Canada Small Business Financing Program · up to $1.15M
Business plan for a CSBFP loan.
Written around the CSBFP eligible-asset categories the federal program publishes — equipment, leasehold improvements, real estate, and intangibles up to $150K — plus the working-capital LOC. Mapped to the format your participating lender expects.
CSBFP structure
What CSBFP funds.
Term loan — up to $1,000,000
For purchasing or improving eligible business assets: equipment (production, office, computer hardware), leasehold improvements, commercial real estate, and intangibles (franchise rights, software licences, registered IP) up to a $150K sub-cap within the term loan.
Line of credit — up to $150,000
The only CSBFP path for financing working capital — inventory, receivables, day-to-day operating cash. Added to the program in 2022; participating lenders set the LOC pricing within the program cap.
85% government guarantee
ISED (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada) shares 85% of lender losses on CSBFP files. Reduces the lender's risk and is the reason participating banks fund deals they would decline outside the program. Lenders pay a 2% government registration fee.
What CSBFP does not fund
Working capital through the term loan (LOC only). Loan refinancing. Goodwill above the $150K intangibles sub-cap. Land and buildings the borrower will not occupy or use directly. Plans need to keep the use-of-funds inside eligible categories or the file gets rejected at intake.
What we write
What CSBFP underwriters expect in the plan.
CSBFP is administered through participating lenders (all big-six, most major credit unions). The same plan that satisfies the lender's commercial team also has to map cleanly to ISED's eligible-asset categories — otherwise the file fails the program audit.
- Use-of-funds broken out by CSBFP category. Equipment by item with supplier quotes. Leasehold improvements by line. Real estate appraisal and registered title. Intangibles itemized and capped at $150K within the term loan.
- 3-year projections with the LOC modelled separately. Working-capital drawdowns and repayments on the $150K LOC tracked monthly so the lender sees the cash cycle. Term-loan amortization, interest, and principal split into their own lines.
- DSCR 1.20–1.25× on the modelled cash flow. The Canadian norm for participating-lender underwriting on CSBFP files. Sensitivity scenarios (base, downside, upside) are expected for files above ~$250K.
- Equity injection and personal guarantee. CSBFP's hard rule: 10% minimum borrower contribution. PG capped at 25% of the loan amount. The plan addresses both explicitly.
- Eligible-asset documentation. Supplier invoices, lease agreements, real-estate Agreement of Purchase and Sale, franchise FDD if intangibles include franchise rights. The plan flags what's attached and what's pending.
- 2022 program-update language. Intangibles + LOC are recent additions. Plans that read like a 2019 CSBFP file (no LOC, no intangibles, working capital folded into the term) trigger lender questions and slow approval.
How Bridge Note writes a CSBFP plan
From discovery call to participating lender.
CSBFP plans are typically 2 weeks from signed scope. The bottleneck is asset documentation — supplier quotes, lease, appraisal. The faster those land in intake, the faster the plan ships.
01
Discovery call (free)
30 minutes to confirm the participating lender, the asset categories you're financing, and the LOC component. Fixed quote by end of call.
02
Structured intake
60–90 minutes covering business operations, financials, ownership, the specific assets being financed, and the supplier / lease / real-estate documentation we'll need.
03
Draft + revision
5–7 business day first draft with use-of-funds mapped to CSBFP categories. One revision round included. Final delivery: PDF, Word, and the underlying Excel model.
Applying through CSBFP? Bring it to the discovery call.
30 minutes, free, no obligation. We confirm the asset categories, the participating lender, and give you a fixed quote.