Small Business
Loans with
AccordExpress

To qualify for an AccordExpress loan, your business:

• Must be located in Canada
• Must have been registered and established for at least 12 months
• Has been negatively impacted by COVID-19
• Has an average or better credit profile (its shareholder(s) must as well)
• Has shareholders prepared to guarantee the loan, each with a unique email address and a mobile phone number
• Has a business bank account
• Has completed the EDC prequalification

You will not be eligible for AccordExpress if you are considered one of the following:

• Not-for-profit organization, registered charity, or union
• Fraternal benefit society or Order, or an entity owned by such an organization unless the entity is actively carrying on a business in Canada (including a related business in the case of a registered charity) that earns revenue from the regular supply of property, goods, or services
• Entity owned by any federal Member of Parliament or Senator, or
• An entity that promotes violence, incites hatred, or discriminates on the basis of sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, colour, race, ethnic or national origin, religion, age or mental or physical disability, contrary to applicable laws.

Unlike other industry-specific and specialized loan programs, AccordExpress is available to small businesses in nearly every industry, including hospitality, arts and recreation, and event centres.

For AccordExpress, we consider small businesses as those having a minimum of $100,000 in revenue and for whom a loan of $250,000 is sufficient to meet the needs of the business for adapting to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can use the loan for ongoing business operating expenses including: rent, payroll, inventory purchases, working capital to manage timing differentials between collections of accounts receivable and payment of accounts payable, scheduled debt servicing payments, operating expenses and in some cases the purchase of capital assets required to adjust to operating in a COVID-19 environment.

You cannot use the loan to refinance or repay existing debt outside of scheduled debt servicing payments, to repay any loans or advances from shareholders, to redeem or change the equity of the business including options / warrants, to pay staff bonuses or management bonuses, or to increase any executive or shareholder compensation.

The entire process consists of three simple steps:

1. Determine if you are eligible
2. Apply for your AccordExpress loan
3. Register on the EDC website

The AccordExpress application on our Accord Financial website can be completed in less than 20 minutes and a decision will be made in one business day. You must also remember to apply on the EDC website. Once approved, you must verify and sign the loan agreement. The entire process from application to receiving the money takes about 48 hours (subject to application volume).

Before proceeding to the application on the EDC website (step 3), Accord Financial will provide instructions for the application process on the EDC website.

Before you begin the loan application process, you will need the following details:

• Full legal name of your business
• Your Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Business Number
• Last year’s annual gross revenue (proof of revenue only if you are applying for a loan of more than $100,000)

If your small business has multiple shareholders, you will also need to have the names and unique email addresses of all shareholders when beginning the application. See question: “What does it mean for me if my small business is owned by multiple shareholders?”

If you are applying for a loan of $100,000 or less, you do not need to provide financial statements.

If the loan is above $100,000, you must provide last year’s revenue (sales). You can choose one of the following options:

• Send your Fiscal Year 2019 or 2020 financial statements or tax returns (prepared by a CPA) to AccordExpress@accordfinancial.com
• Connect to our banking data partner at FLINKS where Accord Financial will measure the last 365 days of deposits for revenue verification (most major financial institutions are connected to this service).
• Send a PDF of your last six months of bank statements to AccordExpress@accordfinancial.com (must be from your bank’s original format; online transactional print-outs are not accepted).
• Provide a letter from your accounting firm confirming either (a) your fiscal 2019/2020 revenues or (b) your last 12 months of revenue (TTM). Please note that Accord Financial will only accept letters from designated Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) from Canadian accounting firms, which we can verify.
• Grant Accord CRA Level 1 Access to your CRA accounts in order to verify against your 2019/2020 Tax Filings.

To be eligible, you must declare both to Accord and Export Development Canada that your business has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Such effects could be one or more, but not limited to, the following business impact examples:

• Permanent or temporary loss or reduction in revenues
• Additional expenditures having been required to ensure your operations operate in compliance with health order or social distancing requirements, such as the purchase of PPE for staff or the reconfiguration of workspaces
• Adjustments to inventory levels to mitigate supply chain interruptions
• Adjustments to slower payment timeframes from customers, or
• Having to change, in full or in part, your product mix, means of delivering your product or service to customers, or other such operational changes.

This is not a comprehensive list. If you are in doubt, please reach out to our customer service team at (604) 982-3010

The total interest cost for the first 6 months will be automatically deducted from the loan, so you will have no debt servicing for 6 months. Your first scheduled payment will be on the 7th month.

You have the option to repay your loan at any time. There are no prepayment penalties.

Our interest rates start at 8.95% with a 0.50% loan origination fee. The interest rate is determined by the level of risk identified in your application. Specifically, we look at the estimated credit history of your business, as well as of its shareholders.

Loan is to be repaid over 48 months with the first 6 monthly payments are interest only, followed by 42 months of principle and interest.

Applicants with two or more shareholders – meaning that you own less than 100 percent of the business – must have all shareholders complete and sign the application. One shareholder will begin the application process, completing all general questions regarding the business. This person will need to input the name and email addresses of each of the shareholders. Once everything has been submitted it will be automatically forwarded by email to all other shareholders for completion.

All shareholders must agree to personally guarantee the loan. Shareholders will need to complete the application, including their SIN number, details on home ownership/ rental, and bankruptcy history. This should only take approximately five minutes.