This free estimator from Silvershore Funding Group, a small-business funding broker in Flagstaff, Arizona, turns a merchant cash advance offer into a total to be remitted, a dollar cost and an estimated number of business days to remit, based on the holdback percentage and your average daily card sales. A merchant cash advance is not a loan. Results are arithmetic only.
What the estimator works out
- Total payback: the advance amount multiplied by the factor rate written in the offer. This is the total the funder will collect.
- Cost of the advance: the total minus the advance amount.
- Estimated time to remit: the total divided by what the holdback takes on an average day, which is your average daily card sales multiplied by the holdback percentage.
The holdback sets the timeline, not the cost
On a percentage-based advance, the total to be remitted is fixed when you sign. The holdback percentage decides only how fast it is collected. Hypothetical figures, not an offer: if the agreement's total to remit were $9,000 and the holdback took $150 on an average business day, remittance would run about 60 business days. If sales dipped so that only $100 a day were taken, the same total would take about 90 business days.
That is the point of a holdback: slow days take less. It also means a fixed total collected quickly is a more expensive use of money, per month, than the same total collected slowly. Compare offers on the total and the likely time to remit together, never on the factor rate alone.
Which number goes in which box
- Advance amount: the purchase price in the offer. If fees are deducted before funds reach you, note what you will actually receive as well.
- Factor rate: exactly as written in the funder's offer.
- Holdback: the percentage of daily card sales the funder will take.
- Average daily card sales: from your recent processing statements, on business days.
If the offer uses fixed debits
Many advances replace the percentage with a fixed daily or weekly debit. The holdback boxes then do not apply. Divide the total to be remitted by the debit amount to get the number of debits, and check whether the agreement allows the debit to be reconciled to your actual receipts if sales fall.
What the estimate leaves out
- fees deducted from the advance, which reduce what you receive but not what you remit;
- days with no card sales, holidays and calendar days versus business days;
- reconciliation adjustments, early payoff terms and default provisions;
- any other advance already collecting from the same receipts.
Treat the figures as a sketch of the arithmetic. The funder's agreement, not this page, sets the factor rate and every term.
Before you accept an advance
Put the result next to at least one loan option, such as working capital financing. Our page on how merchant cash advances work covers reconciliation, stacking and guarantees, and more tools are in the guide library.
By Silvershore Funding Group · Updated