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AceTheSBA Weekly Digest
Know what your lender will ask before they ask it.
SBA lenders now work to a new rulebook, in force since October 1, 2026, and every SBA rate moves with Prime. The AceTheSBA Weekly Digest is a free weekly briefing for owners preparing for an SBA loan: every Tuesday, one rule, rate or red flag, what it means for your application, and what to do about it that week.
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The change. What moved in SBA rules, rates or lender practice, and who it affects.
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The lender’s view. How an underwriter reads that part of your file, and the questions it triggers.
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Your move this week. One concrete step you can finish before next Tuesday.
Read past issues
- SBA rewrote its rulebook. Five rules now decide your application.
SBA’s current lending rulebook, SOP 50 10 8.1, decides who qualifies before anyone reads a business plan. The five rules that catch applicants off guard, and how to check yourself against each one.
- Prime is 7.00%. Here is what that does to your SBA payment.
Most SBA 7(a) loans move with the Prime rate. The maximum rates by loan size at today’s Prime, and what a quarter point costs on a real loan.
- The one number every SBA lender calculates first
Debt service coverage decides more SBA applications than any other figure. The formula, SBA’s minimums and a worked example you can copy.
- There is no minimum credit score. Here is what lenders check instead.
SOP 50 10 8.1 sets no minimum score for 7(a) or 504 loans. What lenders review, the credit issues that are really eligibility issues, and how to prepare.
- 10% of what? The down payment math most applicants get wrong.
SBA’s equity injection is a percentage of the whole project, not the loan, and it has to be in a documented account before any money is released.
- Lenders read your business plan in a specific order. Write it that way.
SBA publishes no required business plan form. Lenders read your plan to complete their credit memo, so the order and the numbers matter more than the length.
- The 90-day form that quietly expires in your loan file
Your personal financial statement, SBA Form 413, must be dated within 90 days under SOP 50 10 8.1, even though the form still prints 120. Who signs it and how lenders check it.
- Get your books into the shape a lender will read them in
Four bookkeeping steps that make an SBA application easier: reconciled accounts, a debt schedule that matches your balance sheet, separate accounts and current payments.
- A 90-day plan to be lender-ready
Twelve weeks, three phases: get your records straight, build your package, then talk to lenders. A practical plan for owners who want to apply with a complete file.
- Buying a business? Read this before you sign a letter of intent.
SBA’s change-of-ownership rules: 10% equity, the seller note limit, 1.25 coverage on historical results, the 24-month seller cap and no earnouts.
- Stop paying your landlord’s mortgage. How the SBA 504 works.
The 504 finances owner-occupied property and long-life equipment with 10% to 20% down and a long fixed rate on the CDC portion. The structure, the occupancy rules and the limits.
- Your tax return is your loan application. Lenders check it with the IRS.
SBA lenders verify your tax returns with the IRS, and unfiled returns stop an application. How your filings shape when and how you should apply.
- 7(a), Express, 504 or Microloan? Pick the right program before you pick a lender.
SBA’s main loan programs compared by what they finance, how much they lend and who makes them, so you approach the right lender with the right request.