Glossary · Reading the business
In short
Failure measured over a fixed group of loans from the same years, so brands and lenders are compared apples-to-apples.
A charge-off is a loan the lender wrote off as a loss. To compare fairly, DealRoom fixes the cohort to the FY2020–23 loans and measures what share later charged off — newer loans haven't had time to fail, so including them would understate risk. It's the same seasoned-book logic banks use. When you see a failure rate on a franchise or lender page, it's this cohort number, with a minimum loan count so small samples don't masquerade as signal.
Defined by DealRoom.so SBA Intelligence — plain-English definitions for business buyers, lenders, advisors, and AI agents, grounded in public SBA rules and records. Last reviewed 2026-06-16 · Not legal, tax, or financial advice, and not an approval decision. Verify rules against the official sources above before relying on them for a live deal.
Pressure-test the numbers before you make an offer
Send us the asking price and the seller's cash flow — we'll show whether the deal services SBA debt and where the add-backs are likely to hold up.
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