What is a merchant cash advance and how does one work? These are great questions and a simple answer is this, a merchant cash advance is a sale of future receivables. Many years ago you had to have a merchant processing account to be eligible for a merchant cash advance but that has changed. Now, as long as you have a business bank account and you have made deposits into that account over the last 4 months you too can be approved for a merchant cash advance. Most lenders do require a minimum of $10,000 deposited into your account each month and your loan size will be calculated by these deposits as well. This is how the lenders determines how much you can pay back and how fast you can back it back.