Documentation

FUNDesk is a purpose-built platform for MCA (Merchant Cash Advance) brokerages. It gives you a single place to manage merchants, people, deals, funders, submissions, and UCC leads, with a built-in AI assistant that lets you query and update your data in plain English.

At the core of FUNDesk is a 12-stage MCA deal pipeline that mirrors the real funding lifecycle from New Lead through Funded and Commission Paid. The platform includes a funder matching engine that identifies the best funders for each merchant, a bank statement analyzer that produces professional underwriting reports with zero manual errors, and integrated communication channels (SMS, phone dialer, Gmail) so your team never leaves the platform.

Getting started is simple: sign up here and start right away. Your data is securely hosted, updates happen automatically, and there is nothing to install.

You get a full-featured MCA brokerage platform with no per-seat pricing and no paywalled features. To see how FUNDesk compares to alternatives, see how we compare to HubSpot, Attio, Folk, and Salesforce.

Sign up

1. Click Get started on the homepage.
2. Enter your name, email, and a password (8 characters minimum). You can also sign in with Google for faster access.
3. Give your workspace a name. This is your brokerage's shared space. If you leave it blank it defaults to "[Your Name]'s Workspace."
4. Click Create workspace. You are taken to the Home page.

What gets created automatically

Every new workspace comes pre-configured with six standard MCA objects:

• Merchants: business records with fields for business name, EIN, industry, monthly revenue, paper grade, credit score range, time in business, and location.
• People: contacts associated with merchants, including name, email, phone, title, and linked merchant record.
• Deals: funding opportunities with name, requested amount, stage, expected close date, and linked merchant. Twelve pipeline stages come ready to use: New Lead, Pre-Qualified, Docs Requested, Docs Collected, Submitted, In Underwriting, Approved, Contract Out, Funded, Commission Paid, Declined, and Dead.
• Funders: funder records with name, minimum and maximum advance amounts, preferred industries, credit requirements, and contact information for submission desks.
• Submissions: tracks each deal submission to a funder, including submission date, status, offered amount, offered terms, and funder response.
• UCC Leads: leads sourced from UCC filings with business name, filing date, funder of record, location, and contact details for outreach campaigns.

The Home page

After logging in you land on the Home page. It shows a greeting with the current date, quick stats (merchants, deals, open tasks, pending submissions), your recent tasks with overdue indicators, recent notes, and recently viewed records.

New users see an onboarding checklist with four suggested first steps. Each step can be individually dismissed, or you can hide the whole checklist at once. The checklist disappears automatically once you have added your first records.

Before you start entering data, take 5 minutes to do these four things. They make the rest of the experience significantly better.

1. Learn to navigate the app

The sidebar on the left is your main navigation. The top section has your objects (Merchants, People, Deals, Funders, Submissions, UCC Leads, and any custom objects you create). Below that are Tasks, Notes, Lists, Chat, and Search. Settings is at the very bottom.

Press Ctrl+K (or Cmd+K on Mac) at any time to open the command palette. You can search for merchants, jump to any page, or start a new record without lifting your hands from the keyboard.

2. Set up AI chat and communication channels

AI chat is the fastest way to query your data and take bulk actions. To enable it you need an OpenRouter API key. OpenRouter is a free service that gives you access to Claude, GPT-4o, Llama, Gemini, and other models through a single key.

1. Go to openrouter.ai/keys and create a free account. Generate an API key.
2. In FUNDesk, go to Settings > AI in the sidebar.
3. Paste your API key into the OpenRouter API Key field.
4. Choose a model. Claude Sonnet 4 is the default and works well for most tasks. GPT-4o Mini or Gemini 2.0 Flash are good lower-cost options if you want to minimize spend.
5. Click Save, then click Test Connection to confirm everything works.

Once AI is configured, set up your communication channels. Go to Settings > Channels to connect your SMS provider, phone dialer, and Gmail account. Each channel takes just a few minutes to configure and connects directly to your merchant and deal records.

After setup, open Chat in the sidebar. You can ask things like "How many deals are in Underwriting?" or "Create a merchant named ABC Trucking with $50k monthly revenue" and the AI handles it.

3. Get your data in

There are two ways to add records. Choose the one that fits your situation.

Manual entry: open Merchants, People, Deals, or any object in the sidebar and click + New Record. Fill in the fields and click Create. Good for adding a handful of records or when you are building your pipeline from scratch.

CSV import: if you have existing data in a spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, another CRM, or a UCC lead list), export it as a CSV and use the Import tool. This is the fastest way to import UCC leads and merchant lists in bulk.

1. Open the object you want to import into (e.g. Merchants or UCC Leads).
2. Click the Import button in the toolbar.
3. Drop or select your CSV file. The first row must be column headers.
4. A column mapping screen appears. Each row shows a CSV header next to a dropdown where you pick the matching field. If your CSV headers match the field names exactly, they are mapped automatically.
5. You do not need to map every column. Skip any column that does not have a matching field.
6. Click Import. Up to 1,000 records per run. If any rows have errors you will see them listed with row numbers so you can fix and re-import.

4. Invite your team

If other brokers or team members will use the platform with you, invite them now so they can start working deals alongside you.

1. Go to Settings > Members.
2. Enter a team member's email address in the Add Member field.
3. Choose their role: Admin (can change settings, manage members, and create API keys) or Member (full access to all data but cannot change workspace settings).
4. Click Add. They can log in immediately.

You can change roles or remove members at any time from the same page.

FUNDesk plugs directly into your FUNDesk Bot. Generate a skill file, drop it into your agent config, and your agent can manage merchants, update deals, match funders, analyze bank statements, submit deals, and track commissions, all from wherever you already talk to it.

Generate your skill file

1. Go to Settings > API Keys and create an API key.
2. Navigate to Settings > FUNDesk Bot.
3. Follow the 4-step wizard to generate your skill file. It contains your platform's base URL, API auth, and all 19 API endpoint categories.
4. Click Download to save the file.

Configure your agent

1. Copy the downloaded file to ~/.fundesk/skills/SKILL.md
2. Add the skill reference to your fundesk.json config file.
3. Restart your FUNDesk Bot.

Test it

Ask your agent: "list all objects in the CRM." It should return Merchants, People, Deals, Funders, Submissions, and UCC Leads (plus any custom objects you have created). Try a few more MCA-specific commands:

• "Match funders for merchant ABC Trucking"
• "Analyze the bank statement for deal #1042"
• "Submit deal #1042 to Capital Plus Financial"
• "Show me all deals in Underwriting stage"
• "Create a task to follow up with merchant after approval"

For a full walkthrough, see the step-by-step tutorial.

Merchants and People are the two main contact types in FUNDesk. Merchants represent the businesses seeking funding. People are the individuals associated with those merchants, such as owners, signers, and contacts. Records from both objects can be linked to each other and to deals, submissions, and funders.

Default fields

Merchants come with: Business Name, EIN, DBA, Industry, Monthly Revenue, Paper Grade (A through D), Credit Score Range, Time in Business, Location, and Description.

People come with: Name, Email Addresses, Phone Numbers, Title, Linked Merchant, Ownership Percentage, and Description.

Adding a record

1. Open Merchants or People in the sidebar.
2. Click + New Record (top-right corner).
3. Fill in the fields. Required fields are marked.
4. Click Create. The record detail page opens automatically.

Record detail page

Click any record to open its full detail view. You will see five tabs:

• Overview: all fields and their current values. Click any value to edit it inline. Press Enter or click away to save.
• Related records: linked people, merchants, deals, submissions, or funders. Add relationships from here.
• Activity: a timeline of every change to this record, showing who edited what and when.
• Notes: rich text notes attached to this record.
• Tasks: tasks linked to this record, with due dates and assignees.

Attribute types

FUNDesk supports 17 attribute types: text, number, currency, date, timestamp, checkbox, select (dropdown), status, rating, email address, phone number, domain (website), location, personal name, record reference (link to another record), actor reference (link to a user), and interaction. When you add a custom field to any object you pick from this list.

Deals track your MCA funding opportunities from initial lead through funding and commission payment. They come with a built-in Kanban board so you can see where each deal sits in your pipeline at a glance.

12-stage MCA pipeline

Every new workspace comes with twelve deal stages designed for the MCA funding lifecycle:

1. New Lead: freshly sourced merchant, not yet contacted or qualified.
2. Pre-Qualified: initial conversation complete, merchant meets basic criteria (time in business, monthly revenue, industry).
3. Docs Requested: bank statements, application, and supporting documents requested from the merchant.
4. Docs Collected: all required documents received and ready for underwriting review.
5. Submitted: deal package sent to one or more funders for review.
6. In Underwriting: funder is actively reviewing the deal. Awaiting offers or declines.
7. Approved: at least one funder has issued an offer. Reviewing terms with the merchant.
8. Contract Out: funding contract sent to the merchant for signature.
9. Funded: funds have been disbursed to the merchant. Deal is closed-won.
10. Commission Paid: brokerage commission received from the funder.
11. Declined: all funders declined the deal. Can be re-submitted after changes.
12. Dead: merchant unresponsive or withdrew. Deal is permanently closed.

Moving a deal to the Funded stage triggers a celebration animation. You can rename, reorder, recolor, or remove any of these stages to match your brokerage workflow.

Creating a deal

1. Open Deals in the sidebar.
2. Click + New Record.
3. Fill in the deal name, requested amount, stage, expected close date, and link the merchant and associated people.
4. Click Create.

Kanban board

Switch to Board view using the toggle at the top of the Deals page. Each column represents a pipeline stage. Drag and drop deal cards between columns to move them through your pipeline. You can also reorder cards within a column to indicate relative priority. The total value of all deals in each stage is shown in the column header.

Customizing stages

Go to Settings > Objects, expand Deals, and edit the Stage attribute. You can add new stages, rename existing ones, change their colors, reorder them, and mark which stages are "active" (open pipeline) versus closed (funded or dead).

The Statement Analyzer is FUNDesk's built-in tool for reading and analyzing bank statements. Upload a PDF from any bank and the AI produces a professional MCA underwriting analysis in seconds, with zero manual data entry errors.

Uploading bank statements

1. Open a deal record and navigate to the Statements tab.
2. Click Upload Statement and select one or more PDF files. The analyzer accepts statements from any bank.
3. The AI processes each statement automatically. Processing typically takes a few seconds per statement.
4. Once complete, the analysis report appears inline on the deal record.

What the analyzer extracts

The AI reads every page of the statement and extracts the key metrics that MCA underwriters evaluate:

• Average daily balance: calculated across the full statement period, giving an accurate picture of the merchant's cash position.
• NSF count: number of non-sufficient funds incidents, a critical factor in funder decisioning.
• Negative days: total number of days the account balance went below zero.
• Total deposits: sum of all incoming transactions for the statement period.
• Monthly revenue trends: month-over-month deposit patterns showing growth, stability, or decline.
• Ending balances: closing balance for each statement period.
• Beginning balances: opening balance for each statement period.

Using the analysis

The analysis report is designed to be shared directly with funders as part of your submission package. It formats the data in the standard layout that underwriting desks expect, saving your team hours of manual spreadsheet work per deal. The extracted metrics also feed into the funder matching engine to help identify which funders are the best fit for the merchant's profile.

FUNDesk includes three built-in communication channels so your team can reach merchants without leaving the platform. Every message and call is automatically logged on the relevant merchant and deal records.

SMS channel

Send and receive text messages directly from merchant and deal records. SMS is ideal for quick follow-ups, document requests, and status updates.

1. Go to Settings > Channels > SMS.
2. Connect your SMS provider by entering your API credentials.
3. Assign a phone number for outbound messages.
4. Once connected, an SMS tab appears on every merchant and deal record. Type your message and click Send.

Phone dialer

Make and receive calls directly from FUNDesk. The dialer is built for high-volume outreach campaigns and follow-up calls.

1. Go to Settings > Channels > Phone.
2. Connect your telephony provider and configure your caller ID.
3. Once connected, click the phone icon on any merchant or person record to initiate a call. Call duration and notes are logged automatically.

Gmail channel

Connect your Gmail account to send and receive emails from within FUNDesk. Emails are threaded and linked to the relevant merchant and deal records.

1. Go to Settings > Channels > Gmail.
2. Click Connect Gmail and authorize FUNDesk to access your account.
3. Once connected, you can compose emails directly from merchant and deal records. Incoming replies are matched and displayed in the activity timeline.

All three channels work together. You can see a unified communication timeline on each merchant record showing SMS messages, phone calls, and emails in chronological order.

FUNDesk has a built-in AI assistant that can read and write your data using plain English. It works through OpenRouter, which means you can use Claude, GPT-4o, Llama, Gemini, and other models, whatever you prefer or already pay for.

Setting up AI

See the Essential setup section above for step-by-step instructions. In short: get a free OpenRouter API key, paste it in Settings > AI, choose a model, and click Save.

What the AI can do

The AI has 13 tools. 8 are read tools that run instantly. 5 are write tools that ask for your confirmation before making any changes.

Read tools (instant, no confirmation needed):

• Search records by name, EIN, email, or any text
• List all object types and their attributes
• Browse records of a specific type (merchants, people, deals, funders)
• Look up a specific record by ID with full field details
• Show your open and completed tasks
• Retrieve notes attached to any record
• List all your workspace lists
• Get entries from a specific list

Write tools (require your confirmation first):

• Create new records (merchants, people, deals, funders, or custom objects)
• Update fields on existing records
• Delete records permanently
• Create tasks and link them to records
• Add notes to records

Example queries

• "Show me all deals in Underwriting stage"
• "What is our total pipeline value?"
• "How many merchants did we add this week?"
• "Which funders accept restaurant deals under 600 credit score?"
• "Add a follow-up note to ABC Trucking"
• "Create a new merchant: Quick Stop Deli, $35k monthly revenue"
• "Move the Quick Stop Deli deal to Docs Collected"
• "Create a task to call the merchant by Friday"

How confirmations work

When the AI plans a write action (create, update, or delete), it describes exactly what it is about to do and waits for you to approve before proceeding. You can confirm, ask it to adjust the details, or say no to cancel. Nothing is changed in your database until you explicitly approve.

Want a deeper look at how the AI works? Two Ways AI Works in FUNDesk explains the built-in assistant and the external agent integration side by side.

Conversations

Each chat session is a persistent conversation. You can start new conversations from the sidebar panel on the Chat page, switch between past conversations, or delete ones you no longer need. The AI remembers context within a conversation, so you can refer to merchants or deals you mentioned earlier without repeating yourself.

Tasks help you track things you need to do. Every task can be linked to one or more records (a merchant, person, deal, funder, or any custom object) so you always have the context for why the task exists.

Creating a task

1. Open Tasks in the sidebar, or click Add Task on any record's detail page (Tasks tab).
2. Type the task description.
3. Optionally set a due date and assignee (any workspace member).
4. Optionally link the task to one or more records by searching for them.
5. Click Create.

Managing tasks

Click the circle checkbox next to any task to mark it as done. The Tasks page shows all open tasks with red overdue indicators for anything past its due date. The Home page widget shows your 10 most recent tasks so you can check status at a glance without navigating away. Tasks linked to a record also appear on that record's detail page under the Tasks tab.

Notes let you write rich-text content attached to any record. Use them for call logs, underwriting notes, funder feedback, merchant conversations, or any free-form information you want to keep alongside a merchant or deal.

Creating a note

1. Open a record and click the Notes tab.
2. Click + New Note.
3. Write your note using the rich text editor. You can format with bold, italics, headings (H1 through H3), bullet lists, numbered lists, links, and more.
4. Notes save automatically as you type.

Browsing all notes

The Notes page in the sidebar shows every note in your workspace grouped by date: Today, Yesterday, This Week, and Older. Click any note to open it in a side panel for quick reading or editing without navigating away.

Lists are curated collections of records you define manually. Think of them as saved groups, for example "Hot Leads," "Q1 Submissions," "A-Paper Merchants," or "Preferred Funders."

Creating a list

1. In the sidebar under Lists, click the + icon.
2. Give your list a name and choose which object type it tracks (Merchants, People, Deals, Funders, or any custom object).
3. Click Create.

Adding records to a list

Open your list, click + Add Record, and browse or search for the records you want. You can add as many as you need.

List-specific attributes

Lists can have their own custom attributes (columns) that only apply within that list. This is useful for tracking data that is relevant to the list context but not to the record globally. For example, a "Hot Leads" list might have a "Priority" or "Follow-up Date" column that exists only in that list, not on the Merchants object itself.

Importing from CSV

You can bulk-import records from a CSV file into any object type. This is the fastest way to migrate from another platform, a spreadsheet, or any data export such as a UCC lead list.

1. Open the object you want to import into (Merchants, People, Deals, Funders, UCC Leads, or a custom object).
2. Click the Import button in the toolbar.
3. Drop or select your CSV file. The first row must be column headers. The importer treats everything in row 1 as field names, not data.
4. The column mapping screen appears. For each CSV column, pick the matching field from the dropdown, or leave it as "Skip" to ignore that column. If your headers already match the field names (case-insensitive), they are mapped automatically.
5. Click Import. The importer processes up to 1,000 rows per run. Empty rows are skipped automatically.

After import, you will see a summary showing how many records were created and a list of any rows that had errors (with row numbers). Fix the errors in your CSV and re-import just those rows. If you are migrating from a spreadsheet, our guide From Spreadsheet to CRM walks through the full process.

Exporting to CSV

Click the Export button on any object page to download all current records as a CSV file. The export includes every attribute as a column with properly formatted values. Any active filters are applied before export, so you can export a filtered subset if needed.

Every object supports two view modes, accessible from the toggle at the top of the page:

• Table view: a spreadsheet-style grid. Click column headers to sort. Resize columns by dragging their edges. Edit cells directly by clicking on them.
• Board view: a Kanban board grouped by a status attribute. Drag cards between columns to change their status. Available on any object that has at least one status field.

Filtering

Click the Filter button to build conditions. Filters are attribute-aware: a number field offers "greater than" and "less than," a text field offers "contains" and "starts with," a date field offers "before" and "after," and a select field lets you pick from the available options.

You can stack multiple filters and connect them with AND or OR logic. For example: show deals worth more than $50,000 AND in the Submitted stage, or show merchants in New York OR New Jersey.

Sorting

Click any column header in table view to sort ascending or descending. Click again to reverse the direction. You can sort by any field: name, date, numeric value, status order, or any custom attribute.

Press Ctrl+K (or Cmd+K on Mac) anywhere in the app to open the command palette. Type a business name, EIN, email address, funder name, or any text to search across all record types and lists simultaneously.

Results are grouped by type (Merchants, People, Deals, Funders, Submissions, UCC Leads, and any custom objects) and also include list matches. Click any result to jump directly to that record. The command palette also lets you navigate to any page in the app by typing its name.

For a full-page search experience, open the dedicated Search page from the sidebar. It works the same way but gives you more space to browse results and shows more context for each match.

Beyond the built-in MCA objects, you can create your own object types to track anything your brokerage needs: referral partners, commission schedules, vendor relationships, marketing campaigns, or anything else.

Creating a custom object

1. Go to Settings > Objects.
2. Click + New Object.
3. Enter a singular name (e.g. "Referral Partner") and a plural name (e.g. "Referral Partners"). Choose an icon from the picker.
4. Add attributes to define the fields on your object. For each attribute, pick a type from the 17 available options, give it a name, and configure whether it is required, unique, or supports multiple values.
5. Click Create. The object appears immediately in the sidebar.

Custom objects support everything the built-in objects do: table and board views, filtering, sorting, CSV import and export, notes, tasks, related records, and AI chat.

Adding attributes to existing objects

You can add custom attributes to any object, including the built-in ones. Go to Settings > Objects, expand the object you want to modify, and click + Add Attribute. New attributes appear as additional columns in the table view and as new fields on record detail pages.

Access settings from the Settings link at the very bottom of the sidebar. Settings are divided into sections:

General

View and edit your workspace name. The workspace slug and internal ID are shown for reference (read-only). Only admins can change workspace settings.

Members

Invite team members by email address. Each member has one of two roles:

• Admin: full access including settings, managing members, creating and revoking API keys, and configuring AI.
• Member: full access to all data (merchants, deals, funders, submissions, tasks, notes, lists, AI chat) but cannot change workspace settings or manage members.

You can change a member's role or remove them at any time. Removing a member revokes their access immediately.

API Keys

Create Bearer token API keys for programmatic access from external tools, scripts, or automations. Keys start with oc_sk_ and are shown only once when created. Copy and store them somewhere safe immediately. You can revoke any key at any time, which cuts off access instantly.

To use a key, include it in the Authorization: Bearer oc_sk_... header on every API request.

AI Configuration

Enter your OpenRouter API key and select the default AI model for your workspace. Available models include Claude Sonnet 4, Claude Opus 4, GPT-4o, GPT-4o Mini, Llama 3.1 405B, Llama 3.1 70B, and Gemini 2.0 Flash. Each workspace stores its own key and model preference. The Test Connection button sends a quick test request so you can confirm the key and model are working before your team starts using Chat.

You can also configure the FUNDesk AI Agent from this page, which enables the built-in assistant to perform actions on behalf of your team. See the AI Chat section for details on what the agent can do.

Objects

View and manage all object types and their attributes. Add custom attributes to existing objects, create entirely new object types, configure status options and colors, and set field constraints like required or unique. See the Custom Objects section for full details.

FUNDesk includes a full REST API so you can integrate with other tools, automate workflows, sync data with external systems, or build custom apps on top of your brokerage data.

Quick start

1. Go to Settings > API Keys and create a key.
2. Include the key in every request as a Bearer token: Authorization: Bearer oc_sk_...
3. Start with GET /api/v1/objects to list all object types in your workspace and their slugs.
4. Use GET /api/v1/objects/merchants/records to fetch merchant records, /people for people, /deals for deals, and so on.

Key endpoints

API documentation

• Concise reference: /llms-api.txt , quick endpoint list, useful for LLM agents
• Full reference: /llms-full.txt , comprehensive request/response documentation
• OpenAPI spec: /openapi.json , machine-readable spec for code generation and tooling