Glossary

Estimated APR

An annual percentage rate calculated from projected payments, used for merchant cash advances and other deals whose payment timing can change.

An estimated APR turns a factor-rate price into a yearly rate, so you can compare an advance with a loan or a line of credit. It is an estimate because advance payments are supposed to follow your sales, so the real repayment period can run shorter or longer than projected.

Every estimated APR on this site uses the same method. It treats the money you actually receive after fees as paid to you on day 0, schedules each remittance on its business day, solves for the rate that balances those cash flows, and multiplies that daily rate by 252 business days.

Example: $50,000 at a factor rate of 1.35 over 8 months of daily debits: payback $67,500, cost $17,500, 168 payments of $401.79, estimated APR of 94.6%. Repaid in 35 weekly payments of $1,928.57 instead, the estimated APR is about 92%.

New York requires providers to label this figure "Estimated Annual Percentage Rate (APR)" on sales-based financing offers covered by its disclosure law.

Sources

  1. 23 NYCRR Part 600: Commercial finance disclosure regulation (text) — New York State Department of Financial Services (checked 2026-09-30)

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