Covenant Compliance Monitor
A credit agreement tests several covenants on the same date, and the one that matters is rarely the one you are watching. This monitor tracks the whole package across your reporting periods — DSCR, leverage, fixed-charge coverage, current ratio, and minimum EBITDA — flags each on headroom, and names the covenant that binds first.
Your covenant package
Tick the covenants your agreement actually tests, key the limit, then one actual per reporting period — oldest on the left.
| Covenant | Limit | Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Period 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A hard floor set in the agreement, not a ratio. Enter Minimum EBITDA in dollars; every other covenant is a multiple.
Compliance position
Binding constraint
Total leverage
+1.7% of headroom — about 1 more period on the current trend before it trips.
| Covenant | Latest | Limit | Headroom | Trend | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debt service coverage (DSCR) | 1.40x | ≥ 1.25x | +12.0% | trips in ~8 | Watch |
| Total leverage | 2.95x | ≤ 3.00x | +1.7% | trips in ~1 | Tight |
| Fixed-charge coverage (FCCR) | 1.16x | ≥ 1.10x | +5.5% | trips in ~2 | Watch |
Amber at 15% of the limit, red at 5% — the thresholds in our tracker template. The projection is a straight line through the periods you entered, so it reads a trajectory, not a forecast: a real credit agreement defines each term precisely (add-backs, leases, cash netting) and a seasonal quarter will bend the line.
Most covenant reporting fails in the same place: a single ratio is checked the week the certificate is due, so a trend that has been eroding for three quarters shows up as a surprise. Tracking every covenant side by side across periods is what turns a breach into something you raise with the bank rather than something the bank raises with you.
For one ratio in one period, the Covenant Headroom Calculator is faster — it answers how far EBITDA can fall before DSCR or leverage binds. If you want the layout to keep this in a spreadsheet instead, the Covenant Compliance Tracker template has the formulas and the early-warning thresholds this tool applies.
When a covenant is genuinely tight, the work is the bridge to your actual credit agreement and the plan back into compliance — a turnaround CFO builds that. If a covenant has already breached and the lender is discussing relief, a forbearance CFO runs the weekly reporting the agreement requires. Book a working session.
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Book a working session.
A 20-minute call, a clear read on your numbers, and a straight answer on whether a fractional CFO is the right call right now.