Questions and answers

No. LoanPrep isn't a lender, and nothing you enter goes to one. It shows you how a lender is likely to see your business, so you can fix problems and have answers ready before you apply wherever you choose.

No. We don't check your credit or anyone else's.

Checks are free while LoanPrep is in private beta. See pricing.

During the beta, LoanPrep is open to invited owners. If you don't have a code, request early access and we'll email you one when there's a place.

Lines of credit, working capital loans, equipment loans, real estate purchases, business acquisitions, debt refinancing, SBA 7(a) and SBA 504. You can check several together, like a line of credit and a building purchase.

Two years of business and personal tax returns, a recent profit and loss statement and balance sheet, and, for each owner with 20% or more, a personal financial statement (one together for married owners). If you don't have a list of business debts or a personal financial statement, you can fill them in as you go. The full list

Yes. You can type in just the lines we need, and we show you where each one is on the form. You'll get a quick check of your numbers. For a review that mirrors a bank's, we need the documents, because a bank works from the complete returns.

Type that year in from your own records instead: the business's year-end profit and loss statement, and each owner's W-2s and other income. We estimate that year's personal taxes at the share of income they were on the owner's latest filed return. Your results will say a lender will ask for the return once it's filed, or the extension until then.

Yes. Upload the business's year-end profit and loss statements and balance sheets, and we'll run your check on them. A lender will still ask for the business's tax returns and compare them with the statements, and your results will say so.

Yes. If the business doesn't have a full year of tax returns yet, say so on the tax returns step and enter what you expect for its first 12 months open: sales, costs and the owners' pay. The check tests your loan against that projection and each owner's own tax returns, and shows how far sales could fall before the payments aren't covered. It also looks at what lenders weigh for a new business: the owners' experience in the line of business, what the sales figure is based on, and for an SBA 7(a), SBA's minimum of 10% of the cost to open from the owners' own cash.

Lenders, and the SBA, usually ask each owner with 20% or more to personally guarantee the loan. So they look at those owners' income, debts and savings too, and so do we.

Your underwriting calculations are done by our proprietary formula, which mirrors a traditional bank's underwriting process and follows published rules like the SBA's. It works the same way every time. Still, each lender has its own policy, and a lender will know things we don't, like your history with them. Treat your results as a well-informed estimate, not a decision.

It's the cash your business generates in a year divided by the loan payments due that year. At 1.25x, you have $1.25 for every $1.00 of payments. Most lenders want at least that for a conventional loan, and SBA loans need at least 1.15x (1.25x when a 7(a) buys a business or a co-owner's share), for two years in a row.

Today's Prime rate plus 2% for lines of credit, and today's 10-year Treasury rate plus 2% for other loans. For an SBA 504, the CDC's share uses the latest published 504 rate. Your lender's quote will differ.

No other user can. Social Security numbers, EINs and account numbers are blacked out before your files are read, and none of your documents or answers are kept unless you sign in to save your work. How we protect your data

If you don't sign in, we don't keep them at all. If you sign in to save your work, each document is deleted automatically 30 days after you send it, and you can delete it sooner.