ExitAdviser

Industry Guides

CPA Firm Guide Dental Practice Guide 409A Valuation Guide HVAC Guide Legal Firm Guide Manufacturing Guide Medical Practice Guide Optometry Guide Orthodontist Guide Plumbing Guide Veterinary Guide

Financing Guides

A/R Aging Report Guide 1031 Exchange Guide LOC Guide SBA 7(a) Guide SBA 504 Guide Section 179 Guide

Articles

Selling a Business

Setting an Asking Price Using a Business Broker Selling a Business During Divorce Selling a Failing Business Transferring Intellectual Property Preparing an Online Business for Sale Preparing for Sale, Two Years Out Selling a Business Quickly Writing a Selling Memorandum Selling a Business Step by Step Selling a Business With Debt Changes Worth Making Before Selling

Valuation

What Is Enterprise Value Seller's Discretionary Earnings Valuing a Business Accurately

Buying & Financing

Financing an Acquisition Writing a Financial Plan

Modelling & Operations

Building a Business Model Risk Management for a Small Business

Templates

Business Templates

Client Service Agreement Independent Contractor Agreement Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)LLC Operating Agreement Employment Agreement Professional Invoice Template Business Loan Agreement Buy-Sell Agreement Letter of Intent (LOI)Partnership Agreement

ExitAdviser ^[beta]

United States only. These are US federal program under SOP 50 10 8, priced off two different US benchmarks: SBA 7(a) and Express track the WSJ Prime Rate plus a spread, while the 504 debenture prices off US Treasury yields when it sells, not when you sign.

Tax, Caps, fees, eligibility and the Section 179 limits all come from US statute and change with it. Outside the US the arithmetic still holds; the program, benchmarks and limits do not.

Current as of August 2026. Check the SOP before relying on a figure.

— SBA financing

Five programs, and the one you actually want

Most SBA content explains one program at a time, which is not the question anyone arrives with. Choosing the wrong program costs more than any mistake you can make inside the right one, so the comparison comes first here and the calculators come after it.

Three things worth knowing before you scroll: 7(a) and 504 answer different questions rather than competing, Express is not always the expensive option, and the Working Capital Pilot has an expiry date.

All figures current as of August 2026

Which program

Four of these sit inside 7(a) and share its rate ceilings. Since 4 July 2026 a 7(a) and a 504 can also stack to $10,000,000 on one deal. 504 does not — it is a bank loan plus a fixed-rate debenture plus your equity, priced when the bond sells rather than off a base rate, and it is for fixed assets only.

Standard 7(a)The defaultSBA ExpressFastCAPLinesRevolving504Fixed assetsWorking Capital PilotPilot

Maximum$5,000,000$500,000$5,000,000$5,000,000 debenture$5,000,000

SBA guaranty75–85%50%75–85%Debenture, not a guaranty85% / 75%

Maximum termTo 25 yearsTo 25 years, 7 revolving10 years, 5 for Builders10, 20 or 25 years60 months

SpeedSBA review36 hoursAsset-based underwritingCDC plus bankDepends on lender authority

Rate ceiling+3.00 above $350K+4.50 above $50KSame as 7(a)Fixed at debenture saleSame as 7(a)

Best forAcquisitions, real estate, larger equipment. The lowest ceiling above $350,000.Working capital and smaller equipment when the timeline is the binding constraint.Receivables, inventory, seasonal builds and contract performance. Four subprogram.Owner-occupied real estate and long-lived equipment. Two loans and your equity, not one loan.Monitored lines where the fee should follow usage. Ends 31 July 2027.

The rate ceilings cross twice

Express has two tiers and standard 7(a) has four, so the received wisdom that you pay more for speed is only true above $350,000. Between $50,001 and $250,000 the Express ceiling is a point and a half lower. CAPLines and the Working Capital Pilot use the standard tiers.

Loan sizeExpressStandardAt a 6.75% base

$50,000 and under+6.50+6.5013.25%

$50,001 to $250,000+4.50+6.0011.25% / 12.75%

$250,001 to $350,000+4.50+4.5011.25%

Above $350,000+4.50+3.0011.25% / 9.75%

Spreads are over the base rate. WSJ Prime was 6.75% as of August 2026 and moves with the FOMC. These are maximums rather than quotes, and maturity stopped affecting them in 2022.

The pilot has an end date

The 7(a) Working Capital Pilot is authorised through 31 July 2027 unless extended or made permanent. Existing loans are not unwound when a pilot lapses, but renewals, increases and new facilities depend on it continuing. Ask your lender what happens to yours if it does not.

What changed, and when

Five changes since the start of 2025 have made a great deal of published SBA advice wrong, including advice from people who ought to know. If something you read predates these dates, check it. Newest first.

4 July 2026

The 7(a) and 504 limits decoupled

A borrower's outstanding 7(a) balance no longer reduces what is available under 504, so an eligible borrower can hold up to $5,000,000 of each. First increase in the cumulative cap since 2010. Policy Notice 5000-879058.

Anything saying SBA exposure is capped at $5,000,000 across both program is now wrong.

1 March 2026

Ownership narrowed to US citizens and nationals

100 percent of direct and indirect owners must be US citizens or US nationals with principal residence in the United States, its territories or possessions. Lawful permanent residents, previously eligible, can no longer hold any interest. Policy Notice 5000-876441.

Any green-card ownership anywhere in the chain now makes a business ineligible. Check the whole structure before spending on appraisals.

1 June 2025

SOP 50 10 8 rewrote the underwriting rules

Collateral required on essentially every loan above $50,000, down from $500,000. A 10 percent equity injection restored for start-ups and changes of ownership. Minimum business credit score raised.

Material written before mid-2025 is unreliable on collateral, injection and credit standards.

1 June 2025

Seller note standby went to the life of the loan

A seller note counting toward the equity injection must be on full standby for the entire SBA loan term, not 24 months, and can cover no more than half the injection.

Any source still citing a 24-month standby is out of date, and relying on it leaves a buyer short at closing.

19 January 2025

100 percent bonus depreciation became permanent

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, qualifying property acquired after this date is fully deductible in year one. It had been scheduled to phase down to 20 percent by 2026. Not an SBA rule, but an act of Congress that changes how these deals are structured.

It widened the gap between Class V and Class VII in a purchase price allocation to the widest it has been.

One more with an expiry rather than a start date

The 7(a) Working Capital Pilot is authorised through 31 July 2027 unless extended or made permanent. Existing loans are not unwound if a pilot lapses, but renewals, increases and new facilities depend on it continuing.

Start here: 7(a), 504, or both

Most deals land in one of these four. 7(a) and 504 are not competing answers to the same question — 504 exists for owner-occupied real estate and long-lived equipment, and plenty of transactions use both at once, with 504 against the property and 7(a) against everything else.

CalculatorSBA 7(a)The default program. Payment, ceiling by loan size, guaranty fee and coverage on a standard 7(a).$5M max75–85%To 25 yearsOpen →CalculatorSBA 504The two-loan structure: a bank first mortgage, a CDC debenture behind it, and your equity injection.Fixed assets50 / 40 / 10Fixed rateOpen →Calculator7(a) vs 504 vs conventionalThe same purchase under all three, side by side. The answer changes with what you are buying more than with your credit.Three waysSame moneyTotal costOpen →Calculator7(a) plus 504 combinedSince 4 July 2026 the two program stack: up to $5,000,000 of 7(a) alongside up to $5,000,000 of 504, for $10,000,000 of SBA-backed financing on one deal. 504 against the real estate and long-lived equipment, 7(a) for everything else.$10M combinedNew ruleSequencing mattersOpen →

Working capital and the fast track

CalculatorSBA ExpressPrices an Express loan against a standard 7(a) at both ceilings, so you can see what the thirty-six hour answer costs, or saves.$500K max50% guarantyTerm or revolvingOpen →CalculatorCAPLinesBuilds the borrowing base from eligible receivables and inventory, then shows which constraint is binding and what the line costs to carry.$5M maxFour typesAsset-basedOpen →CalculatorWorking Capital PilotPrices the annual guaranty fee against a CAPLine's upfront one. If you only need the line for part of the year, that is where the difference sits.$5M max60 monthsPilotOpen →

New since 4 July 2026: the two program stack

The SBA decoupled 7(a) and 504 for loan-limit purposes under Policy Notice 5000-879058, announced 18 May 2026 and effective 4 July 2026. A borrower's outstanding 7(a) balance no longer reduces what is available under 504, so an eligible borrower can hold up to $5,000,000 of 7(a) alongside up to $5,000,000 of 504 — $10,000,000 of SBA-backed financing where the cumulative ceiling had been $5,000,000 since 2010. It applies to loans receiving an SBA loan number on or after that date.

What the headline leaves out

There is no $10,000,000 SBA loan. There are two loans from two program that can now coexist at full size, and four things did not change. The individual caps are the same — $5,000,000 per 7(a), and a 504 debenture of $5,000,000, or $5,500,000 for qualifying manufacturers. The 7(a) is expected to be approved first. Maximum SBA-guaranteed exposure to one borrower and its affiliates stays at $3,750,000, or $4,750,000 on a qualifying export loan, which is a different measure from the loan amount and is unchanged by this rule. And 504 still cannot fund goodwill, inventory or working capital, so a goodwill-heavy service business is no better off than it was.

How a 504 is priced

A 504 does not mark up a base rate. The CDC debenture is fixed when the bond sells, on a monthly pricing calendar, at a Treasury yield plus an increment covering CDC and SBA servicing. As at 9 July 2026 that was 6.2 percent on the twenty-year term and 6.172 percent on the twenty-five. Twenty and twenty-five year debentures price every month; ten-year debentures sell only in odd-numbered months.

Personal financial statement

Form 413 is not a program and not a working capital question. It is asked for on every application, from every owner of twenty percent or more and from proposed guarantors, whichever program you are in. Owners fill it in as paperwork; a lender reads it to work out what happens when the business assets do not cover the loan.

CalculatorPersonal financial statement analyzerSBA Form 413 in full, then the test a lender runs on it: business assets at SBA's discounted recovery values, and whether your personal real estate ends up in the deal.Form 413Net worthFully secured25% testOpen →

Why it decides more than it looks like it does

Under SOP 50 10 8, effective 1 June 2025 collateral is required on essentially every loan above $50,000, and where business assets fall short the lender takes available equity in personal real estate. A property with equity below 25 percent of its fair market value is not required, and the lender has to substantiate that equity from something other than this form. Most owners discover which side of that line they are on about three weeks before closing.

Also free on this site

CalculatorCommercial mortgagePayment, amortization and balloon on a commercial property loan.FreeOpen →

Guides

One per program, written to be read rather than skimmed for a number. Each states what it does not model and dates every figure it quotes, because SBA terms move with each SOP revision and the base rate moves with the FOMC.

GuideSBA 7(a)The default program end to end: eligibility, what the money can and cannot do, ceilings by loan size, and what SOP 50 10 8 changed in June 2025.Read →GuideSBA 504Why a 504 is two loans and your equity rather than one loan, how the debenture prices on a monthly calendar, and the occupancy rule that decides eligibility.Read →GuideSBA ExpressWhere the two program cross, what delegated authority means for you, and when Express is the wrong answer.Read →GuideSBA CAPLinesThe four types, how a borrowing base is really built, and the seasonal clean-up rule that decides whether you qualify at all.Read →

Two rules that apply across all of them

Collateral is not a decline reason on its own

A lender cannot decline an otherwise eligible loan solely because it is under-collateralised. Most acquisitions are under-secured once goodwill is valued at nothing, which is expected rather than disqualifying. If you are told a file fails on collateral alone, that is lender policy talking rather than the SOP.

The rulebook changed in 2025

SOP 50 10 8, effective 1 June 2025 tightened underwriting across the program: collateral is now required on essentially every loan above $50,000, down from a $500,000 threshold, a ten percent equity injection returned for start-ups and changes of ownership, and the minimum business credit score rose. Material written before mid-2025 is unreliable on all three points.