This loan payment estimator calculates the monthly payment, total interest and total repaid on a business loan from its amount, interest rate and term. Quarrystone Loans, a small-business funding broker in Sumter, South Carolina, provides it for Sumter County owners as illustrative arithmetic only; it is not an offer, and lending partners set every rate and term.
The three inputs
- Amount: the principal you would borrow.
- Interest rate: the yearly rate from an offer, or a what-if figure of your own.
- Term: how many monthly installments the loan runs.
The estimator assumes equal monthly payments that pay the loan off completely by the last one. Out come three numbers: the monthly payment, the interest across the whole term, and the total repaid (amount plus interest).
Testing the estimator with zero interest
A hypothetical test, not an offer: enter $9,000 at a 0 percent rate over 18 months. You should see a $500 payment, no interest at all and $9,000 repaid in total. Now double the term to 36 months, still at 0 percent: the payment halves to $250 and the total repaid stays the same. Add any rate above zero and you will see the longer term raise the total interest, even as it lowers the payment.
What you work out by hand
- Fees. Origination, documentation or other fees are not included. Fold them into the total repaid by hand.
- Payments more often than monthly. The tool handles monthly schedules alone. For other schedules, ask the partner for the total repaid and compare totals.
- Balloon payments. A loan that ends in a large final payment will not match this result. The balloon payment explainer shows how to work one out by hand.
- Leases. Lease payments, buyouts and end-of-term options are not modeled.
- Merchant cash advances. An advance is not a loan and is not priced with an interest rate, so this estimator does not apply to it.
Reading the result
Hold the payment up against the weakest recent month rather than a typical one. Nearly half of Sumter County's employer establishments, 45.3 percent in 2023, had fewer than five employees (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023), and a business that size has little room for a payment that only works in a good month. If it is tight, try a longer term or a smaller amount and watch what happens to the total interest.
Where to go from the number
Business term loans explains amortization, covenants and early payoff, and working capital financing covers shorter terms. The guide shelf has the local records guides.
Illustrative arithmetic only. Real rates and terms come from lending partners and nobody else.
By Quarrystone Loans · Updated