Ten to fifteen business days from a complete data room is our standard. The variable that actually moves your date is not the analysis — it is how fast the data room fills.
For most projects, ten to fifteen business days from the point the data room is complete. That is a working standard, not a marketing number, and the phrase that matters in it is from the point the data room is complete. The analysis is a known quantity; the schedule risk lives almost entirely in how quickly the sponsor can produce documents.
We send the information request the day the engagement is signed for exactly that reason. Files that deliver on time are the ones where the sponsor returns the request within a few days. Files that slip are almost never waiting on the analyst.
| Phase | Typical span | What is actually happening |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping and quote | 1 business day | Understanding the project, the program and the lender's condition; a fixed written fee and a delivery date. |
| Data request | Sponsor-driven | Financials, site information, cost basis, contracts, permits, sponsor background. This is the schedule. |
| Market and technical work | 4–7 business days | Trade area definition, demand build, competitive inspection, primary interviews, technical review of the plan and cost basis. |
| Financial modelling | 2–4 business days | Revenue build tied to the market findings, operating costs, capital structure, coverage and sensitivity. |
| Review and sign-off | 1–2 business days | Internal review against the program's requirements, principal review, and the stated determination. |
These overlap in practice — modelling begins while primary market work is still in the field — which is how the total lands inside a fortnight rather than the sum of the parts.
Sometimes, and we will tell you before you engage rather than after. Rush schedules work by reallocating senior analyst time, not by cutting the analysis, so they carry a premium and they are not available for every asset class. What cannot be compressed is primary research in a market where the published data does not exist; interviews and inspections take the time they take.
What genuinely accelerates a file is preparation. A complete data room on day one, a single decision-maker on the sponsor side, a settled scope, and direct access to the lender's underwriter for scope questions will do more for your date than any amount of pressure applied at the end.
Work backwards from the credit committee date, not forwards from today. Lenders generally want the third-party reports in hand before the file goes to committee, and an appraisal is often running on a parallel track with its own schedule. Commissioning the study when the loan application goes in — rather than when the condition list arrives — is the single cheapest way to protect a closing date.
A feasibility study is not a business plan and not a market report. It is a structured credit document whose job is to answer one question: can this project generate enough cash flow, with enough margin, to service the proposed debt under a range of adverse conditions? For a commercial or business project, that means the analyst must build the revenue model from the ground up, reconstruct the full cost structure, and stress both sides of the income statement before a coverage ratio can be stated with any confidence.
Scoping that work accurately at the outset is what allows Wert-Berater to quote a fixed fee within one business day and commit to a 10-to-15-business-day delivery window from a complete data room.
The demand side of a feasibility study is where most errors originate, because analysts sometimes substitute published projections for primary counting work. For a commercial or business project, demand is built from the bottom up using sources that can be verified independently by a reviewing agency or credit officer.
Population and household data come from Census Bureau decennial counts and American Community Survey estimates, cross-referenced against state demographer projections where those are published. Employment and wage data are drawn from Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages files, which are public and auditable. For projects with a physical trade area, traffic volume data from state department of transportation counts establish the realistic customer universe. Industry-specific demand is calibrated against trade association benchmarks and IBISWorld sector reports, neither of which the analyst controls or adjusts.
Competitive supply work is done by direct enumeration: licensing registries, secretary of state filings, certificate-of-occupancy records, and field verification where the project geography is small enough to permit it. Announced but not yet open competitors are identified through utility interconnection queues, building permit databases and local planning commission agendas. Counting announced supply separately from operating supply is not optional — a lender who sees only existing competition is looking at an incomplete picture. Every source is cited in the narrative so a reviewer can trace every number back to its origin.
Coverage ratios are sensitive to a small number of inputs. Identifying those inputs early, building them transparently into the model, and then stressing each one independently is the analytical work that takes the most time — and the work that is most often compressed when a study is rushed. For a commercial or business project, the inputs that move the ratio most are typically the following.
Because the Wert-Berater model is a fully linked Excel workbook, a reviewer can change any of these inputs directly and watch every downstream ratio recalculate in real time.
The agency or lender receiving the study determines which coverage standards apply, and those standards shape both the analytical depth required and the time needed to produce a defensible report.
SBA engagements prepared to SOP 50 10 8 must demonstrate operating coverage of at least 1.15x and global coverage of at least 1.00x. The global coverage calculation requires the analyst to consolidate all business and personal cash flows of the principals, which adds a data-gathering step that does not exist in a conventional engagement. SBA reviewers also expect the analyst to address business type, management experience and market position explicitly — a study that covers only the numbers will not satisfy a 7(a) or 504 underwriter.
USDA engagements under RD Staff Instruction 5001 apply across Business & Industry, Community Facilities, REAP and Value-Added Producer Grant programs. Each program has its own eligible borrower criteria, coverage expectations and narrative requirements. A Business & Industry study for a rural manufacturer has different documentation demands than a Community Facilities study for a nonprofit healthcare provider, even if the financial modeling methodology is identical.
Conventional lenders typically require 1.20x coverage and have more flexibility on narrative format, but they expect the sensitivity analysis to be explicit and the competitive supply work to be current. A study prepared for one lender may need supplemental work before it satisfies a second lender with different standards — a reason to clarify the intended use before the engagement begins.
The fee for a Wert-Berater feasibility study is fixed, quoted in writing within one business day of the initial inquiry, and not contingent on the finding. A study that concludes the project is not feasible costs the same as one that concludes it is. That structure is the only one consistent with a fiduciary duty that runs to the lender and the reviewing agency rather than to the borrower.
The delivery clock starts when the data room is complete — not when the engagement is signed. A complete data room means the analyst has everything needed to build the model without returning to the client for missing items: historical financials, proposed debt terms, site or lease information, management résumés, and any existing market studies or appraisals. Incomplete submissions are the single most common cause of timeline extension, and they are entirely within the borrower's control.
Standard delivery is 10 to 15 business days from a complete data room. Rush delivery is available and is discussed at the time of engagement. Once the report is issued, the bound narrative and the fully linked Excel workbook are published to a secure client portal. The model remains live: if a lender wants to test a different amortization period or a lower revenue assumption, the workbook recalculates every ratio without requiring a revised report. That capability is particularly useful during underwriting, when deal terms are still being negotiated and the lender needs to understand the margin of safety under multiple structures.