Open Banking captures a window of your bank transaction history. If that window happened to cover an uncharacteristically quiet or disrupted period — a summer slowdown, a post-holiday lull, a period of illness, or a period when you paused trading — the data may not represent your company's normal financial position.
Common scenarios
- The 3 months captured by Open Banking included your seasonal low (Christmas retail quiet period, school holidays for an education business, winter for a landscaping company).
- Your business was temporarily paused for refurbishment, a key staff illness, or a supply chain problem.
- A one-off large outgoing skewed the balance figures (for example, paying a large tax bill, repaying another loan, or a significant capital purchase).
- Your largest customer paid unusually late, making the period look low-revenue.
What to do
- Contact us using the General Support Enquiry form before or after submitting your application.
- Briefly explain why the captured period is not representative — for example, "our revenue from October to December is typically £X, but the three months shown include our annual refit closure in November."
- If you have supporting evidence (for example, management accounts, a prior year's bank statement for the same period, or a forward order book), attach it. This gives the credit team context it would not otherwise have.
Uploading alternative bank data
If you prefer to provide bank statements from a more representative period rather than using Open Banking, you may be able to upload PDF statements from a different 3-month window. Contact us to request this — it may require re-consenting to a new Open Banking connection at a different date, or uploading statements manually.
Realistic expectations
Providing context about an unusual period helps us assess your application more accurately. It does not guarantee approval or a higher offer — the decision will still reflect your overall financial position and our assessment of your ability to repay. However, a clear and plausible explanation of an anomalous period is taken into account.
See also: Can I submit additional information to support my application?, How bank data affects your decision, How seasonality is treated in affordability.