MCA calculator

Three of them here, with no signup and no email gate: factor rate to APR, holdback and daily payment, and cost per funded deal on an order of leads. Each one prints its formula on the same page, which matters more than it sounds — a calculator that will not show its working is a number you cannot defend when a merchant or a regulator asks where it came from.

Multiply the advance by the factor for total payback, divide by the number of debits for the payment, then solve for the periodic rate that discounts that payment stream back to the advance and annualise it. The shortcut everyone reaches for — cost divided by advance, scaled to twelve months — understates by roughly half, because it pretends the merchant holds the full advance for the whole term when repayment starts the next business day.

Total payback divided by the number of business days in the term. A $50,000 advance at 1.35 over six months is $67,500 across 126 debits, or $535.71 a day. Weekends and holidays do not debit, which is why counting 21 business days a month and 252 a year gives a truer payment than calendar days do.

Because a factor rate contains no time. 1.35 is 1.35 whether the term is six months or eighteen, and those are completely different deals. The APR is what exposes the difference — the same 1.35 is about 126% annualised over six months and about 84% over nine.

Broadly 8% to 20% of daily receipts. Below that the advance takes too long to clear for a funder to price; above it the merchant cannot make payroll and the file goes into default, which is worse for everyone than a smaller advance would have been.