Enhanced with experience.
A lending specialist reads your term sheet or loan agreement and tells you what the commercial terms mean for you: what it costs, what's personally at stake, the tests that could trip you up, and what to ask your bank. AI does the heavy reading, so you get it at an affordable rate.
Watch the clipWorking with an accountant or solicitor? We sit alongside them.
From a sample report
Reviewed by a lending specialist
Lambda Tau Ltd (fictional) · £750,000 loan to buy its head office
Personal guarantee £250,000, covering all monies owed
If the business can't repay, the bank can claim up to £250,000 from you personally. If you can't pay, it could seek to make you bankrupt, which may put your home at risk.
We recommend you seek independent legal advice.
Loan-to-value test 75% of the property's value against an 80% limit
A fall of about 6% in the bank's valuation of the building would breach this, even if every repayment is made on time. The room grows as the loan is repaid.
Final payment £375,000 due in one sum in year 5
Half the loan is still owed at the end. Most businesses refinance a sum like this, at whatever rates are available at the time.
Floating rate each 1% rise adds about £7,200 a year
At +2%, interest cover would ease from 2.0 times to about 1.8 times, still above the covenant minimum.
A question you could ask the lender
"Could the guarantee reduce, or fall away, once the loan has been paid down to a set level?"
Fictional example. Information, not advice.
The clip
Meet Tom, who makes furniture, and Sarah, who runs a sixty-person engineering firm. Both have advisers. Both still need someone to read the commercial terms from the lender's side. See what a Layman's Terms AI report shows them.
Your solicitor makes sure the documents work legally. Your accountant knows your numbers. We read the commercial terms the way the bank does: what the loan costs, what it asks of you, and what happens if things don't go to plan.
If there's a personal guarantee, that includes what's at stake for you and your home. It's the question most business owners hesitate to ask their bank.
True cost
Every pound of interest, fees and capital, and what a rate rise does
Personal guarantees
What you're personally on the hook for
Covenants
The tests that can trip you up, and your headroom against your own plan
Security
What the bank can take, and when
What needs consent
Dividends, acquisitions, new borrowing and selling assets
What stands out
Terms out of step with what we typically see for a loan like yours
01
Send your term sheet or loan agreement, your recent accounts, and a line on what the money is for. Your accountant or solicitor can send them for you.
02
Every line is read, with AI doing the heavy lifting so the fee stays fixed and affordable. The judgement on what matters, and what stands out, is a person's.
03
Get a clear report on the commercial terms and questions to ask your bank, written so your accountant and solicitor can use it too.
For business owners
You don't need an accountant or solicitor to use us. If there's a term sheet or loan agreement on your desk, send it straight to us and a lending specialist will take it from there.
Fixed fee, known up front
Choose the review that fits and you know the cost before you order.
Your bank won't know
We never contact your lender. You decide who sees the report.
Yours to use
Keep it to yourself, or pass it to your accountant or solicitor. Select who you would like us to share your report with.
Back in days
Between 2 and 7 working days, depending on the review.
For accountants and solicitors
Your clients trust you with their loan. We add the one view that usually isn't in the room: a lending specialist's read of the commercial terms. You keep the relationship and the advice. We give you a clear report to work from.
Talk to us about working togetherA report you can use
Written clearly and set out the same way every time, so you can take it straight into your own advice.
We stay in our lane
No legal, tax or accounting advice. We don't arrange finance or take commissions from lenders.
Fixed, published fees
You can tell a client the cost before they order. Nothing to quote or explain.
Simple to refer
Send the documents yourself with your client's agreement, or point them to us.
Our name
A layman was once simply one of the laity: the ordinary people, as opposed to the clergy with their Latin and their learning. The word comes from the Greek laikos (λαϊκός), meaning "of the people".
Over time a layman came to mean anyone outside a profession, and "in layman's terms" came to mean explained so that anyone can understand.
That's what we do with loan documents. We take what is written by the lenders and the lawyers, and explain it to the business owners who sign on the dotted line, alongside the accountants and solicitors who advise them.
Fitting, for a service about fine print.
For an offer you're still weighing up.
+ VAT
Pilot
For the loan agreement and up to 3 finance documents, before you sign. Total commitments under £3m.
+ VAT
Pilot
Total commitments of £3m or more, or 4 to 5 other finance documents.
+ VAT
Pilot
More than 5 other documents, several lenders, or something unusual? Tell us what you have and we'll confirm a fixed fee before any work begins.
Total commitments means every facility your lender is committing in the documents, added together, whether you draw it or not. Other finance documents means anything signed alongside the facility agreement, such as guarantees, debentures, legal charges and agreements between lenders.
Our founder spent years on the lender's side of the table. Time and again, he saw business owners, people whose real passion is their business, become anxious when faced with loan documents, lawyers and banks. Not because the deals were bad, but because nobody took the time to explain the commercial terms. Layman's Terms AI exists to change that.
AI does the heavy reading. The judgement on what matters, what stands out and what to ask comes from experience, and from our growing, anonymised record of real UK loan terms, so each report draws on more of the market than the last.
Alongside your advisers
Your solicitor covers the law and your accountant the numbers. We cover the commercial terms from the lender's side, and write our report so they can use it.
Independent
Paid only by you. We take no fees or commissions from lenders.
Confidential
Encrypted storage, documents deleted after 90 days, never used to train third-party AI models.
Backed by data
Each report draws on a growing, anonymised record of real UK loan terms, and every review adds to it. Your business and the people in it are never named.
No jargon
If we have to use a technical term, we explain what it means for you.
You can, and for a quick summary it may help. But an AI tool will tell you what a clause says, not whether it matters for your business, whether it's normal for a loan like yours, or what's worth raising with your lender. That judgement comes from years of sitting on the lender's side of the table, and from our growing record of real UK loan terms. We use AI too, to do the heavy reading, but a lending specialist decides what goes in every report. And unlike pasting your documents into a public tool, your documents stay confidential and are never used to train third-party AI models.
If you're an accountant or solicitor, there's a further benefit: an independent view from a lending specialist, set out the same way every time. You can put it alongside your own advice, compare one client's loan with another's, and show your client that someone outside the deal has looked at the commercial terms.
Your term sheet or loan agreement, with the schedules and any side letters. Your last filed accounts, plus management accounts and a forecast if you have them. And a sentence on what the money is for and how you plan to repay it, because the same terms can be sensible for one purpose and risky for another. We use your figures to test what the documents ask of you, not to assess your business, and we don't audit or verify them. No forecast? That's fine, and it won't hold up your review: we'll test your headroom against your trading history instead, and say so in the report. Your accountant or solicitor can send everything for you.
Almost always. Loan documents usually allow sharing with professional advisers who keep them confidential, which we do. If yours don't, we'll help you ask the bank.
No. We explain the commercial terms of your loan documents so you understand what they ask of you. We don't give legal, financial or tax advice or recommend whether to accept a loan, and our reports must not be relied on as the basis for that decision. Before signing, especially a personal guarantee, take advice from a solicitor.
Quite a few things, deliberately. We don't tell you whether to sign, and we don't negotiate with your lender or contact them on your behalf. We don't introduce lenders or arrange finance, and we take no fees or commissions from them, so our only interest is yours. We don't advise on hedging, fixing your rate or any other investment. And we don't replace your solicitor or accountant: our report is written to sit alongside their advice and make it go further.
No. We're there to support their work, not replace it. They advise you; we add a lending specialist's read of the commercial terms, in a report they can use. Lenders and lawyers do important work, and we're not second-guessing them: the aim is easier conversations with your advisers and your bank.
Yes. Send the documents yourself with your client's agreement, or have them get in touch. Our report is written to sit alongside your advice. To talk about working together, email stephen@laymanstermsai.co.uk.
Because it's a different job, and because AI does the heavy reading. A solicitor makes sure the documents work legally; we explain the commercial terms. With AI reading every line, a lending specialist's time goes on judgement rather than reading, and the fee stays fixed.
Only if you tell them. We never contact your lender.
We delete your documents 90 days after your report. We keep an anonymised record of your loan's commercial terms, such as the lender, pricing, fees and covenants, without your business's name or anyone's name. Every review adds to this record, as a condition of the service. It's how each report can draw on more of the market than the last.
Any business loan, from any bank or specialist lender, for UK limited companies and LLPs. Still weighing up an offer? The Term Sheet Explainer at + VAT. Under £3m with up to 3 other finance documents, such as a guarantee or debenture, it's the Facility Agreement Review at + VAT. For £3m or more, or 4 to 5 other finance documents, it's the Full Facility Pack Review at + VAT. If your loan doesn't fit any of these, for example more than 5 other finance documents, email stephen@laymanstermsai.co.uk and we'll confirm a fixed fee before any work begins.
Then this service isn't the right one for you. If you feel vulnerable or your business is in financial distress, please seek appropriate business advice: your accountant, a licensed insolvency practitioner, or free, confidential help from Business Debtline.
Know what you're signing before you sign it.
Start your reviewAdviser with a client in mind? Talk to us.
Business in financial difficulty? This service isn't right for you. Please seek business debt advice, for example from Business Debtline.