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Business Purchase Affordability Calculator

Model a proposed acquisition by separating purchase price, buyer-paid costs, immediate working-capital reserve, seller credits, buyer cash, debt service, and post-close liquidity.

By Dennis Shirshikov · Updated 2026-08-13

Enter one purchase affordability case

Keep buyer cash, company cash, debt, seller credits, and retirement-plan assets separate. Inputs stay in this browser session only and are not stored, written to cookies, or added to the URL.

Buyer-paid uses

Contract or proposed business purchase price before separate buyer-paid costs, reserves, or credits. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $1,000.

Escrow, legal, accounting, diligence, transfer, lender, and similar closing costs paid by the buyer. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Loan packaging, franchise transfer, broker, or other acquisition and financing fees not already counted. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Cash reserve needed immediately after closing for payroll, inventory, rent, repairs, transition losses, or opening expenses. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $1,000.

Other buyer-paid uses such as equipment deposits, licenses, initial supplies, or professional retainers. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Credits, cash, and debt timing

Documented seller credits reduce cash uses at closing. Do not enter seller notes here. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Cash the buyer contributes at closing. Do not include retirement-plan trust assets unless validly exchanged for company stock and available as company cash. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Seller note principal modeled as debt service. It is not a credit because the company still owes it. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Debt the buyer or company assumes and wants included in the same debt-service model. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Debt service, cash flow, and liquidity

Nominal annual rate for the combined modeled debt. Use 0 only for a true zero-interest schedule. Input accepts percentage points to two decimals.

Amortization term for modeled lender debt, seller financing, and assumed debt. Input accepts years to two decimals.

Choose how often payments are made. Annual debt service converts the selected period to a yearly amount.

Annual business cash flow available for debt service before the modeled acquisition debt payments. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Unrestricted buyer or company liquidity before the buyer cash contribution is paid. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Minimum unrestricted liquidity the buyer wants left after closing. Input accepts whole dollars, rounded to the nearest $100.

Constraint used only for the maximum-price math. It is not a universal lender, SBA, or suitability threshold. Input accepts ratio to two decimals.

Results appear after calculation

Submit the form to calculate buyer cash required at closing, financed amount, amortized debt service, DSCR, post-close liquidity, and a bounded maximum price under your stated constraints.

Direct bounded answer

The worksheet can show whether the entered case has enough buyer cash, remaining liquidity, and user-entered cash flow to cover modeled debt. It cannot say the price is fair or the deal should close.

Debt timing kept separate

Seller financing and assumed debt remain in the debt-service model. Seller credits reduce closing cash uses because they are not repayment obligations.

ROBS boundary

ROBS plan assets are retirement-plan assets until a valid plan stock purchase capitalizes the corporation. Do not treat them as personal cash.

How the acquisition affordability worksheet works

Start with buyer-paid uses: purchase price, closing costs, acquisition or financing fees, immediate working-capital reserve, and other buyer-paid uses. SBA planning guidance supports identifying funding needs, use of funds, and financial projections before seeking financing [1]. SBA also describes 7(a) financing for changes of ownership, working capital, equipment, supplies, and multiple business purposes [2].

The calculator subtracts seller credits and buyer cash from total uses. It then treats seller financing and assumed debt as debt principal rather than credits. The remaining amount is modeled lender debt. This avoids double counting a seller note as both a source of funds and a reduction in repayment obligations.

Debt service uses a standard amortization formula for the selected payment frequency. If the rate is 0%, the payment is principal divided evenly across periods. Annual debt service is compared with user-entered annual cash flow available for debt service to produce DSCR. A no-debt case does not produce a DSCR because there is no denominator.

What this calculator does not determine

This is not a valuation, fairness opinion, business appraisal, SBA eligibility result, lender approval, loan commitment, affordability recommendation, legal opinion, tax advice, accounting conclusion, fiduciary determination, or ROBS suitability finding. SBA states borrowers work directly with lenders and lenders determine application needs based on circumstances [2].

The DSCR constraint is a user-entered math input for the maximum-price calculation. It is not a universal lender threshold. The maximum price result is only defensible when the entered non-price uses, buyer cash, seller credits, seller financing, assumed debt, term, rate, payment frequency, cash flow, and DSCR constraint remain fixed.

Keep ROBS plan assets, business cash, and personal liquidity separate

IRS describes a ROBS transaction as retirement funds rolled into a plan that purchases stock of a new C corporation [3]. The IRS memorandum describes the same sequence and notes ROBS arrangements require case-by-case review [4]. That means plan assets are not personal cash for a closing worksheet. They may become company cash only after a valid employer-stock purchase.

Use the liquidity fields for unrestricted cash that is actually available before and after closing. Do not include restricted escrow deposits, plan trust assets, expected future financing, hoped-for revenue, or business sale proceeds that have not been received as unrestricted cash.

Sources

  1. 1. SBA Plan your business

    SBA guidance says business plans should state funding needs, use of funds, financial projections, and monthly first-year projections; its startup-cost section supports separating one-time and monthly costs before launch. Checked Aug. 13, 2026; page modified July 30, 2026.

  2. 2. SBA 7(a) loans

    SBA states 7(a) loans can fund changes of ownership, working capital, equipment, supplies, and other purposes. It also states borrowers work directly with lenders, payments are generally monthly principal and interest from business cash flow, and eligibility includes creditworthiness and reasonable ability to repay. Checked Aug. 13, 2026; page modified July 27, 2026.

  3. 3. IRS ROBS compliance project

    IRS describes ROBS as retirement funds rolled into a plan that buys stock of a new C corporation, and notes determination letters do not approve plan operations. It identifies valuation, filing, promoter-fee, prohibited-transaction, business-failure, bankruptcy, lien, and dissolution concerns. Page last reviewed Nov. 16, 2025.

  4. 4. IRS ROBS guidelines memorandum

    The IRS memorandum describes the typical ROBS sequence and states arrangements are not noncompliant per se but should be reviewed case by case. Memorandum dated Oct. 1, 2008.

Frequently asked questions

Does this calculator decide whether I can afford a business?

No. It performs deterministic arithmetic from entered assumptions. It does not approve financing, value the business, set SBA eligibility, recommend a purchase price, or decide whether retirement-plan assets should be used.

How are seller credits and seller financing treated?

Seller credits reduce modeled buyer-paid cash uses at closing. Seller financing is debt principal and remains in the debt-service model, so it is not subtracted as a credit.

Can ROBS plan assets be entered as buyer cash?

ROBS retirement-plan assets are not personal cash. They become company cash only if a valid qualified plan purchases employer stock and the company receives the stock-purchase proceeds.

Is the DSCR constraint a lender rule?

No. The DSCR field is only a user-entered math constraint for this worksheet. Lenders, sellers, franchisors, and SBA-participating lenders apply their own underwriting standards.

Next planning step

Use the result to ask lenders, sellers, franchisors, valuation advisers, tax professionals, and ROBS plan advisers more precise questions about price support, cash flow, working capital, debt terms, and plan capitalization.