The Emergency Loan category is the one category for which you should always earn 100 points.

• 100 points — No emergency loan
• 50 points — Emergency loans to $5 million
• 20 points — Emergency loans to $10 million

In the real world emergency loans do not exist. When you run out of cash, you have "a liquidity crisis", "Chapter 11", or simply "Bankruptcy" on your hands. Capstone^® gives you every benefit of a doubt, and every opportunity to come up with the money to pay your bills, but if you are out of cash on December 31st, "Big Al" arrives to give you just enough cash to bail you out and bring the Cash account to zero.

Emergency loans are closely linked to your working capital policy and forecasting abilities. Most loans are rooted in two mistakes:

• An unexpected and dramatic expansion in inventory;
  
• Funding plant expansion with "excess" working capital. Or worse, forgetting to fund the plant improvements at all.

That being stated, there are varying degrees of emergency loans. Depending on the size of the emergency loan, a team could receive the following:

At $5 million, a small emergency loan, your company merely met a small hiccup and your team is awarded 50 points. Even with a small emergency loan such as this one your company can still increase in stock price and be profitable.

Up to $10 million, your company is noticeably in trouble and most likely shareholders will notice. This is a red flag that something is not working and needs urgent fixing. Your team is awarded 20 points.

Beyond $10 million your team is awarded no points because it will be very difficult to return to a profitable position. While it is possible, it may take a few rounds, or years, to turn around your company but it will be an uphill battle.