# Reading your offer

The four figures on an approved application, what each one means, and the questions worth asking before you accept.

Updated: 2026-09-12

---

When a file is approved, the application page changes shape. The headline figure becomes the
**approved** amount rather than the one you asked for — once there is a decision, that is the
number — and a **Your terms** card appears underneath the tracker.

<Shot src="application-approved" alt="An approved application: the approved amount of $55,000 in green, a tracker with sent, under review and decision ticked and funded still to come, and a Your terms card reading term loan, amount $55,000, total payback $69,300, weekly payment $1,333, payments 52." />

## The four figures

Taking the example above:

- **Amount — $55,000.** What is being advanced or lent to the business. It can be less than you
  asked for; what an underwriter can support is what the statements support.
- **Total payback — $69,300.** Everything you will repay, in dollars. Not a rate you have to
  compound out yourself, and not a figure with fees hiding behind it: this is the number.
- **Weekly payment — $1,333.** What leaves the account each week.
- **Payments — 52.** How many of them. Multiply the two and you are back at the total payback, by
  design.

Above the figures is the product itself — *Term loan* in the example. A merchant cash advance and
a term loan at the same amount are different agreements, and you are entitled to see which one
you have been offered before you read the numbers.

## What the numbers do not include

Nothing is left out of the total payback — that is the point of quoting it. But two things sit
outside it:

- **What your own bank charges you.** Payment fees, if your bank has them, are between you and
  your bank.
- **Anything you choose to pay early or late.** If early repayment matters to you, ask before you
  sign: it varies by product and by lender, and the person who arranged it can tell you exactly.

<Note title="The arithmetic, in general">
For how this kind of financing is priced and what to compare it against before you sign anything, the guide [what working capital costs](/guides/what-working-capital-costs) shows the sums.
</Note>

## Questions worth asking before you accept

1. **Who is the lender?** Spark is a brokerage. We arrange the facility; a lender funds it, and
   the agreement is with them. Ask which lender, and ask to see the agreement.
2. **What is the payment schedule, exactly?** Which day of the week, from which account, starting
   when.
3. **What happens if a week is bad?** Every lender handles a missed payment differently, and the
   time to find out is now.
4. **Is this the right product?** If you asked for working capital and were offered an advance,
   it is reasonable to ask what a term loan would have looked like and why this was the answer.

## After you accept

The tracker moves to **Funded** when the money is on its way to your account. Your specialist
handles the signing and the account details — an approval is not the end of the conversation, it
is the start of a short one.

## On the web

Everything above is on the application page: the tracker, **Your terms**, and **Your details**
(what you sent us) collapsed underneath it. If there is activity on the file, a *Where it's up
to* list sits alongside with what happened and when.

## In the app

The same application screen carries the same terms card and the same tracker, and updates the
moment the decision lands — pull down to refresh if you are staring at it.

<Shot src="ios-application-approved" phone alt="An approved application in the Spark app: the approved amount, the tracker with three stages ticked, and the terms below." />

<Note>
Nothing shown before a decision is an offer. Amounts and terms quoted anywhere else on the site
are illustrative, vary by lender, and are subject to underwriting.
</Note>