Not the scary version and not the sales version: every dollar, where it comes from, and the simple test that tells you whether an advance is worth it for your business.
Ask the internet what a merchant cash advance costs and you get two answers: predatory or painless, depending on who is selling what. Both are marketing. The real answer is a short piece of math you can do on the back of an offer sheet, and once you can do it, nobody can sell you anything you did not choose.
An advance has three numbers: the amount, the factor rate, and the term. $60,000 at a 1.28 factor is a $76,800 payback, so the cost of the money is $16,800. Over a 28-week term on a weekly pull, that is about $2,743 a week. Those two figures, total cost and weekly load, are the entire economic reality of the deal. Everything else is presentation. For why factor pricing works this way and how it maps to APR, read factor rate vs APR.
Most reputable offers are clean, and a few line items deserve a look before you sign: origination fees (often 1 to 3 percent, netted from your funding amount), ACH or wire fees, and default or NSF fees in the fine print. None are dealbreakers; all belong in your total-cost number. The full checklist lives in how to read a funding offer before you sign.
The dollars are one cost. The rhythm is another. That $2,743 weekly pull is easy on a business depositing $50K a month and heavy on one depositing $28K. Before signing anything, run the payment against your slowest recent month, not your best one. The true-cost calculator and the payment calculator make this a two-minute exercise.
Structure is the lever here: weekly beats daily for most businesses, and longer terms lower the load. The same dollars, structured right, carry completely differently. That is most of what a good broker does for you.
An advance is worth it when the money makes more than it costs, inside the term. $60K of seasonal inventory that sells for $110K makes $16,800 of cost look cheap. $60K to patch a hole with no plan behind it is expensive at any factor. Run the same test on every use of funds and the decision usually makes itself.
And when you are carrying several advances at once, the math changes shape entirely; that is the territory of stacked advances and consolidation.
Every number above is illustrative. Your number comes from your file, and it is free to find out. Apply here: a few minutes, statements upload in the app, and you get actual offers with the total cost written down, plus our straight read on whether the deal makes sense. Prefer the phone? Call or text (848) 420-8444.
Send us your positions and we will run the real math, free. One straight answer about whether consolidation gives your business room to breathe, with no pressure either way.