Crownmark Loans, a small-business funding broker in Salisbury, North Carolina, offers a free calculator for estimating what a business term loan would cost. Enter the amount, annual rate and term; it returns the monthly payment, total interest and total repaid for a fully amortizing loan. This page explains each input, the results, and what the calculator leaves out.
What to enter
- Amount: the sum you would receive, before any fees
- Annual rate: the interest rate stated in the quote, as a yearly percentage
- Term: the number of months until the last payment
Use figures from an actual written quote if you have one. If not, try several rates and terms to see how the payment moves; do not treat any figure you enter as an offer.
The three results
| Result | What it means |
|---|---|
| Monthly payment | The fixed amount due each month on a fully amortizing loan |
| Total interest | Everything paid above the amount borrowed, from interest alone |
| Total repaid | The amount borrowed plus total interest |
A longer term lowers the monthly payment but raises total interest. Shorten the term and the trade reverses: a bigger payment, less interest overall. Seeing both side by side is the point of the tool.
Costs this tool cannot see
- Origination, documentation or other fees, which raise the true cost
- Balloon payments, interest-only periods and skipped-payment schedules
- Weekly or daily payment schedules
- Merchant cash advances, which use a factor rate and are not loans
- Equipment down payments and leases
To include an upfront fee by hand, subtract it from the amount you will actually receive and compare that net figure with the total repaid. The difference is your real cost of borrowing.
Using it for a contractor's decision
Rowan County had 385 construction employers in 2023, and 239 of them had fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns 2023). For a small contractor, the useful test is whether the monthly payment fits within the margin of the work the loan supports. Work out by hand how many jobs per month must cover the payment, and whether the leanest months in your own records could still carry it.
For more on contractor cash flow, see contractor financing in Salisbury, NC. For how term loans are structured, including balloons and early payoff, see the term loan page.
Other guides
The rest of our guides are on the resources page.
By Crownmark Loans ยท Updated
