "Prepare annual accounts for a private limited company: penalties for late filing", https://www.gov.uk/annual-accounts/penalties-for-late-filing, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the 150, 375, 750 and 1,500 pound penalty bands, the doubling for two consecutive late years and the strike off warning, in step 2.
- British Business Bank, "Growth Guarantee Scheme", https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/finance-options/debt-finance/growth-guarantee-scheme, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: that personal guarantees "can be taken at the lender's discretion, in line with their normal commercial lending practices" and that principal private residences cannot be taken as security within the scheme, in step 7.
- The Start Up Loans Company, "Am I eligible?", https://www.startuploans.co.uk/about-the-loan/am-i-eligible, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: that the assessment takes in "the strength and viability of your business, demonstrated through the Business Plan and Cash Flow Forecast and the affordability of the loan through the Personal Survival Budget", which is the shape of the pack in step 1.
- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, "Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN)", version 1.2, https://www.experian.co.uk/legal/crain/, adopted 02 December 2024, read 23 September 2026: the search footprint mechanic behind assembling the pack before applications begin, in step 1, and the statement that the agencies do not tell lenders whether to offer credit, used in the rule against predicting an approval.
- Financial Ombudsman Service, "Who we can help", https://sme.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/complain/can-help, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: that personal guarantors for loans to businesses they are involved in are eligible complainants, which is why the guarantee register in step 7 records the deed and the solicitor review separately.

# lender-pack

## You are given
The document set for one UK hospitality business preparing to approach a lender. For each file supplied: its file name, its document type, the period or as at date it covers, and who produced it. The last two sets of filed accounts and the current management accounts. Six months of business bank statements as exports, together with the owner's written annotations, each annotation naming the statement date and the transaction it refers to. Aged debtor and aged creditor listings with their as at dates. The last four VAT returns where the business is registered. A Companies House extract for the company, including the officers list, the shareholdings, the filing history with dates, and the register of charges with each charge's creation date, the person entitled and whether it is shown as satisfied. Every existing finance agreement with its lender, product, original amount, current balance and balance date, monthly payment, rate, term remaining, security and whether a personal guarantee was signed. Every personal guarantee deed already given, with its date, whether it is capped or unlimited, any cap amount, any property charged and whether a solicitor reviewed it. Identity and address document names for each director or partner, listed by name only and never by content. All judgement calls, including which documents are the current ones, what each bank statement annotation says and whether a charge relates to a settled facility, have already been made by the owner and are supplied to you.

## Produce
Write into a `./lender-pack-output/` folder:

1. `index.csv` with these columns in this order: `item_no`, `item_name`, `required_by_lenders`, `file_name`, `period_or_as_at`, `age_in_days_at_build`, `status`, `owner_of_gap`, `expected_date`, `notes`. `item_no` runs 01 to 10 and covers, in this order: `filed accounts year minus 1`, `filed accounts year minus 2`, `management accounts`, `bank statements six months`, `aged debtor listing`, `aged creditor listing`, `existing borrowing schedule`, `VAT returns last four quarters`, `directors and shareholders`, `purpose of funds statement`. All ten rows are always written, whether or not a file exists. `status` is exactly one of `present`, `out of date`, `missing`, `not applicable`. `not applicable` is used only where the owner has supplied a written reason, which is copied into `notes` verbatim.
2. `debt-schedule.csv` with columns: `facility_ref`, `lender_name_verbatim`, `product_type`, `original_amount_gbp`, `outstanding_balance_gbp`, `balance_as_at`, `monthly_payment_gbp`, `rate_percent`, `rate_basis`, `term_remaining_months`, `security_verbatim`, `personal_guarantee_given`, `found_in_bank_statements`, `agreement_supplied`. `facility_ref` is L001 upward. `product_type` is exactly one of `term loan`, `overdraft`, `hire purchase`, `finance lease`, `operating lease`, `invoice factoring`, `invoice discounting`, `asset refinance`, `merchant cash advance`, `credit card`, `directors loan`, `time to pay arrangement`, `other`. `personal_guarantee_given`, `found_in_bank_statements` and `agreement_supplied` are `yes`, `no` or `not stated`.
3. `guarantee-register.csv` with columns: `guarantee_ref`, `lender_name_verbatim`, `facility_ref`, `date_signed`, `guarantor_name`, `capped_or_unlimited`, `cap_amount_gbp`, `property_charged`, `property_is_a_home`, `solicitor_reviewed`, `still_in_force_per_deed`, `deed_file_name`. `capped_or_unlimited` is exactly one of `capped`, `unlimited`, `not stated`. Every other yes or no column accepts only `yes`, `no` or `not stated`. `still_in_force_per_deed` is completed only where the deed itself was supplied, and is `not stated` in every other case.
4. `charges-reconciliation.csv` with columns: `charge_code`, `created_date`, `person_entitled_verbatim`, `register_status`, `matched_facility_ref`, `owner_position_verbatim`, `reconciliation_status`. `register_status` is copied from the Companies House extract exactly. `reconciliation_status` is exactly one of `matched`, `on register not in owner records`, `in owner records not on register`, `owner says settled register says outstanding`.
5. `bank-statement-flags.csv` with columns: `statement_month`, `flag_type`, `transaction_date`, `amount_gbp`, `counterparty_verbatim`, `owner_annotation_verbatim`, `annotation_supplied`. `flag_type` is exactly one of `returned direct debit`, `unauthorised overdraft day`, `short term lender payment`, `gambling transaction`, `round sum transfer to personal account`, `other flagged by owner`. Every row is drawn from the supplied statements and the owner's own annotations. Codex never characterises a transaction the owner has not characterised: an unannotated row has `annotation_supplied` as `no` and appears in `gaps.md`.
6. `currency-check.md` recording, for every item in `index.csv` that is `present`, its as at date, the build date, the age in days, and whether that age exceeds the threshold the owner supplied for that item type. Where the owner supplied no threshold, the line records `no threshold supplied` and the item appears in `gaps.md`.
7. `cover.md` carrying, on separate lines and nothing else: the business name verbatim, the company number where there is one, the build date, the oldest as at date across every `present` item in `index.csv` and which item it belongs to, the count of items by status, the total outstanding balance across `debt-schedule.csv` with its stated balance dates, the count of personal guarantees already given and how many are `unlimited`, and the gap count.
8. `gaps.md` a numbered list of: every index row that is `missing` or `out of date`; every index row with no owner and no expected date; every facility found in the bank statements with no row in `debt-schedule.csv`; every charge with a `reconciliation_status` other than `matched`; every guarantee row reading `not stated` in any column; every flagged bank statement row with no owner annotation; every document supplied without an as at date; and any supplied text containing an em dash character.

## Rules
- Codex indexes, matches, counts and dates. It never writes an accounting figure, never decides which version of a document is current, never characterises a bank transaction, never decides whether a guarantee is still in force and never completes a lender form.
- Never estimate a balance, a payment or a date. A missing figure leaves the cell empty and produces a line in `gaps.md`. A balance with no stated balance date is treated as missing.
- Never copy the content of an identity or address document into any file. Identity items are recorded by document name and holder name only.
- Never write a benchmark figure of any kind: no typical document list, no usual time to decision, no normal leverage multiple, no standard debt service cover ratio. None exists for a single independent UK hospitality business and none is to be recorded.
- Never write any statement, in any file, about whether the pack will produce an approval, whether it looks strong, or whether a lender is likely to lend.
- Never drop a facility because it is small, informal or embarrassing, and never drop a guarantee because the facility it relates to appears settled. Both are recorded and the uncertainty is recorded with them.
- Never mark a charge satisfied on the strength of the owner's belief. The register status is copied and the owner's position is recorded separately in its own column.
- Use British English, GBP written as `GBP` or the word pounds, and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dash characters in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every lender name, security wording, annotation and owner position is copied exactly, including its punctuation and capitalisation.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own agreements, statements and Companies House record, and for their own accountant to review before anything is sent to a lender, and for their own solicitor and an FCA authorised adviser where any security is a personal guarantee or a charge over a home. It is not advice, it is not an audit and it is not a statement that these accounts are correct.

## Return
The absolute path of every file written, the row count of each CSV, the count of index items by status with the missing ones named, the oldest as at date in the pack and which item carries it, the total outstanding balance across the debt schedule with the balance dates it rests on, the number of facilities found in bank statements that had no schedule row and their names, the number of charges by reconciliation status with every unmatched charge code listed, the number of personal guarantees already given with the count that are unlimited and the count whose deed was not supplied, the number of flagged bank statement rows with no owner annotation, and the `gaps.md` item count.