Get your SBA loan status from CAFS through an API

What you can build on CAFS

• Get SBA loan status

  Build this

  Reads the loan header for each SBA loan number you give: loan name, lender, loan status and its date, note date, maturity date and current rate.

  Takes

  SBA loan numbers

  Returns

  SBA loan number, loan name, lender name, loan status, status date, note date, maturity date, current gross rate, comments

• Check E-Tran application status

  Build this

  Looks up an E-Tran origination application by SBA application number or by your own application or loan number and reads where it stands.

  Takes

  SBA application number, or your application number, or your loan number

  Returns

  SBA application number, your application number, your loan number, status, status details

• Get loan payments and balances

  Build this

  Reads the payments posted and the closing balance for each SBA loan number you give.

  Takes

  SBA loan numbers

  Returns

  SBA loan number, date posted, interest from and to dates, interest, principal, total payment, outstanding balance, interest paid to date, closing balance, lender percentage

• Submit a 1502 report line

  Build this

  Submits one loan's 1502 reporting line: status, next due date, interest period, amounts disbursed and undisbursed, guaranteed interest and principal, and amount remitted.

  Takes

  SBA loan number, your account number, status, next due date, interest from and to, amounts, interest rate

  Returns

  SBA loan number, accepted, error message

Automate CAFS with a workflow

A workflow runs your methods as one process, with nobody at the screen. A schedule or a call from your own system starts it, the steps run in order, and the result arrives in your inbox or in the systems you already use.

• SBA loans whose status changed, each morning

  Build this

  Starts

  Every weekday at 7:00

  Step 1

  Get the SBA loan status for every loan number in your portfolio list.

  Step 2

  Keep the loans whose loan status changed since the last run.

  Step 3

  Email you the list with loan name, old and new status, status date and comments.

• E-Tran application status changes, posted to your loan system

  Build this

  Starts

  Every weekday at 12:00

  Step 1

  For each SBA application number in your list, check the E-Tran application status.

  Step 2

  Keep the applications whose status changed since the last run.

  Step 3

  Post each one, with its numbers and status details, to your loan origination system's webhook.

• Monthly payments and balances, handed to accounting

  Build this

  Starts

  On the 5th of every month at 8:00

  Step 1

  Get the payments and balances for every SBA loan in your portfolio list.

  Step 2

  Keep the payments posted in the previous month.

  Step 3

  Post each payment and each closing balance to your accounting system's webhook.

You can run a workflow by hand on every plan, Free included. Schedules and webhook triggers come with the paid plans, from $29 a month.

Once built, one call from your code

Once you have built a method, it is one POST to /v1/runs from your backend, or a tool an AI agent calls over MCP. This is what “Get SBA loan status” would look like.

curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "method": "caweb.sba.gov/get_sba_loan_status",
    "input": {
      "sba_loan_numbers": [
        "1234567001",
        "1234568002"
      ]
    }
  }'

{
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "loans": [
      {
        "sba_loan_number": "1234567001",
        "loan_name": "Acme Machining LLC",
        "lender_name": "Northwind Community Bank",
        "loan_status": "Fully Disbursed",
        "loan_status_date": "2026-10-28",
        "note_date": "2026-08-14",
        "maturity_date": "2036-08-14",
        "current_gross_rate_pct": 9.75,
        "comments": null
      }
    ],
    "count": 1
  }
}

An example with invented data, not a ready-made endpoint. The method exists in your organization once you build it, and its name, inputs and fields follow your request.

CAFS’s own options

SBA documents E-Tran web services for lenders and their software vendors, in SOAP with XML or REST with JSON. They cover loan origination, servicing, loan lists and 1502 reporting, and each call uses an individual CAFS login and a PIN. A vendor signs an Interconnection Security Agreement and is onboarded and tested before it connects.

Read on November 12, 2026: SBA API documentation: Vendor Integration, SBA API documentation: Vendor Integration FAQ, SBA API documentation: Method LoanList v3.

Signing in to CAFS

CAFS signs you in with your own username and password. SBA's documentation says its web services require two-factor authentication with a PIN sent by text message or email, as set in your CLS profile. With Fous you sign in once through CAFS's own sign-in with your own account: the login is sealed with AES-256, a PIN that comes by email is handled, and an expired session is signed back in.

Worth knowing

Individual logins only

SBA issues credentials to individual users and provides no non-expiring system-to-system credentials. The same CAFS account works on the screens and for API calls.

Roles decide what a login can do

Entering applications needs the Enter/Edit your SBA Loan Applications role under ETRAN for your Location ID. Loan lists and 1502 reporting need update permissions in the FTA Portal.

Test and production are separate

Test needs its own credentials, which typically take 1 to 3 business days to create, and production credentials do not work there. Test applications are not processed beyond validation.

No more SBSS scores for small loans

Since March 1, 2026, SBA no longer screens or assigns SBSS scores for 7(a) Small Loans under $350,000, and the E-Tran service that skipped scoring is decommissioned.

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