A business debt schedule lists every loan, line, lease, card and merchant cash advance the business carries, with balance, payment, frequency, end date, collateral and guarantee for each. Partners use it to measure existing payments against income. Ivyview Lenders, a small-business funding broker in Greenville, North Carolina, provides the columns, a step-by-step method and a template header.
| What it is | One table of every business debt and committed payment |
|---|---|
| Who uses it | Lending partners, your accountant and you |
| Include | Loans, lines, equipment loans and leases, vehicle loans, business cards, merchant cash advances, tax payment plans |
| Key figure | Total monthly debt payments |
What a debt schedule is for
Bank statements show money leaving the account; a debt schedule explains it. Partners use it to:
- Add up the business's existing payments for a debt service coverage calculation. The DSCR formula guide walks through it, and what lenders look for covers the rest of the review.
- Match each debit on your statements to a known agreement, so nothing looks undisclosed.
- Compare your list with public lien records. Our UCC search guide shows how to pull those for a North Carolina business.
- See when obligations end, since a loan with a few payments left matters differently from one just started.
What to include
- Term loans and SBA loans, whoever the lender
- Lines of credit: both the limit and the current balance
- Equipment loans and equipment leases
- Vehicle loans in the business's name
- Business credit cards, including balances you pay in full each month
- Merchant cash advances. An advance is not a loan, but its remittances are a committed outflow, so list the remaining payback
- Loans from owners, family or a seller, if the business is repaying them
- Payment plans for past-due taxes
If you pay a business expense from a personal card or a personal loan, list it separately and label it. Partners prefer to hear about it from you.
The columns
| Column | What to enter | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Creditor or funder | The name on the agreement | The agreement or statement |
| Type | Term loan, line, lease, card, merchant cash advance | The agreement |
| Date opened | The funding or signing date | The agreement |
| Original amount or limit | The amount funded, or the line or card limit | The agreement |
| Current balance | Principal owed today; for an advance, the remaining payback | The latest statement or a payoff request |
| Payment and frequency | The amount and how often: monthly, weekly, daily | Statements and bank debits |
| Monthly equivalent | The payment converted to a monthly figure | Your calculation (next section) |
| Maturity or expected end | The final payment date, or an estimate for an advance | The agreement |
| Rate or factor rate | As stated in the agreement | The agreement |
| Collateral | What secures it, or “none stated” | The agreement and any UCC filing |
| Personal guarantee | Yes or no, and who signed | The agreement |
| Status | Current or past due | Your records |
Step by step
- Gather the last few months of business bank statements and every agreement you have signed.
- Highlight every recurring debit on the statements. Each one should belong to a row.
- Create a row for each obligation and fill the columns from the agreement and the latest statement.
- Convert each payment to a monthly equivalent so different schedules can be added together.
- Total the current balances and the monthly equivalents.
- Check the total balance against the liabilities on your balance sheet. A gap usually means a missing row.
- Date the schedule. Partners want it current, so update it before each request.
Converting payments to a monthly figure
Payments on different schedules can't be added until they share a period. The usual conversions:
- Weekly: weekly payment × 52 ÷ 12
- Every two weeks: payment × 26 ÷ 12
- Daily on business days: daily payment × the number of debit days in a typical month under your agreement. Use the agreement's definition of a business day rather than a guess.
- A share of sales: use the average of the last few months' actual remittances, and note that it varies
Keep the original payment and frequency in their own columns; the monthly equivalent is for adding up, not a replacement.
A template header to copy
Paste this line into the first row of a spreadsheet, and the cells will split into columns if you use the spreadsheet's text-to-columns or CSV import with a comma separator:
Creditor, Type, Date opened, Original amount or limit, Current balance, Payment, Frequency, Monthly equivalent, Maturity or expected end, Rate or factor rate, Collateral, Personal guarantee, Status
Add a total row at the bottom for the current balance and monthly equivalent columns. Some partners have their own form; if one asks for it, your spreadsheet makes filling it in quick. If a form asks for something your schedule lacks, such as the original term, add a column rather than a note, so the next version has it.
Common mistakes
- Leaving off a merchant cash advance because it isn't a loan. The debits are on the statements either way.
- Listing a line of credit's limit but not its balance, or the other way round.
- Using original amounts instead of current balances.
- Forgetting equipment leases, which are obligations even if the business doesn't own the equipment.
- Rounding payments heavily. Use the exact amount debited, so the schedule ties to the statements.
- Letting the schedule go stale between requests.
Where Ivyview Lenders fits
A complete debt schedule is one of the most useful things you can bring to a first conversation with us. It also feeds the rest of your preparation in our North Carolina loan checklist.
By Ivyview Lenders · Updated