If your sales have dropped but the daily debit has not, your agreement may already give you the right to fix it. Here is how reconciliation works and how to ask for it.
Last updated October 20, 2026 · Expert review by Kate Morgan, debt relief specialist (20+ years)
MCA reconciliation is a contractual right, found in many merchant cash advance agreements, to have your fixed daily or weekly payment adjusted so it matches the agreed percentage of your actual sales. If revenue drops, a reconciliation should lower the payment; if the funder collected more than the agreed share, it may owe you a credit or refund. It is usually the fastest legitimate way to reduce MCA payments, because the funder has already agreed to it in the contract.
A merchant cash advance is structured as a purchase of a share of your future sales, the specified percentage, rather than a loan. Most funders estimate that share as a fixed daily or weekly debit for convenience.
The reconciliation clause is the safety valve. It lets you show the funder your actual sales and have the debit trued up to the agreed percentage. Courts in New York, where many MCA agreements are governed, have treated a working reconciliation provision as one of the signs that an agreement is a true sale rather than a loan.
Your agreement buys 12% of receivables and estimates them at $90,000 a month, so the debit is set at about $498 per business day.
Sales fall to $60,000 a month. Twelve percent of that is $7,200, or about $332 per business day. A reconciliation should bring the debit down by roughly $166 a day, about $3,600 a month.
If the funder ignores or refuses a valid request, that can matter later in a dispute. Talk to an attorney before you take any unilateral step such as stopping debits.
Reconciliation only helps when sales have actually dropped. If revenue is steady but the payment is simply too high, or you have several advances stacked on one account, look at restructuring, settlement or all payment relief options.
A provision that lets the merchant have fixed daily or weekly payments adjusted to match the agreed percentage of actual sales, so payments fall when revenue falls.
Send a written request to the address in your agreement, reference the reconciliation clause and attach recent bank and card processing statements showing your actual sales.
Many do, because it supports treating the advance as a purchase of receivables rather than a loan. Some agreements make it discretionary, and some omit it. Read yours.
If the clause is mandatory and you meet its conditions, a refusal may be a breach worth raising with an attorney. If it is discretionary, the funder has more room to say no.
Some clauses provide a credit or refund if the funder collected more than the agreed percentage of your sales. Check the wording.
Send it for a free review. We will connect you with a specialist who can read it with you.
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