Small Business Acquisition Underwriting Model (SBA 7(a)-Style)

The Small Business Acquisition Underwriting Model lets you underwrite a search-fund or owner-operator acquisition the way the lender financing it will. Enter the target’s last-twelve-months revenue, SDE margin, growth and a market new-owner salary, then set the deal: purchase price, closing costs, equity injection, an optional seller note, and the SBA 7(a) rate and term. Everything downstream calculates itself.

What you get is a complete, transparent underwriting workbook. A full 10-year monthly amortization schedule handles the SBA loan and the optional seller note, including an interest-only standby period. Five years of projections flow through to the debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR) the lender uses to decide whether the deal funds at all, with a clear PASS or REVIEW flag against a 1.25x threshold. A sources-and-uses block proves the deal balances to the cent, and the Returns sheet summarises both lender metrics (DSCR by year) and buyer metrics (cash-on-cash, equity multiple, IRR).

The main highlights: an SBA-style structure with a seller-note lever; a proper monthly amortization engine rather than an annual approximation; DSCR and returns computed side by side; and a two-way sensitivity grid showing Year-1 DSCR across purchase multiples and interest rates, so you can see how much room the deal has before it breaks.

How to work with it: only the blue input cells are yours to change, and the yellow-filled cells are the key deal drivers. Black and green cells are formulas. A realistic worked example is preloaded (a 1.0m purchase on 300k SDE), and the profit ties to the equity cash flow exactly, so you can trace the logic before trusting it.

Why you need it: business acquisitions live or die on debt serviceability, and a locked black-box template will not let you check the number that matters. This one ships fully unlocked with every formula visible, built-in integrity checks, and an honest cover sheet that discloses each assumption. Currency-agnostic. For analysis only, not lending or investment advice.

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