Audited, reviewed or compiled financial statements: what do lenders actually need?An audit is the most thorough and most expensive thing a CPA can do to your statements. Plenty of lower-middle-market loans close without one, and commissioning an audit before asking the lender can cost money and time for nothing.Borrowing at the holding company or the operating company: what's the difference?The legal entity that signs the loan decides where the lender stands in line. Lenders lend against operating cash flow, and a loan that cannot reach it is priced as if it were junior, because it is.Buying the building with the business vs leasing it from the sellerWhen the seller owns the building the business runs from, the buyer can buy both or lease the property. The choice changes how much capital the deal needs, how the debt is structured, and what the lender needs to see in a lease.Cash dominion vs springing dominion: who controls your cash on an asset-based loan?Every asset-based lender puts control agreements on your accounts. The question is whether it uses them from the first day or only when availability runs low. That decides how the finance function runs week to week, and it is negotiable.Cash-basis vs accrual financial statements: what do lenders want to see?Plenty of well-run private companies keep cash-basis books because that is how they have always filed taxes. For a revolver, an asset-based line or any loan with covenants, lenders need accrual numbers, and the conversion is better done before underwriting than during it.Committed vs uncommitted line of credit: what are you actually buying?Two lines with the same limit and the same rate can be completely different promises. One lender must fund when you ask; the other only might. The difference is invisible in a good year and decisive in a bad one.Community bank, national bank or private credit: which fits a company your size?A company with $10M to $100M+ in revenue sits where several kinds of lender overlap. They can look at the same file and reach different answers, and the difference is less about price than about who decides, how much they can hold and how far they will stretch.Debt advisor vs investment banker: who should raise your financing?Owners often assume that bank-quality lender materials require hiring an investment bank. For a loan they do not: the job is narrower, the audience is a credit committee, and the firm built for it is a debt advisor.Delayed-draw term loan vs revolver: which should fund your next acquisitions?Both are committed at closing and both cost little until used. Only one is built to pay for a company, and using the other for it can leave the business short of cash when it matters.DSCR vs FCCR: which covenant will my lender test?Both ratios compare cash flow with what the business owes its lenders. They differ in what they subtract first, and for a business that spends heavily on equipment or pays its owners, that difference can decide whether it is in default.Earnout vs seller note: which should bridge the valuation gap?When buyer and seller disagree on price, the tool that closes the gap also decides how much the buyer can borrow and how well the loan holds up in the first hard year.ESOP or management buyout: how does each get financed?Both let an owner sell to the people already running the business. The money behind them works differently, and so does the bill that arrives years after closing.Family office or private credit fund: which makes the better lender?A family office can say yes to a loan no fund would write, and hold it as long as it likes. It can also be slow to decide, change terms late, or never close. The difference between the two is mostly process.First lien vs second lien: what changes when a lender stands second?A second lien can add borrowing capacity without refinancing the bank. Whether it also hands a second lender a say in the business depends on terms most owners never read.Fixed or variable rate: which should your business loan carry?Nobody can tell you where rates are going, and the market has already priced its best guess into the fixed rate. The useful question is how far rates could move before your loan payments outrun your cash flow.How do you compare loan offers: the interest rate or the all-in cost?Two term sheets can quote rates a fraction of a point apart and still differ by far more once fees, required deposits, hedging and exit terms are counted. The rate is one line of the cost, not the cost.Independent sponsor or committed fund: how do lenders view each?The same company, bought at the same price, can be offered different debt depending on who is buying it. The difference is not the sponsor's name. It is how sure the lender is that the equity exists and will stay.Interest rate swap vs interest rate cap: which hedge fits a floating-rate loan?Both protect a floating-rate loan from rising rates. The difference that matters most shows up the day you want out of the loan early, not the day you sign.Interest-only period vs full amortization: what does interest-only really buy you?An interest-only year can carry a business through a handover or an integration. It does not change what the lender thinks the business can afford, and it can quietly make the later years harder.Limited vs unlimited personal guarantee on a business loanThe guarantee decides what an owner stands to lose personally if the company cannot repay. On a conventional loan its size and shape are terms like any other, and they move when a lender has reason to move them.Line of credit vs term loan: which one does your company need?A lot of financing trouble in growing companies starts with the right money in the wrong loan. The match between what you are funding and how the loan repays matters more than the rate.Loan term vs amortization period: why a 5-year loan can have a 20-year scheduleA long schedule makes the payment smaller and, up to a point, the loan larger. The shorter term attached to it means the company will be refinancing a large balance on whatever terms exist on that date.Maintenance vs incurrence covenants: what's the difference?Most loans to companies with $10M to $100M+ in revenue carry covenants that are tested every quarter whatever the company does. How far results can fall before one trips is set at signing, and it is worth more than a slightly lower rate.Mezzanine debt or a bigger seller note: which should fill the acquisition gap?When the senior loan and the buyer's equity fall short of the price, the seller and a mezzanine lender are the two usual places to find the rest. They cost different amounts, want different things, and look different to the senior lender.Mezzanine debt or preferred equity: which gap capital actually costs less?Both fill the space between what the senior lender will lend and what the owners can put in. One costs more in cash each year; the other can cost more in control and in the share of the upside you give away.PIK interest vs cash-pay interest: what you save now and what you owe laterPIK keeps cash in the business and makes coverage ratios look better today. It does that by moving the cost to the end, with interest on interest, and the owner pays it out of the sale or refinancing proceeds.Quality of earnings report vs audit: what's the difference, and which does a lender use?Owners of audited companies are often surprised when a buyer and its lender still ask for a quality of earnings report. The two answer different questions, and acquisition debt is sized on the answer only the QoE gives.Rollover equity or a seller note: which does the lender prefer?Either way, the seller waits for part of the price. What the seller waits as, an owner or a creditor, decides how much room the senior lender sees beneath its loan.Sale-leaseback vs cash-out refinance on business-owned real estateBoth turn the equity in your building into cash. One borrows against it and keeps the building; the other sells it and signs up for rent with no end date, which every future lender will count against the company.SBIC fund or private credit fund: what's the difference for a borrower?Both are private funds that lend to private companies. One of them borrows government-backed money to do it, and that changes which companies it can finance, what it can fund and what it charges.SDE vs EBITDA: which number do lenders use, and how do the two reconcile?For companies with $10M to $100M+ in revenue, lenders size debt on adjusted EBITDA. Seller's discretionary earnings still turns up, in small add-on targets and in founder pay that was never set at market, and it has to be converted before a lender will count it.Seller financing vs bank financing to buy a businessBuyers ask which one to use. In most acquisitions the real question is the mix, because the size and terms of the seller note change what the senior lender will lend.SOFR vs Prime: how to compare business loans priced off different indicesA loan at Prime plus 1 and a loan at SOFR plus 3.5 look a world apart. They are close to the same price, and the one that reads cheaper is not.Stretch senior loan vs senior debt plus mezzanine: which structure fits the deal?Both reach past what a plain senior loan will lend. One does it with a single lender and a single document; the other adds a second lender, a second set of terms and an intercreditor agreement between them. Which one is right depends on how far past senior the deal needs to go.Taking on a minority equity partner vs borrowing for growthSelling a slice of the company feels cheaper than a loan because there is no payment. If the growth plan works, it is usually the most expensive money an owner will ever raise.Term sheet vs commitment letter: when is a lender actually committed?Owners often stop talking to other lenders the day a term sheet arrives. That is one of the commonest ways a financing loses its leverage, and sometimes the deal it was meant to fund.Traditional search fund or self-funded search: how is the acquisition financed?The way a searcher pays for the search decides how the business gets bought. Investor backing opens conventional senior and unitranche debt and a larger company; self-funding keeps the equity and caps the size.Using a debt advisor or broker vs going direct to your bankYour bank knows you and may give you a fine loan. It can also offer only what its own credit policy allows, and without another offer on the table you have no way to know what you left behind.Yield maintenance vs step-down prepayment penalties: what does it cost to leave a loan early?Two loans at nearly the same rate can cost very different amounts to repay early. If a sale or a refinance is on the horizon, the exit terms deserve as much attention as the coupon.