The one number that approves your loan.
Before a bank funds your business purchase, it asks a single question: after you pay yourself, does the business throw off enough cash to cover the loan — with room to spare? That ratio is the DSCR, and lenders want it at about 1.25 times or better. Set the deal below and watch the loan officer decide in real time. The math is real; the verdict is illustrative.
The slider above is a teaching model. On a real file the coverage ratio is argued over: which earnings are recurring, which add-backs survive, what the owner actually has to be paid, and whether the seller's books support any of it. The Institute sells that work to third parties as an engagement.
Lenders order credit write-ups and spreads, coverage recomputed from source documents, SBA eligibility and SOP review, borrowing base and collateral verification, covenant testing, and portfolio file review. Buyers, sellers and their lenders order an independent quality of earnings report: revenue proved to deposits, every add-back tested, and working capital measured against a normal level rather than the closing balance. Every report is reviewed by a US CPA, every fee is quoted in writing before work begins, and no fee is contingent on the credit decision or on the deal closing.