How to manage an equipment loan

Images by GettyImages; Illustration by Hunter Newton/Bankrate

When determining how to manage your equipment loan effectively, the key is planning ahead — especially when it comes to understanding the ebbs and flows of your business revenue. It’s also important to keep communication open with your lender, asking questions when you don’t understand the loan terms and notifying them of any difficulties.

6 tips to manage your equipment loan

While repayment is the main part of managing your equipment loan, the best ways to set yourself up for success are to understand what you’re signing and never take out more than you can afford to pay back. Let’s dive into six ways you can manage equipment loans, even under less-than-ideal circumstances.

1. Understand your loan agreement

The first step to managing your equipment loan effectively is to understand how the loan works throughout the repayment process. Your lender should be a resource to walk you through your business loan’s fees and terms so that you know what’s expected.

These common terms may be found in your loan agreement.

2. Create a business budget and monitor revenue

Your business budget can give you a picture of how loan repayments fit into your cash flow. Essentially, the business budget is a detailed list of all your revenue and expenses. It helps you make informed decisions about new obligations based on your financial track record. It can also predict when you might run short on cash.

If you haven’t started a business budget, take the time to create one since you may need it when applying for your equipment loan. A rundown of the process:

1. Estimate your revenue. Gather data about your past revenue. The more data you have, the more accurate your future forecasts will be. Look for seasonal trends or indicators that your business is gaining or losing profitability. If you don’t have past records, look at your current sales and contracts for an idea and compare them with your industry’s revenue averages.
2. Figure cost of goods sold. If you sell products, you want to see how much profit your business makes. Subtract the total cost of making your product from your revenue.
3. Calculate expenses. List all expenses in your budget sheet, including fixed expenses, one-time or seasonal purchases and variable expenses that change from month to month.
4. Figure your EBITDA. EBITDA is your net earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. This number includes all revenue streams, including dividends and interest paid minus operating expenses.
5. Find your net profit. Now you can calculate how much you spend on interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Subtract that number from your EBITDA to find your net profit or loss.

3. Keep up with equipment maintenance

Setting up a preventive maintenance schedule for your commercial equipment is an important step in managing equipment costs. In short, it heads off issues with your equipment before they happen.

Preventive maintenance minimizes downtime for unexpected, costly repairs, and it helps the equipment hold value for staying in good working condition. In a worst-case scenario, preventive maintenance can keep you from repaying a loan on equipment that you can’t use.

4. Avoid applying for new debt

Having multiple debts can make managing repayments tricky, especially if your revenue dips or you experience seasonal ebbs and flows. Instead, make sure that your current debt helps your business become profitable before taking on new debt.

You can also use your debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) and debt-to-income ratio (DTI) to determine whether you can handle a loan.

• Debt service coverage ratio is a measure of your EBITDA or net operating income divided by debt obligations.
• Debt-to-income ratio shows the percentage of revenue that is your debt repayments.

However, don’t rely solely on these ratios. Consider your business’s seasonality and factors that may affect future revenue before comparing equipment loans.

5. Build a relationship with your lender

Maintaining a solid relationship with your lender can go a long way with future lending or if you run into financial hardship. Start by making your loan repayments on time and setting up automatic payments so that you don’t accidentally miss a due date.

If you find yourself unable to make repayments, let your lender know right away. Your lender might be willing to work out a plan to get through your hardship. Ways that it may offer debt relief:

• Deferred payments. Your loan repayments will be paused for a specific time. This option works best if you experience a short gap in revenue but expect it to improve in the near future. Deferred payments won’t affect your credit.
• Modified repayment terms. The lender may modify your existing agreement to stretch out your repayment terms and lower your repayments.
• Debt settlement. You negotiate with your lender to pay off less than the loan amount owed. Settlement will significantly affect your credit and ability to get a loan in the future.

6. Check your credit

To shore up your ability to get credit in the future, check on your credit score periodically and find ways to improve your personal credit score. Many small business lenders rely on your personal FICO score to gauge your creditworthiness. Some lenders will only offer loans to borrowers with good-to-excellent credit. But some have relaxed eligibility requirements. Some lenders may have a minimum score of 500.

Some lenders also use your business credit score, which is calculated by the three major credit bureaus: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax and Experian. Business credit scores use a scale of zero to 100 (zero to 300 for FICO Small Business Scoring Service). It’s rated based on factors like your payment history, length of credit history as well as your business’s size and industry risk of failure.

What happens if you don’t pay an equipment loan?

When times are tough, and revenue is down, you may have valid reasons for being unable to repay your equipment loan. Understand the process you’ll go through with your lender if you miss repayments.

1. Delinquency. Delinquency happens the moment you miss the first repayment. Your lender will notify you about your status and the amount needed to restore your account to good standing, including any late fees.
2. Default. If you fail to make several repayments consecutively, your loan could go into default. Your loan agreement spells out when your loan is considered in default, typically after three to six months of missed payments.
3. Acceleration. Since you violated the terms of your loan agreement, the lender can make the entire loan amount due, called acceleration.
4. Seizing assets and collateral. Your lender will then pursue your assets for repayment, including any collateral, such as the commercial equipment you used to back the loan.
5. Seizing personal assets. Many equipment loans also require you to sign a personal guarantee, which is a statement that you agree to be personally responsible for repayment. If you sign a personal guarantee, the lender can go after your personal assets if you default on the loan.

Bottom line

Depending on your business and market conditions, you may run into a variety of circumstances during the course of repaying your equipment loan. You can head off financial hardship by keeping a close eye on revenue and operating expenses and taking steps to make sure that you make repayments on time. But in a worst-case scenario, remember that you can discuss new repayment options with your lender.