The seventh [year] cancels loans, [whether they are recorded] in a document or not [recorded] in a document. It does not cancel shop credit, but if he converted it into a loan it is canceled. R’ Yehudah says: The earlier [debt] is canceled. The wage of a hired person is not canceled; but if he converted it into a loan, it is canceled. R’ Yose says: Any work which ceases in the seventh [year] is canceled, but that which does not cease in the seventh [year] is not canceled.

[If] someone slaughters a cow and apportions it on Rosh Hashanah if the month [of Elul] was full, it is canceled; but if not, it is not canceled. [The penalty of] a violator, a seducer, and a slanderer, and any court decree, are not canceled. One who lends on collateral, and one who hands his documents over to the court, does not [have his loan] canceled.

A prozbul is not canceled. This was one of the things which Hillel the Elder instituted. When he saw that the people refrained from lending money to each other and transgressed what is written in the Torah (Deut. 15:9): Take heed lest there be an evil thought in your heart . . ., Hillel instituted the prozbul.

This is the essence of the prozbul: I submit to you, so-and-so and so-and-so the judges who are in such and such a place, that every debt due me I will [be allowed to] collect whenever I wish. And the judges sign at the bottom [of the document] or the witnesses.