Eighteen questions on what your next loan will cost you.
When a lender prices credit, they are pricing uncertainty. What they cannot verify, they charge for: a wider rate, a lower advance, tighter conditions, a personal guarantee they will not release. Most of what makes a lender uncertain is fixable, and most of it is fixable before you ever walk in.
This walks the six things a credit committee actually weighs. You answer, you see how a lender reads that answer, and at the end you get a score, an indicative read on what your position is doing to your pricing, and the two areas where the highest-leverage work sits.
You do not need to speak bank. If a term is unfamiliar, the tool explains it as you go.
It is not anonymous. Your responses are handled under our Privacy Policy. If the read surfaces something worth a conversation, someone from TEOL may follow up. If you choose not to engage, you may receive occasional insights from TEOL. Every message includes a one-click unsubscribe.
Twelve to fifteen minutes. You can go back at any point.
Before you begin
How much cash the business produces, how reliably, and how much of that they can verify. After that: how much debt it already carries relative to profit, what they could take as security, and how much they will have to chase you for information.
A condition attached to a loan, such as keeping debt below a set multiple of profit or maintaining a minimum cash balance. Breaching one does not usually mean immediate repayment, but it gives the lender rights and moves the conversation onto their terms.
Usually by negotiating a release tied to performance milestones at the point the facility is agreed, rather than asking afterwards. Lenders are far more willing to write a release path into a new facility than to remove a guarantee that is already in place.
Profit divided by everything you are committed to paying: loan payments, leases and similar fixed commitments. Lenders generally want it comfortably above 1, because at 1 the business covers its commitments with nothing left over.
Thirteen weeks is the standard horizon for seeing a cash problem far enough ahead to do something about it. A lender asking for one is usually asking whether you can see round the corner, not just whether the number is accurate.
A written right for the owners to put money into the business and fix a breached loan condition, rather than the breach triggering the lender's rights. Having one agreed in advance is materially better than negotiating under pressure.
Reduce what the lender cannot verify. Pricing reflects uncertainty, so documented cash flow, reliable reporting, clear security and proactive communication all reduce the premium. Most of that is preparation rather than negotiation.
A few of the questions and inputs you will see. Your answers and results stay in the diagnostic.
Use the Lender Readiness Check to make a directional read of your business. This is not a lender quote, valuation opinion or commissioned diligence report.
Provide your details and work through 18 questions across six areas. Allow about 15 minutes; your pace may vary.
Choose the answer that describes your current position. The commentary explains how a lender could read your answers in the section summaries and final read.
Read readiness scores and an indicative pricing-impact range. The output is indicative, not a formal quote or verified diligence opinion.
Review the recommended actions where gaps qualify. If no areas need remediation, maintain the evidence and revisit the read when your circumstances change.
Choose the next question you want to examine:
The Lender Readiness Check applies a six-dimension framework measuring how an institutional credit committee may read the business. The methodology is calibrated to general market data and TEOL's frameworks. Results are general guidance, not advice, and can contain errors.
Cash Flow Defensibility measures EBITDA defensibility through the credit committee lens including documentation discipline applied to add-backs and normalizations.
Coverage and Leverage Position measures current Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio, Senior Leverage, and Total Leverage against institutional thresholds plus headroom against existing covenants.
Cash Visibility and Treasury Discipline measures forward cash visibility maturity, treasury controls, authority matrix, and scenario modeling capability.
Collateral and Security Position measures asset coverage including accounts receivable quality, aging discipline, inventory quality, and fixed asset coverage.
Reporting and Covenant Compliance Capability measures lender-grade reporting cadence including monthly close timing, compliance certificate discipline, and budgeting and variance reporting.
Sponsor and Guarantee Architecture measures equity sponsorship depth, equity cure availability, personal guarantee structure, and capital partner relationship documentation.
Each dimension scored 0 to 100 based on responses to three questions per dimension (18 questions total). Composite score maps to band placement with estimated pricing impact: Significant Repricing Risk (0–25, estimated +150 to 300bps), Pricing Degradation Expected (26–50, estimated +75 to 150bps), Institutional Pricing (51–75, baseline pricing), Pricing Improvement Position (76–100, estimated -25 to -100bps).
The Pricing Impact Estimate presents an indicative basis-point range for the position described in your answers, not a lender quote. The six per-area pricing effects overlap and should not be added to the overall range. Counterparty reads show what different lenders might ask about, not how any one lender will price or structure your facility. Recommended actions identify qualifying gaps, or maintenance work if no area falls below standard.
Your answers are self-reported. A lender will price and structure credit using your supporting records, the facility terms and its own underwriting.
Sector multiples, adjustment ranges and stress factors in this tool are TEOL's illustrative calibrations, based on general market observation and TEOL's frameworks. They are not drawn from a single dataset and do not predict any specific outcome.