Field notes · 2 April 2026
How we read a debt schedule before committee week
A practical walkthrough of debt schedule checks during a financial audit of applications for term and revolving facilities.
A debt schedule is not decoration. It tells the lender what claims already sit ahead of the new facility.
We start with facility names and lenders, then confirm outstanding balances against recent statements. Next we check maturity dates against the proposed tenor — refinancing a balloon that falls inside the new loan’s life is a common oversight.
Interest rates and security columns matter when the application claims “pari passu” or “second ranking.” If the schedule is silent on ranking, we flag it. Finally we total committed lines, not only drawn amounts, because undrawn revolvers still consume capacity.
If your schedule is a single row labeled “bank loans,” rebuild it before asking for a review. Granularity is what makes a financial audit of applications useful.