financial projections for business plan template

Free Financial Projection and Forecasting Templates

By Andy Marker | January 3, 2024

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We’ve collected the top free financial projection and forecasting templates. These templates enable business owners, CFOs, accountants, and financial analysts to plan future growth, manage cash flow, attract investors, and make informed decisions.  On this page, you'll find many helpful, free, customizable financial projection and forecasting templates, including a  1 2-month financial projection template , a  startup financial projection template , a  3-year financial projection template , and a  small business financial forecast template , among others. You’ll also find details on the  elements in a financial projection template ,  types of financial projection and forecasting templates , and  related financial templates .

Simple Financial Projection Template

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Small business owners and new entrepreneurs are the ideal users for this simple financial projection template. Just input your expected revenues and expenses. This template stands out due to its ease of use and focus on basic, straightforward financial planning, making it perfect for small-scale or early-stage businesses. Available with or without sample text, this tool offers clear financial oversight, better budget management, and informed decision-making regarding future business growth. 

Looking for help with your business plan? Check out these  free financial templates for a business plan to streamline the process of organizing your business's financial information and presenting it effectively to stakeholders.

Financial Forecast Template

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This template is perfect for businesses that require a detailed and all-encompassing forecast. Users can input various financial data, such as projected revenues, costs, and market trends, to generate a complete financial outlook. Available with or without example text, this template gives you a deeper understanding of your business's financial trajectory, aiding in strategic decision-making and long-term financial stability. 

These  free cash-flow forecast templates help you predict your business’s future cash inflows and outflows, allowing you to manage liquidity and optimize financial planning.

12-Month Financial Projection Template

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Use this 12-month financial projection template for better cash-flow management, more accurate budgeting, and enhanced readiness for short-term financial challenges and opportunities. Input estimated monthly revenues and expenses, tracking financial performance over the course of a year. Available with or without sample text, this template is ideal for business owners who need to focus on short-term financial planning. This tool allows you to respond quickly to market shifts and plan effectively for the business's crucial first year. 

Download  free sales forecasting templates to help your business predict future sales, enabling better inventory management, resource planning, and decision-making.

Startup Financial Projection Template

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This dynamic startup financial projection template is ideal for startup founders and entrepreneurs, as it's designed specifically for the unique needs of startups. Available with or without example text, this template focuses on clearly outlining a startup's initial financial trajectory, an essential component for attracting investors. Users can input projected revenues, startup costs, and funding sources to create a comprehensive financial forecast.

3-Year Financial Projection Template

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This three-year financial projection template is particularly useful for business strategists and financial planners who are looking for a medium-term financial planning tool. Input data such as projected revenues, expenses, and growth rates for the next three years. Available with or without sample text, this template lets you anticipate financial challenges and opportunities in the medium term, aiding in strategic decision-making and ensuring sustained business growth.

5-Year Financial Forecasting Template

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CFOs and long-term business planners can use this five-year financial forecasting template to get a clear, long-range financial vision. Available with or without example text, this template allows you to plan strategically and invest wisely, preparing your business for future market developments and opportunities. This unique tool offers an extensive outlook for your business’s financial strategy. Simply input detailed financial data spanning five years, including revenue projections, investment plans, and expected market growth. Visually engaging bar charts of key metrics help turn data into engaging narratives.

Small Business Financial Forecast Template

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The small business financial forecast template is tailored specifically for the scale and specific requirements of small enterprises. Business owners and financial managers can simply input data such as projected sales or expenses. Available with or without sample text, this tool offers the ability to do the following: envision straightforward financial planning; anticipate future financial needs and challenges; make informed decisions; and steer the business toward steady growth.

Elements in a Financial Projection Template

The elements in a financial projection template include future sales, costs, profits, and cash flow. This template illustrates expected receivables, payables, and break-even dates. This tool helps you plan for your business's financial future and growth.   

Here are the standard elements in a financial projection template:   

• Revenue Projection: This estimates future income from various sources over a specific period.
• Expense Forecast: This predicts future costs, including both fixed and variable expenses.
• Profit and Loss Forecast:  This projects the profit or loss by subtracting projected expenses from projected revenues.
• Cash-Flow Projection: This assesses the inflows and outflows of cash, indicating liquidity over time.
• Balance Sheet Projection: This predicts the future financial position, showing assets, liabilities, and equity.
• Break-Even Analysis: This calculates the point at which total revenues equal total costs.
• Capital Expenditure Forecast: This estimates future spending on fixed assets such as equipment or property.
• Debt Repayment Plan: This outlines the schedule for paying back any borrowed funds.
• Sales Forecast:  This predicts future sales volume, often broken down by product or service.
• Gross Margin Analysis:  This looks at the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold.

Types of Financial Projection and Forecasting Templates

There are many types of financial projection and forecasting templates: basic templates for small businesses; detailed ones for big companies; special ones for startup businesses; and others. There are also sales forecasts, cash-flow estimates, and profit and loss projections. 

In addition, financial projection and forecasting templates include long-term planning templates, break-even analyses, budget forecasts, and templates made for specific industries such as retail or manufacturing. 

Each template serves different financial planning needs. Determine which one best suits your requirements based on the scale of your business, the complexity of its financial structure, and the specific department that you want to analyze.

Here's a list of the top types of financial projection and forecasting templates:  

• Basic Financial Projection Template: Ideal for small businesses or startups, this template provides a straightforward approach to forecasting revenue, expenses, and cash flow.
• Detailed Financial Projection Template: Best for larger businesses or those with complex financial structures, this template offers in-depth projections, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash-flow statements.
• Startup Financial Projection Template: Tailored for startups, this template focuses on funding requirements and early-stage revenue forecasts, both crucial for attracting investors and planning initial operations. 
• Sales Forecasting Template:  Used by sales and marketing teams to predict future sales, this template helps you set targets and plan marketing strategies. 
• Cash-Flow Forecast Template: Essential for financial managers who need to monitor the liquidity of the business, this template projects cash inflows and outflows over a period. 
• Profit and Loss Forecast Template (P&L):  Useful for business owners and financial officers who need to anticipate profit margins, this template enables you to forecast revenues and expenses.  
• Three-Year / Five-Year Financial Projection Template: Suitable for long-term business planning, these templates provide a broader view of your company’s financial future, improving your development strategy and investor presentations. 
• Break-Even Analysis Template:  Used by business strategists and financial analysts, this template helps you determine when your business will become profitable. 
• Budget Forecasting Template:  Designed for budget managers, this template uses historical financial data to help you plan your future spending. 
• Sector-Specific Financial Projection Template:  Designed for specific industries (such as retail or manufacturing), these templates take into account industry-specific factors and benchmarks.

Related Financial Templates

Check out this list of free financial templates related to financial projections and forecasting. You'll find templates for budgeting, tracking profits and losses, planning your finances, and more. These tools help keep your company’s money matters organized and clear.

Free Project Budget Templates

Use one of these  project budget templates to maintain control over project finances, ensuring costs stay aligned with the allocated budget and improving overall financial management.

Free Monthly Budget Templates

Use one of these  monthly budget templates to effectively track and manage your business’s income and expenses, helping you plan financially and save money.

Free Expense Report Templates

Use one of these  expense report templates to systematically track and document all business-related expenditures, ensuring accurate reimbursement and efficient financial record-keeping.

Free Balance Sheet Templates

Use one of these  balance sheet templates to summarize your company's financial position at a given time.

Free Cash-Flow Forecast Templates

Use one of these  cash-flow forecast templates to predict future cash inflows and outflows, helping you manage liquidity and make informed financial decisions.

Free Cash-Flow Statement Templates

Use one of these  cash-flow statement templates to track the movement of cash in and out of your business, so you can assess your company’s level of liquidity and financial stability.

Free Discounted Cash-Flow (DCF) Templates

Use one of these  discounted cash-flow (DCF) templates to evaluate the profitability of investments or projects by calculating their present value based on future cash flows.

Free Financial Dashboard Templates

Use one of these  financial dashboard templates to get an at-a-glance view of key financial metrics, so you can make decisions quickly and manage finances effectively.

Related Customer Stories

Free financial planning templates.

Use one of these  financial planning templates to strategically organize and forecast future finances, helping you set realistic financial goals and ensure long-term business growth.

Free Profit and Loss (P&L) Templates

Use one of these  profit and loss (P&L) templates to systematically track income and expenses, giving you a clear picture of your company's profitability over a specific period.

Free Billing and Invoice Templates

Use one of these  billing and invoice templates to streamline the invoicing process and ensure that you bill clients accurately and professionally for services or products.

Plan and Manage Your Company’s Financial Future with Financial Projection and Forecasting Templates from Smartsheet

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Business Plan Financial Projections Template

Identify financial requirements and objectives, draft projected income statement, detail projected balance sheet, calculate projected cash flow statement, apply appropriate financial ratios analysis.

• 1 Current Ratio
• 2 Gross Profit Margin
• 3 Return on Investment
• 4 Debt-to-Equity Ratio
• 5 Inventory Turnover

Adjust for inflation rate predictions

Consider the impact of business growth on financial projections, check cost assumptions for products and services, investigate potential risks and variables in the financial projection, approval: financial analyst for initial review.

• Draft projected income statement Will be submitted
• Detail projected balance sheet Will be submitted
• Calculate projected cash flow statement Will be submitted
• Apply appropriate financial ratios analysis Will be submitted
• Adjust for inflation rate predictions Will be submitted
• Consider the impact of business growth on financial projections Will be submitted
• Check cost assumptions for products and services Will be submitted
• Investigate potential risks and variables in the financial projection Will be submitted

Incorporate feedback and modify financial projections accordingly

Cross-check with industry standards and competitor analysis, analyse break-even point and profitability metrics, compile final draft of financial projections, approval: ceo review and validation of final draft.

• Incorporate feedback and modify financial projections accordingly Will be submitted
• Cross-check with industry standards and competitor analysis Will be submitted
• Analyse break-even point and profitability metrics Will be submitted
• Compile final draft of financial projections Will be submitted

Send financial projections for external auditing

Conduct scenario analysis for best-case, worst-case, and most likely outcomes, discuss and finalize plan with key stakeholders, approval: board of directors.

• Send financial projections for external auditing Will be submitted
• Conduct scenario analysis for best-case, worst-case, and most likely outcomes Will be submitted
• Discuss and finalize plan with key stakeholders Will be submitted

Implement financial projections into overall business plan

Take control of your workflows today., more templates like this.

How to Create Financial Projections for Your Business Plan

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Financial projections, also known as financial models, are forecasts of your company’s expected financial performance, typically over the next 5 years.

Over the past 25+ years, we’ve created financial projections for thousands of startups and existing businesses. In doing so, we’ve found 3 key reasons why financial projections are important:

• They help you determine the viability of your new business ideas and/or your need to make modifications to them. For instance, if your initial financial projections show your business idea isn’t profitable, you’ll know that changes are needed (e.g., raising prices, serving new markets, figuring out how to reduce costs, etc.) to make it viable.
• They are crucial for raising funding. Lenders will always review your financial projections to ensure you can comfortably repay any loans they issue you. Equity investors will nearly always review your projections in determining whether they can achieve their desired return on their investment in your business.
• They help keep your business financially on track by giving you goals. For instance, if your financial projections state your company should generate 100 new clients this year, and the year is halfway done and you’re only at 30 clients, you’ll know you need to readjust your strategy to achieve your goals.

In the remainder of this article, you’ll learn more about financial projections, how to complete them, and how to incorporate them in your business plan.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template Here to Quickly & Easily Complete Your Business Plan & Financial Projections

What are Financial Projections?

Financial projections are forecasts or estimations of your company’s future revenues and expenses, serving as a crucial part of business planning. To complete them you must develop multiple assumptions with regards to items like future sales volumes, employee headcount and the cost of supplies and other expenses. Financial projections help you create better strategies to grow your business.

Your financial projections will be the most analyzed part of your business plan by investors and/or banks. While never a precise prediction of future performance, an excellent financial model outlines the core assumptions of your business and helps you and others evaluate capital requirements, risks involved, and rewards that successful execution will deliver.

Having a solid framework in place also will help you compare your performance to the financial projections and evaluate how your business is progressing. If your performance is behind your projections, you will have a framework in place to assess the effects of lowering costs, increasing prices, or even reimagining your model. In the happy case that you exceed your business projections, you can use your framework to plan for accelerated growth, new hires, or additional expansion investments.

Hence, the use of financial projections is multi-fold and crucial for the success of any business. Your financial projections should include three core financial statements – the income statement, the cash flow statement, and the balance sheet. The following section explains each statement in detail.

Necessary Financial Statements

The three financial statements are the income statement, the cash flow statement, and the balance sheet. You will learn how to create each one in detail below.  

Income Statement Projection

The projected income statement is also referred to as a profit and loss statement and showcases your business’s revenues and expenses for a specific period.

To create an income statement, you first will need to chart out a sales forecast by taking realistic estimates of units sold and multiplying them by price per unit to arrive at a total sales number. Then, estimate the cost of these units and multiply them by the number of units to get the cost of sales. Finally, calculate your gross margin by subtracting the cost of sales from your sales.

Once you have calculated your gross margin, deduct items like wages, rent, marketing costs, and other expenses that you plan to pay to facilitate your business’s operations. The resulting total represents your projected operating income, which is a critical business metric.

Plan to create an income statement monthly until your projected break-even, or the point at which future revenues outpace total expenses, and you reflect operating profit. From there, annual income statements will suffice.

Sample Income Statement

Consider a sample income statement for a retail store below:

Cash Flow Projection

As the name indicates, a cash flow statement shows the cash flowing in and out of your business. The cash flow statement incorporates cash from business operations and includes cash inflows and outflows from investment and financing activities to deliver a holistic cash picture of your company.

Investment activities include purchasing land or equipment or research & development activities that aren’t necessarily part of daily operations. Cash movements due to financing activities include cash flowing in a business through investors and/or banks and cash flowing out due to debt repayment or distributions made to shareholders.

You should total all these three components of a cash flow projection for any specified period to arrive at a total ending cash balance. Constructing solid cash flow projections will ensure you anticipate capital needs to carry the business to a place of sustainable operations.

Sample Cash Flow Statement

Below is a simple cash flow statement for the same retail store:

Balance Sheet Projection

A balance sheet shows your company’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity for a certain period and provides a snapshot in time of your business performance. Assets include things of value that the business owns, such as inventory, capital, and land. Liabilities, on the other hand, are legally bound commitments like payables for goods or services rendered and debt. Finally, owner’s equity refers to the amount that is remaining once liabilities are paid off. Assets must total – or balance – liabilities and equity.

Your startup financial documents should include annual balance sheets that show the changing balance of assets, liabilities, and equity as the business progresses. Ideally, that progression shows a reduction in liabilities and an increase in equity over time.

While constructing these varied business projections, remember to be flexible. You likely will need to go back and forth between the different financial statements since working on one will necessitate changes to the others.

Sample Balance Sheet

Below is a simple balance sheet for the retail store:

How to Finish Your Business Plan and Financial Projections in 1 Day!

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How to Create Financial Projections

When it comes to financial forecasting, simplicity is key. Your financial projections do not have to be overly sophisticated and complicated to impress, and convoluted projections likely will have the opposite effect on potential investors. Keep your tables and graphs simple and fill them with credible data that inspires confidence in your plan and vision. The below tips will help bolster your financial projections.  

Create a List of Assumptions

Your financial projections should be tied to a list of assumptions. For example, one assumption will be the initial monthly cash sales you achieve. Another assumption will be your monthly growth rate. As you can imagine, changing either of these assumptions will significantly impact your financial projections.

As a result, tie your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements to your assumptions. That way, if you change your assumptions, all of your financial projections automatically update.

Below are the key assumptions to include in your financial model:

For EACH essential product or service you offer:

• What is the number of units you expect to sell each month?
• What is your expected monthly sales growth rate?
• What is the average price that you will charge per product or service unit sold?
• How much do you expect to raise your prices each year?
• How much does it cost you to produce or deliver each unit sold?
• How much (if at all) do you expect your direct product costs to grow each year?

For EACH subscription/membership, you offer:

• What is the monthly/quarterly/annual price of your membership?
• How many members do you have now, or how many members do you expect to gain in the first month/quarter/year?
• What is your projected monthly/quarterly/annual growth rate in the number of members?
• What is your projected monthly/quarterly/annual member churn (the percentage of members that will cancel each month/quarter/year)?
• What is the average monthly/quarterly/annual direct cost to serve each member (if applicable)?

Cost Assumptions

• What is your monthly salary? What is the annual growth rate in your salary?
• What is your monthly salary for the rest of your team? What is the expected annual growth rate in your team’s salaries?
• What is your initial monthly marketing expense? What is the expected annual growth rate in your marketing expense?
• What is your initial monthly rent + utility expense? What is the expected annual growth rate in your rent + utility expense?
• What is your initial monthly insurance expense? What is the expected annual growth rate in your insurance expense?
• What is your initial monthly office supplies expense? What is the expected annual growth rate in your office supplies expense?
• What is your initial monthly cost for “other” expenses? What is the expected annual growth rate in your “other” expenses?

Capital Expenditures, Funding, Tax, and Balance Sheet Items

• How much money do you need for Capital Expenditures in your first year  (to buy computers, desks, equipment, space build-out, etc.)?
• How much other funding do you need right now?
• What percent of the funding will be financed by Debt (versus equity)?
• What Corporate Tax Rate would you like to apply to company profits?
• What is your Current Liabilities Turnover (in the number of days)?
• What are your Current Assets, excluding cash (in the number of days)?
• What is your Depreciation rate?
• What is your Amortization number of Years?
• What is the number of years in which your debt (loan) must be paid back?
• What is your Debt Payback interest rate?

Create Two Financial Projection Scenarios

It would be best if you used your assumptions to create two sets of financial projections that exhibit two very different scenarios. One is your best-case scenario, and the other is your worst-case. Investors are usually very interested in how a business plan will play out in both these scenarios, allowing them to better analyze the robustness and potential profitability of a business.  

Conduct a Ratio Analysis

Gain an understanding of average industry financial ratios, including operating ratios, profitability ratios, return on investment ratios, and the like. You can then compare your own estimates with these existing ratios to evaluate costs you may have overlooked or find historical financial data to support your projected performance. This ratio analysis helps ensure your financial projections are neither excessively optimistic nor excessively pessimistic.  

Be Realistic

It is easy to get carried away when dealing with estimates and you end up with very optimistic financial projections that will feel untenable to an objective audience. Investors are quick to notice and question inflated figures. Rather than excite investors, such scenarios will compromise your legitimacy.  

Create Multi-Year Financial Projections

The first year of your financial projections should be presented on a granular, monthly basis. For subsequent years, annual projections will suffice. It is advised to have three- or five-year projections ready when you start courting investors. Since your plan needs to be succinct, you can add yearly projections as appendices to your main plan.

You should now know how to create financial projections for your business plan. In addition to creating your full projections as their own document, you will need to insert your financial projections into your plan. In your executive summary, Insert your topline projections, that is, just your sales, gross margins, recurring expenses, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), and net income). In the financial plan section of your plan, insert your key assumptions and a little more detail than your topline projections. Include your full financial model in the appendix of your plan.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

How To Create Startup Financial Projections [+Template]

Businesses run on revenue, and accurate startup financial projections are a vital tool that allows you to make major business decisions with confidence. Financial projections break down your estimated sales, expenses, profit, and cash flow to create a vision of your potential future.

In addition to decision-making, projections are huge for validating your business to investors or partners who can aid your growth. If you haven’t already created a financial statement, the metrics in this template can help you craft one to secure lenders.

Whether your startup is in the seed stage or you want to go public in the next few years, this financial projection template for startups can show you the best new opportunities for your business’s development.

In this article:

• What is a startup financial projection?
• How to write a financial projection
• Startup expenses
• Sales forecasts
• Operating expenses
• Income statements
• Balance sheet
• Break-even analysiFinancial ratios Startup financial
• rojections template

What is a financial projection for startups?

A financial projection uses existing revenue and expense data to estimate future cash flow in and out of the business with a month-to-month breakdown.

These financial forecasts allow businesses to establish internal goals and processes considering seasonality, industry trends, and financial history. These projections cover three to five years of cash flow and are valuable for making and supporting financial decisions.

Financial projections can also be used to validate the business’s expected growth and returns to entice investors. Though a financial statement is a better fit for most lenders, many actuals used to validate your forecast are applied to both documents.

Projections are great for determining how financially stable your business will be in the coming years, but they’re not 100% accurate. There are several variables that can impact your revenue performance, while financial projections identify these specific considerations:

• Internal sales trends
• Identifiable risks
• Opportunities for growth
• Core operation questions

To help manage unforeseeable risks and variables that could impact financial projections, you should review and update your report regularly — not just once a year. 

How do you write a financial projection for a startup?

Financial projections consider a range of internal revenue and expense data to estimate sales volumes, profit, costs, and a variety of financial ratios. All of this information is typically broken into two sections:

• Sales forecasts : includes units sold, number of customers, and profit
• Expense budget : includes fixed and variable operating costs

Financial projections also use existing financial statements to support your estimated forecasts, including:

• Income stateme
• Cash flow document

Gathering your business’s financial data and statements is one of the first steps to preparing your complete financial projection. Next, you’ll import that information into your financial projection document or template.

This foundation will help you build the rest of your forecast, which includes:

• Cash flow statements
• Break-even analysis
• Financial ratios

Once all of your data is gathered, you can organize your insights via a top-down or bottom-up forecasting methods.

The top-down approach begins with an overview of your market, then works into the details of your specific revenue. This can be especially valuable if you have a lot of industry data, or you’re a startup that doesn’t have existing sales to build from. However, this relies on a lot of averages and trends will be generalized.

Bottom-up forecasting begins with the details of your business and assumptions like your estimated sales and unit prices. You then use that foundation to determine your projected revenue. This process focuses on your business’s details across departments for more accurate reporting. However, mistakes early in forecasting can compound as you “build up.”

1. Startup expenses

If your startup is still in the seed stage or expected to grow significantly in the next few quarters, you’ll need to account for these additional expenses that companies beyond the expansion phase may not have to consider.

Depending on your startup stage, typical costs may include:

• Advertising and marketing
• Lawyer fees
• Licenses and permits
• Market research
• Merchandise
• Office space
• Website development

Many of these costs also fall under operating expenses, though as a startup, items like your office space lease may have additional costs to consider, like a down payment or renovation labor and materials.

2. Sales forecasts

Sales forecasts can be created using a number of different forecasting methods designed to determine how much an individual, team, or company will sell in a given amount of time.

This data is similar to your financial projections in that it helps your organization set targets, make informed business decisions, and identify new opportunities. A sales forecast report is just much more niche, using industry knowledge and historical sales data to determine your future sales. Gather data to include:

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Cost of goods sold (COGS)
• Sales quotas and attainment
• Pipeline coverage
• Customer relationship management (CRM) score
• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), typically used for SaaS companies

Sales forecasts should consider interdepartmental trends and data, too. In addition to your sales process and historical details, connect with other teams to apply insights from:

• Marketing strategies for the forecast period
• New product launches
• Financial considerations and targets
• Employee needs and resources from HR

Your sales strategy and forecasts are directly tied to your financial success, so an accurate sales forecast is essential to creating an effective financial projection.

3. Operating expenses

Whereas the costs of goods solds (aka Cost of Sales or COGS) account for variable costs associated with producing the products or services you produce, operating expenses are the additional costs of running your startup, including everything from payroll and office rent to sales and marketing expenses.

In addition to these fixed costs, you’ll need to anticipate one-time costs, like replacing broken machinery or holiday bonuses. If you’ve been in business for a few years, you can take a look at previous years’ expenses to see what one-time costs you ran into, or estimate a percentage of your total expenses that contributed to variable costs.

4. Cash flow statements

Cash flow statements (CFS) compare a business’s incoming cash totals, including investments and operating profit, to their expected expenses, including operational costs and debt payments.

Cash flow shows a company’s overall money management and is one of three major financial statements, next to balance sheets and income statements. It can be calculated using one of two methods:

• Direct Method : calculates actual cash flow in and out of the company
• Indirect Method : adjusts net income considering non-cash revenue and expenses

Businesses can use either method to determine cash flow, though presentation differs slightly. Typically, indirect cash flow methods are preferred by accountants who largely use accrual accounting methods .

5. Income statements

Your income statement projection utilizes your sales forecasts, estimated expenses, and existing income statements to calculate an expected net income for the future.

In addition to the hard numbers available, you should apply your industry expertise to consider new opportunities for your business to grow. If you’re entering Series C, you should anticipate the extra investments and big returns that you’re aiming to experience this round.

Once you’ve collected your insights, use your existing income statement to track your estimated revenue and expenses. Total each and subtract the expenses from the revenue projections to determine your projected income for the period.

 6. Balance sheet

Your balance sheet is the final of the big three financial documents needed to establish your company’s financial standing. The balance sheet makes a case for your company’s financial health and future net worth using these details:

• Company’s assets
• Business’s liabilities
• Shareholders’ equity

This document breaks down the company’s owned assets vs. debt items. It most directly tracks earnings and spendings, and it also doubles as an actual to establish profitability for prospective investors.

7. Break-even analysis

Launching a startup or new product line requires a significant amount of capital upfront. But at some point, your new endeavor will generate a profit. A break-even analysis identifies the moment that your profit equals the exact amount of your initial investment, meaning you’ve broken even on the launch and you haven’t lost or gained money.

A break-even point (BEP) should be identified before launching your business to determine its viability. The higher your BEP, the more seed money you’ll need or the longer it will be until operations are self-sufficient.

Of course, you can also increase prices or reduce your production costs to lower the BEP.

As your business matures, you can use the BEP to weigh risks with your product decisions, like implementing a new product or removing an existing item from the mix.

8. Financial ratios

Financial ratios are common metrics that lenders use to check financial health using data from your financial statements. There are five core groups of financial ratios used to evaluate businesses, as well as an example of each:

Efficiency ratios : Analyze a company’s assets and liabilities to determine how efficiently it manages resources and its current performance.

Formula : Asset turnover ratio = net sales / average total assets

Leverage ratios : Measure a company’s debt levels compared to other financial metrics, like total assets or equity.

Formula : Debt ratio = total liabilities / total assets

Liquidity ratios : Compare a company’s liquid assets and its liabilities to lenders to determine its ability to repay debt.

Formula : Current ratio = current assets / current liabilities

Market value ratios : Determine a public company’s current stock share price.

Formula : Book value per share (BVPS) = (shareholder’s equity - preferred equity) / total outstanding shares

Profitability ratios : Utilize revenue, operating costs, equity, and other other balance sheet metrics to asses a company’s ability to generate profits.

Formula : Gross profit margin = revenue / COGS

Graphs and charts can provide visual representations of financial ratios, as well as other insights like revenue growth and cash flow. These assets provide an overview of the financial projections in one place for easy comparison and analysis.

Startup Financial Projections Template

As a startup, you have some extra considerations to apply to your financial projections. Download and customize our financial projections template for startups to begin importing your financial data and build a road map for your investments and growth. 

Plan for future success with HubSpot for Startups

A sound financial forecast paves the way for your next moves and reassures investors (and yourself) that your business has a bright future ahead. Use our startup financial projections template to estimate your revenue, expenses, and net income for the next three to five years.

Ready to invest in a CRM to help you increase sales and connect with your customers? HubSpot for Startups offers sales, marketing, and service software solutions that scale with your startup. 

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• Business Planning

Business Plan Financial Projections

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Financial projections are forecasted analyses of your business’ future that include income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements. We have found them to be an crucial part of your business plan for the following reasons:

• They can help prove or disprove the viability of your business idea. For example, if your initial projections show your company will never make a sizable profit, your venture might not be feasible. Or, in such a case, you might figure out ways to raise prices, enter new markets, or streamline operations to make it profitable. 
• Financial projections give investors and lenders an idea of how well your business is likely to do in the future. They can give lenders the confidence that you’ll be able to comfortably repay their loan with interest. And for equity investors, your projections can give them faith that you’ll earn them a solid return on investment. In both cases, your projections can help you secure the funding you need to launch or grow your business.
• Financial projections help you track your progress over time and ensure your business is on track to meet its goals. For example, if your financial projections show you should generate $500,000 in sales during the year, but you are not on track to accomplish that, you’ll know you need to take corrective action to achieve your goal.

Below you’ll learn more about the key components of financial projections and how to complete and include them in your business plan.

What Are Business Plan Financial Projections?

Financial projections are an estimate of your company’s future financial performance through financial forecasting. They are typically used by businesses to secure funding, but can also be useful for internal decision-making and planning purposes. There are three main financial statements that you will need to include in your business plan financial projections:

1. Income Statement Projection

The income statement projection is a forecast of your company’s future revenues and expenses. It should include line items for each type of income and expense, as well as a total at the end.

There are a few key items you will need to include in your projection:

• Revenue: Your revenue projection should break down your expected sales by product or service, as well as by month. It is important to be realistic in your projections, so make sure to account for any seasonal variations in your business.
• Expenses: Your expense projection should include a breakdown of your expected costs by category, such as marketing, salaries, and rent. Again, it is important to be realistic in your estimates.
• Net Income: The net income projection is the difference between your revenue and expenses. This number tells you how much profit your company is expected to make.

Sample Income Statement

2. cash flow statement & projection.

The cash flow statement and projection are a forecast of your company’s future cash inflows and outflows. It is important to include a cash flow projection in your business plan, as it will give investors and lenders an idea of your company’s ability to generate cash.

There are a few key items you will need to include in your cash flow projection:

• The cash flow statement shows a breakdown of your expected cash inflows and outflows by month. It is important to be realistic in your projections, so make sure to account for any seasonal variations in your business.
• Cash inflows should include items such as sales revenue, interest income, and capital gains. Cash outflows should include items such as salaries, rent, and marketing expenses.
• It is important to track your company’s cash flow over time to ensure that it is healthy. A healthy cash flow is necessary for a successful business.

Sample Cash Flow Statements

3. balance sheet projection.

The balance sheet projection is a forecast of your company’s future financial position. It should include line items for each type of asset and liability, as well as a total at the end.

A projection should include a breakdown of your company’s assets and liabilities by category. It is important to be realistic in your projections, so make sure to account for any seasonal variations in your business.

It is important to track your company’s financial position over time to ensure that it is healthy. A healthy balance is necessary for a successful business.

Sample Balance Sheet

How to create financial projections.

Creating financial projections for your business plan can be a daunting task, but it’s important to put together accurate and realistic financial projections in order to give your business the best chance for success.  

Cost Assumptions

When you create financial projections, it is important to be realistic about the costs your business will incur, using historical financial data can help with this. You will need to make assumptions about the cost of goods sold, operational costs, and capital expenditures.

It is important to track your company’s expenses over time to ensure that it is staying within its budget. A healthy bottom line is necessary for a successful business.

Capital Expenditures, Funding, Tax, and Balance Sheet Items

You will also need to make assumptions about capital expenditures, funding, tax, and balance sheet items. These assumptions will help you to create a realistic financial picture of your business.

Capital Expenditures

When projecting your company’s capital expenditures, you will need to make a number of assumptions about the type of equipment or property your business will purchase. You will also need to estimate the cost of the purchase.

When projecting your company’s funding needs, you will need to make a number of assumptions about where the money will come from. This might include assumptions about bank loans, venture capital, or angel investors.

When projecting your company’s tax liability, you will need to make a number of assumptions about the tax rates that will apply to your business. You will also need to estimate the amount of taxes your company will owe.

Balance Sheet Items

When projecting your company’s balance, you will need to make a number of assumptions about the type and amount of debt your business will have. You will also need to estimate the value of your company’s assets and liabilities.

Financial Projection Scenarios

Write two financial scenarios when creating your financial projections, a best-case scenario, and a worst-case scenario. Use your list of assumptions to come up with realistic numbers for each scenario.

Presuming that you have already generated a list of assumptions, the creation of best and worst-case scenarios should be relatively simple. For each assumption, generate a high and low estimate. For example, if you are assuming that your company will have $100,000 in revenue, your high estimate might be $120,000 and your low estimate might be $80,000.

Once you have generated high and low estimates for all of your assumptions, you can create two scenarios: a best case scenario and a worst-case scenario. Simply plug the high estimates into your financial projections for the best-case scenario and the low estimates into your financial projections for the worst-case scenario.

Conduct a Ratio Analysis

A ratio analysis is a useful tool that can be used to evaluate a company’s financial health. Ratios can be used to compare a company’s performance to its industry average or to its own historical performance.

There are a number of different ratios that can be used in ratio analysis. Some of the more popular ones include the following:

• Gross margin ratio
• Operating margin ratio
• Return on assets (ROA)
• Return on equity (ROE)

To conduct a ratio analysis, you will need financial statements for your company and for its competitors. You will also need industry average ratios. These can be found in industry reports or on financial websites.

Once you have the necessary information, you can calculate the ratios for your company and compare them to the industry averages or to your own historical performance. If your company’s ratios are significantly different from the industry averages, it might be indicative of a problem.

Be Realistic

When creating your financial projections, it is important to be realistic. Your projections should be based on your list of assumptions and should reflect your best estimate of what your company’s future financial performance will be. This includes projected operating income, a projected income statement, and a profit and loss statement.

Your goal should be to create a realistic set of financial projections that can be used to guide your company’s future decision-making.

Sales Forecast

One of the most important aspects of your financial projections is your sales forecast. Your sales forecast should be based on your list of assumptions and should reflect your best estimate of what your company’s future sales will be.

Your sales forecast should be realistic and achievable. Do not try to “game” the system by creating an overly optimistic or pessimistic forecast. Your goal should be to create a realistic sales forecast that can be used to guide your company’s future decision-making.

Creating a sales forecast is not an exact science, but there are a number of methods that can be used to generate realistic estimates. Some common methods include market analysis, competitor analysis, and customer surveys.

Create Multi-Year Financial Projections

When creating financial projections, it is important to generate projections for multiple years. This will give you a better sense of how your company’s financial performance is likely to change over time.

It is also important to remember that your financial projections are just that: projections. They are based on a number of assumptions and are not guaranteed to be accurate. As such, you should review and update your projections on a regular basis to ensure that they remain relevant.

Creating financial projections is an important part of any business plan. However, it’s important to remember that these projections are just estimates. They are not guarantees of future success.

Business Plan Financial Projections FAQs

What is a business plan financial projection.

A business plan financial projection is a forecast of your company's future financial performance. It should include line items for each type of asset and liability, as well as a total at the end.

What are annual income statements? 

The Annual income statement is a financial document and a financial model that summarize a company's revenues and expenses over the course of a fiscal year. They provide a snapshot of a company's financial health and performance and can be used to track trends and make comparisons with other businesses.

What are the necessary financial statements?

The necessary financial statements for a business plan are an income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet.

How do I create financial projections?

You can create financial projections by making a list of assumptions, creating two scenarios (best case and worst case), conducting a ratio analysis, and being realistic.

Plan Projections

ideas to numbers .. simple financial projections

Business Plan Financial Projections

Plan Projections provides a template you can use to create simple 5 year business plan financial projections for a start-up or established business. The Plan Projections template is free, easy to set up and customize, and loaded with great features.

We have built the core template using Excel, and when you’re ready for more there are lots of industry specific templates and calculators available to help build your financial projections from the bottom up for any business or industry sector.

Ready to build your financial projections?

Financial projections industry specific templates.

Select Templates from the menu above or choose one of the popular templates below.

Popular Industry Specific Templates

• Restaurant Business Revenue Projection
• Hotel Revenue Projection
• Saas Revenue Projection
• Salon Business Plan Revenue Projection
• Website Traffic Estimator
• Retail Store Revenue Projection
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• Bed and Breakfast Business Plan Revenue Projection
• Other Industry Templates …

Financial Projection Calculators

Our calculators, are available to help you calculate revenue, weighted average gross margin, and activity ratios such as accounts receivable, inventory and accounts payable days, for use in the financial projections template.

Select Calculators from the menu above or choose one of the popular calculators below.

Popular Calculators

• Days Payable Outstanding Calculator
• Revenue Projections Calculator
• Sales Forecast Spreadsheet Template
• Business Valuation Calculator for a Startup
• Other Financial Model Calculators …

Financial Projection Online Calculator

Financial projections popular posts.

• Hotel Revenue Projection Excel Template
• Market Size Calculator
• Funding Requirements in a Business Plan
• Coffee Shop Break Even Analysis
• Working Capital Over Total Assets Ratio

Notes and major health warnings Users use this business plan financial projection template at their own risk when deciding how to make financial projections. Consequently we make no warranty or representation as to financial modelling template accuracy. Additionally we are covered by our Terms and Conditions , which you are deemed to have read. This is an example of a five year financial projection template format that you might use when considering how to do a financial business plan and carry out a startup financial analysis. It is purely illustrative. Furthermore this is not intended to reflect general standards or targets for any particular company or sector. If you do spot a mistake in the startup business model template, please let us know and we will try to fix it.

About the Author

Chartered accountant Michael Brown is the founder and CEO of Plan Projections. He has worked as an accountant and consultant for more than 25 years and has built financial models for all types of industries. Furthermore he has been the CFO or controller of both small and medium sized companies and has run small businesses of his own. He has been a manager and an auditor with Deloitte, a big 4 accountancy firm, and holds a degree from a UK University.

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• Building Your Business

How To Create Financial Projections for Your Business

Learn how to anticipate your business’s financial performance

• Understanding Financial Projections & Forecasting

Why Forecasting Is Critical for Your Business

Key financial statements for forecasting, how to create your financial projections, frequently asked questions (faqs).

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Just like a weather forecast lets you know that wearing closed-toe shoes will be important for that afternoon downpour later, a good financial forecast allows you to better anticipate financial highs and lows for your business.

Neglecting to compile financial projections for your business may signal to investors that you’re unprepared for the future, which may cause you to lose out on funding opportunities.

Read on to learn more about financial projections, how to compile and use them in a business plan, and why they can be crucial for every business owner.

Key Takeaways

• Financial forecasting is a projection of your business's future revenues and expenses based on comparative data analysis, industry research, and more.
• Financial projections are a valuable tool for entrepreneurs as they offer insight into a business's ability to generate profit, increase cash flow, and repay debts, which can be attractive to investors.
• Some of the key components to include in a financial projection include a sales projection, break-even analysis, and pro forma balance sheet and income statement.
• A financial projection can not only attract investors, but helps business owners anticipate fixed costs, find a break-even point, and prepare for the unexpected.

Understanding Financial Projections and Forecasting

Financial forecasting is an educated estimate of future revenues and expenses that involves comparative analysis to get a snapshot of what could happen in your business’s future.

This process helps in making predictions about future business performance based on current financial information, industry trends, and economic conditions. Financial forecasting also helps businesses make decisions about investments, financing sources, inventory management, cost control strategies, and even whether to move into another market.

Developing both short- and mid-term projections is usually necessary to help you determine immediate production and personnel needs as well as future resource requirements for raw materials, equipment, and machinery.

Financial projections are a valuable tool for entrepreneurs as they offer insight into a business's ability to generate profit, increase cash flow, and repay debts. They can also be used to make informed decisions about the business’s plans. Creating an accurate, adaptive financial projection for your business offers many benefits, including:

• Attracting investors and convincing them to fund your business
• Anticipating problems before they arise
• Visualizing your small-business objectives and budgets
• Demonstrating how you will repay small-business loans
• Planning for more significant business expenses
• Showing business growth potential
• Helping with proper pricing and production planning

Financial forecasting is essentially predicting the revenue and expenses for a business venture. Whether your business is new or established, forecasting can play a vital role in helping you plan for the future and budget your funds.

Creating financial projections may be a necessary exercise for many businesses, particularly those that do not have sufficient cash flow or need to rely on customer credit to maintain operations. Compiling financial information, knowing your market, and understanding what your potential investors are looking for can enable you to make intelligent decisions about your assets and resources.

The income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flow are three key financial reports needed for forecasting that can also provide analysts with crucial information about a business's financial health. Here is a closer look at each.

Income Statement

An income statement, also known as a profit and loss statement or P&L, is a financial document that provides an overview of an organization's revenues, expenses, and net income.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a snapshot of the business's assets and liabilities at a certain point in time. Sometimes referred to as the “financial portrait” of a business, the balance sheet provides an overview of how much money the business has, what it owes, and its net worth.

The assets side of the balance sheet includes what the business owns as well as future ownership items. The other side of the sheet includes liabilities and equity, which represent what it owes or what others owe to the business.

A balance sheet that shows hypothetical calculations and future financial projections is also referred to as a “pro forma” balance sheet.

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement monitors the business’s inflows and outflows—both cash and non-cash. Cash flow is the business’s projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ( EBITDA ) minus capital investments.

Here's how to compile your financial projections and fit the results into the three above statements.

A financial projections spreadsheet for your business should include these metrics and figures:

• Sales forecast
• Balance sheet
• Operating expenses
• Payroll expenses (if applicable)
• Amortization and depreciation
• Cash flow statement
• Income statement
• Cost of goods sold (COGS)
• Break-even analysis

Here are key steps to account for creating your financial projections.

Projecting Sales

The first step for a financial forecast starts with projecting your business’s sales, which are typically derived from past revenue as well as industry research. These projections allow businesses to understand what their risks are and how much they will need in terms of staffing, resources, and funding.

Sales forecasts also enable businesses to decide on important levels such as product variety, price points, and inventory capacity.

Income Statement Calculations

A projected income statement shows how much you expect in revenue and profit—as well as your estimated expenses and losses—over a specific time in the future. Like a standard income statement, elements on a projection include revenue, COGS, and expenses that you’ll calculate to determine figures such as the business’s gross profit margin and net income.

If you’re developing a hypothetical, or pro forma, income statement, you can use historical data from previous years’ income statements. You can also do a comparative analysis of two different income statement periods to come up with your figures.

Anticipate Fixed Costs

Fixed business costs are expenses that do not change based on the number of products sold. The best way to anticipate fixed business costs is to research your industry and prepare a budget using actual numbers from competitors in the industry. Anticipating fixed costs ensures your business doesn’t overpay for its needs and balances out its variable costs. A few examples of fixed business costs include:

• Rent or mortgage payments
• Operating expenses (also called selling, general and administrative expenses or SG&A)
• Utility bills
• Insurance premiums

Unfortunately, it might not be possible to predict accurately how much your fixed costs will change in a year due to variables such as inflation, property, and interest rates. It’s best to slightly overestimate fixed costs just in case you need to account for these potential fluctuations.

Find Your Break-Even Point

The break-even point (BEP) is the number at which a business has the same expenses as its revenue. In other words, it occurs when your operations generate enough revenue to cover all of your business’s costs and expenses. The BEP will differ depending on the type of business, market conditions, and other factors.

To find this number, you need to determine two things: your fixed costs and variable costs. Once you have these figures, you can find your BEP using this formula:

Break-even point = fixed expenses ➗ 1 – (variable expenses ➗ sales)

The BEP is an essential consideration for any projection because it is the point at which total revenue from a project equals total cost. This makes it the point of either profit or loss.

Plan for the Unexpected

It is necessary to have the proper financial safeguards in place to prepare for any unanticipated costs. A sudden vehicle repair, a leaky roof, or broken equipment can quickly derail your budget if you aren't prepared. Cash management is a financial management plan that ensures a business has enough cash on hand to maintain operations and meet short-term obligations.

To maintain cash reserves, you can apply for overdraft protection or an overdraft line of credit. Overdraft protection can be set up by a bank or credit card business and provides short-term loans if the account balance falls below zero. On the other hand, a line of credit is an agreement with a lending institution in which they provide you with an unsecured loan at any time until your balance reaches zero again.

How do you make financial projections for startups?

Financial projections for startups can be hard to complete. Historical financial data may not be available. Find someone with financial projections experience to give insight on risks and outcomes.

Consider business forecasting, too, which incorporates assumptions about the exponential growth of your business.

Startups can also benefit from using EBITDA to get a better look at potential cash flow.

What are the benefits associated with forecasting business finances?

Forecasting can be beneficial for businesses in many ways, including:

• Providing better understanding of your business cash flow
• Easing the process of planning and budgeting for the future based on income
• Improving decision-making
• Providing valuable insight into what's in their future
• Making decisions on how to best allocate resources for success

How many years should your financial forecast be?

Your financial forecast should either be projected over a specific time period or projected into perpetuity. There are various methods for determining how long a financial forecasting projection should go out, but many businesses use one to five years as a standard timeframe.

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How to Write a Business Plan Financial Projection [Sample Template]

How do you prepare a business plan financial statement? Do you need help developing business plan financial projections? Do you need a business plan projections template? Then i advice you read on because this article is for you.

What is a Business Plan Financial Statement?

The financial statement is a distinct section of your business plan because it outlines your financial projections. A business lives and dies based on its financial feasibility and most importantly its profitability. Regardless of how hard you work or how much you have invested of your time and money, people, at the end of the day, only want to support something that can return their investments with profits.

Your executive summary may be brilliantly crafted, and your market or industry analysis may be the bomb. But your business plan isn’t just complete without a financial statement to justify it with good figures on the bottom line.

Your financial statement is what makes or mars your chances of obtaining a bank loan or attracting investors to your business. Even if you don’t need financing from a third party, compiling a financial statement will help you steer your business to success. So, before we dig further into how to prepare a financial statement, you need to understand what a financial statement is not.

What’s the Difference Between a Financial Projection Statement and Accounting Statement?

However, you need to keep in mind that the financial statement is not the same as an accounting statement. Granted, a financial statement includes financial projections such as profit and loss, balance sheets, and cash flow, all of which makes it look similar to an accounting statement.

But the major difference between them is that an accounting statement deals with the past, while the financial projections statement of your business plan outlines your future spending and earnings. Having made this point clear, let’s now look at the steps involved on preparing a financial statement for your business plan.

So what exactly do you have to include in this section? You will need to include three statements:

• Income Statement
• Balance Sheet
• Cash-Flow Statement

Now, let’s briefly discuss each.

Components of a Business Plan Financial Statement

Income statement.

This beautiful composition of numbers tells the reader what exactly your sources of revenue are and which expenses you spent your money on to arrive at the bottom line. Essentially, for a given time period, the income statement states the profit or loss ( revenue-expenses ) that you made.

Balance sheet

The key word here is “ balance, ” but you are probably wondering what exactly needs to be weighed, right? On one side you should list all your assets ( what you own ) and on the other side, all your liabilities ( what you owe ), thereby giving a snapshot of your net worth ( assets – liabilities = equity ).

Cash flow statement

This statement is similar to your income statement with one important difference; it takes into account just when revenues are actually collected and when expenses are paid. When the cash you have coming in ( collected revenue ) is greater than the cash you have going out ( disbursements ), your cash flow is said to be positive.

And when the opposite scenario is true, your cash flow is negative. Ideally, your cash flow statement will allow you to recognize where cash is low, when you might have a surplus, and how to be on top of your game when operating in an uncertain environment.

How to Prepare a Business Plan Financial Projections Statement

1. Start by preparing a revenue forecast and a forecast profit and loss statement

Also, prepare supporting schedules with detailed information about your projected personnel and marketing costs. If your business has few fixed assets or it’s just a cash business without significant receivables, you don’t need a forecast balance sheet.

2. Using your planned revenue model, prepare a spreadsheet

Set the key variables in such a way that they can be easily changed as your calculations chain through. To ensure that your projected revenues are realistic and attainable, run your draft through a number of iterations. For each year covered in your business plan, prepare a monthly forecast of revenues and spending.

3. If you plan to sell any goods, then include a forecast of goods sold

This applies the most to manufacturing businesses. Give a reasonable estimate for this cost. And be of the assumption that the efficiency of your products would increase with time and the cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales will decline.

4. Quantify your marketing plan

Look at each marketing strategy you outlined in the business plan and attach specific costs to each of them. That is, if you are looking at billboard advertising, TV advertising, and online marketing methods such as pay-per-click advertising and so on; then you should estimate the cost of each medium and have it documented.

5. Forecast the cost of running the business, including general and administrative costs

Also, forecast the cost of utilities, rents, and other recurring costs. Don’t leave out any category of expenses that is required to run your business. And don’t forget the cost of professional services such as accounting and legal services.

6. In the form of a spreadsheet, forecast the payroll

This outlines each individual that you plan to hire, the month they will start work, and their salary. Also include the percentage salary increases (due to increased cost of living and as reward for exemplary performance) that will come in the second and subsequent years of the forecast.

Additional tips for Writing a Business Plan Financial Statement

• Don’t stuff your pages with lots of information, and avoid large chunks of text. Also, use a font size that is large enough. Even if these would spread out your statement into more pages, don’t hesitate to spread it out. Legibility matters!
• After completing the spreadsheets in the financial statement, you should summarize the figures in the narrative section of your business plan.
• Put a table near the front of your financial statement that shows projected figures, pre-tax profit, and expenses. These are the figures you want the reader to remember. You can help the reader retain these figures in memory by including a bar chart of these figures, too.

As a final note, you should keep in mind that a financial statement is just an informed guess of what will likely happen in the future. In reality, the actual results you will achieve will vary. In fact, this difference may be very far from what you have forecast.

So, if your business is a start-up, prepare more capital than your projections show that you will need. Entrepreneurs have a natural tendency to project a faster revenue growth than what is realistic. So, don’t let this instinct fool you.

More on Business Plans

Excel Financial Projection Templates

Looking for a specific industry.

Most Popular Templates

Here you'll find a business projection template for any of our most popular industries, including a two-sided marketplace, coffee shop and daycare facility. If you want an industry-specific financial projection template for your business plan, we've got you covered. You'll find our financial forecast worksheet easy to understand and use.

Universal Industry Templates

In this section you will find some of our most powerful templates that will help create financial projections for any industry. They are best for established businesses that have historical revenue and expense data to use as the basis for the financial projections. The existing business template features a built in valuation calculator to help provide business value estimates.

Restaurants, Food and Drink Templates

Find the restaurant projections template you need to properly present your financials. We offer restaurant financial templates for businesses ranging from food trucks to fine dining establishments. Our CPA-developed   restaurant sales projection templates empower you to create presentations that truly represent your operation. If you want easy-to-use restaurant business plan financial modeling spreadsheets , you want ProjectionHub's financial templates for restaurants.

Healthcare and Fitness Templates

Whether you're running a cannabis dispensary, home healthcare business or gym, we have the healthcare financial modeling template that you need. Our healthcare financial forecasting models and fitness financial projection templates will make your job easy. When you choose healthcare financial models from ProjectionHub, you get the full benefit of our extensive expertise. The easy-to-find tabs and highlighted cells in our healthcare financial projection templates will simplify the process for you.

Retail Templates

Our CPA-developed business financial model templates will give you all the tools you need to create financial projections for retail operations. Whatever your type of retail business, we have a retail store income statement template that's right for you. We even offer a dispensary financial projection template for CBD and cannabis outlets. Backed by our years of expertise, financial forecast worksheets from ProjectionHub deliver the retail store revenue projections you require to properly run your business.

Services Templates

We've developed an Excel financial model for service businesses that allows you to easily create financial forecasts for lenders, investors and internal planning. With ProjectionHub's industry-specific approach to service business financial projection templates , you can be sure to find a financial forecast worksheet that meets your business needs. Check out our service business projection templates now to find what you need.

Technology Templates

Leave the complexity and confusion behind with a CPA-developed financial forecast worksheet for your tech business. Ecommerce entrepreneurs appreciate the simplicity of our ecommerce business financial models . And our SaaS financial modeling templates are just as easy to use. You can accurately calculate and share your business projections with ProjectionHub's SaaS business financial model. See how financial modeling for a SaaS company has never been easier.

Real Estate Templates

Leave behind the complexity and confusion associated with financial forecasting for your real estate business with a CPA-developed worksheet. Our real estate business financial models offer a simple and straightforward approach for real estate entrepreneurs. Whether you manage properties or are involved in other aspects of the industry, our financial modeling templates are user-friendly and easy to use. With ProjectionHub, you can accurately calculate and share your business projections, making financial modeling for your real estate company a breeze.

Passive Income Templates

Say goodbye to the uncertainty and confusion of financial forecasting for your passive income business with a CPA-developed worksheet. Our financial models are designed to offer a simple and easy to understand approach for entrepreneurs looking to generate income through passive means. Whether you are invested in rental properties or other forms of passive income, our financial modeling templates are user-friendly and easy to use. With our templates, you can accurately calculate and share your business projections, making financial modeling for your passive income business a breeze.

Other Templates

Led by our industry-specific philosophy, ProjectionHub offers Excel financial projection templates for a wide range of businesses. Our library includes a growery sales projection template, logistics financial modeling, predictive financial models for manufacturing and an Airbnb business financial model . Learn more about our financial forecast worksheets to see how ProjectionHub's manufacturing and logistics financial projection templates are right for your business. Whether you run a church or a realty firm, we have a template that will simplify your financial projections.

Selecting a Financial Projection Template

The ProjectionHub team has developed more than 80 financial projection templates to give you a head start on your own financial modeling project. The business projection templates are Excel based and each comes with a 5 year profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow projection along with a number of graphs and tables to visualize your projections. If you purchase a template our team is ready to answer any questions you might have. Check out our library of templates below. Need any help choosing a template?  Get a recommendation from our team! Are you a consultant or advisor that often works on projections for your clients? Checkout our ProjectionHub+ subscription for an all inclusive, time saving, hub of solutions.

Financial Projection Template FAQs

How many years of financial projections can i create with a projectionhub template.

All of our financial projection templates are 5 year financial models.  If you only need a 3 year financial projection, you can simply hide the last two years of the model.  The templates will provide you with annual and monthly projections for up to 60 months. 

How to create a profit and loss projection?

In order to create a profit and loss projection you will need to forecast both revenue and expenses.  If you are forecasting for an existing business with historical financial data, the easiest way to forecast is to use your historical data as a baseline to forecast off of.  This is the approach we take with our Existing Business Forecast Template .  

If you are looking to create a profit and loss projection for a startup you will need to develop a set of assumptions and build your projections from the ground up.  You will need both revenue and expense assumptions in order to produce a pro forma P&L.  You can see an example from one of our templates below. 

Example Pro Forma Profit and Loss

How to forecast cash flow for a business.

In order to forecast cash flow for a business you will need to create projected revenue and expenses, but you will also need to know other items that impact cash flow like loan repayments, depreciation expense, and new loans or investments received. A cash flow forecast gets a bit more complicated than a simple P&L projection.  All of ProjectionHub’s premium business projection spreadsheets provide up to a 5 year cash flow forecast.  Below is an example of a 5 year cash flow forecast from our food truck template . 

Example 5 Year Cash Flow Projection

How to forecast a balance sheet?

In order to forecast a balance sheet you will need to first create an income statement projection and cash flow forecast.  Additionally, you will need to know all of the company’s current assets and liabilities and be able to forecast future assets and liabilities.  

Forecasting a balance sheet is the most complicated of the three financial statements.  It is not uncommon for a balance sheet projection to have an error that is causing it not to balance which can be incredibly frustrating.  We recommend using a balance sheet projection template when trying to forecast your balance sheet because of the complexity of the process.  All of ProjectionHub’s financial models include a 5 year balance sheet projection as well.  

To learn more about balance sheet forecasts you can read - The Ultimate Balance Sheet Forecast Guide . 

Will ProjectionHub projection templates work with Excel and Google Sheets?

Yes.  All of our business projection templates are compatible with both Excel and Google Sheets.   

How to forecast revenue for a startup?

Forecasting revenue for a startup should be a process of creating a series of assumptions that will ultimately lead you to a projected revenue number.  All of our pro forma templates will include an input revenue tab with a set of assumptions for you to fill out.  There are two ways that we like to approach creating sales projections:

• The Capacity Based Sales Projection Approach
• The Customer Funnel Based Sales Projection Approach

I describe in detail and provide examples of each sales forecasting approach in - The 2 Approaches for Creating Sales Projections for Startups.  

You can see a few sales projection model examples from our templates below:

Food Truck Sales Projection Assumption Example

Below is an example of how we might project sales for a food truck.  This is an example of a capacity based approach because the food truck will have a certain capacity and your sales will be dependent on what % of your capacity is filled. 

Ecommerce Sales Projection Example Assumptions

In the ecommerce sales forecasting example below you can see how we have assumptions built in to acquire visitors to the website, conversion rates for visitors into customers, and average order value per customer as an example. 

If you have any other questions about our financial projection spreadsheets please don’t hesitate to reach out! 

Build Your Business on a Better Foundation With a Financial Plan Template

Whether you're trying to launch your new business or create a plan for growth for your established business, a financial projections template can help you organize your financial plan and better understand your cash flows. At Projection Hub, our Excel-based financial plan templates allow you to create an effective plan for informing your business decisions. To be effective at raising capital or just building an informed self-sustaining company, you can utilize a financial plan template as a general guide to help you reach financial objectives. Rather than hiring expensive financial consultants, a revenue and cash flow projection template in Excel is more accessible and less costly for teams to begin strategic planning. In business, strategy and planning can make all the difference in the world. Get started with a financial forecast template from Projection Hub today. We offer pre-outlined financial and sales projection templates specific to your industry that were hand crafted by our CPA financial modeller.

What Can I Track with Excel Financial Templates?

Within Projection Hub's financial plan templates, you'll be able to track and calculate everything you need to know to better understand your general financial standing. Including when break even may occur, your projected revenues, and understanding all of the expenses that will influence your profitability. Some of these expenses include:

• Administrative Costs
• Permits & Licenses
• Utility Fees
• Property Fees

With a financial projections template, the heavy lifting is done for you. All you have to do is fill in the necessary areas based on your business, and you'll have an accessible and easy way to see areas on which you need to focus or cut down.

Plannit Financial Projections

Take Your Business Plan to the Next Level

Financial projections are a crucial part of any business plan. Plannit AI’s financial projections and income statement generator simplifies the process, allowing entrepreneurs to create accurate, detailed financial forecasts with ease. This feature streamlines the process of generating your initial financial information.

Comprehensive Financial Overview

Our algorithms merge seamlessly with the GPT-4 engine to learn from your revenue model, business information and financial inputs, to automatically generate a comprehensive financial overview for your business plan. This includes an in-depth look at the projected growth rate of the company, the expected revenue, and the anticipated expenses.

10x More Powerful AI

We utilize the GPT-4 engine at our own expense to ensure that you have access to the most powerful AI in the industry. This allows us to provide you with the most accurate and detailed financial overview possible.

Simplified User Experience

Answer a few additional questions to allow us to calculate your financial projections and generate an income statement for your business plan. All in under 30 seconds.

Detailed 3-Year Income Statement

Based on your revenue model, your business information and your financial inputs, we generate a detailed 3-year income statement for your business plan, formatting your vision into dollars.

Simple, Accurate, and Detailed

Plannit only requires a few additional inputs to generate your detailed financial overview and income statement. It also learns from your revenue model and takes industry standards into account.

Increase Your Chances of Getting Funded

Accurate financial projections.

Plannit AI’s financial projections and income statement generator ensures that your business plan is backed by accurate, detailed financial forecasts. This increases your chances of securing funding and support from investors and lenders.

Professional Income Statement

Download your plan with a professional income statement that is formatted to industry standards and editable. This will help you present your business plan in a professional manner and increase your chances of securing funding.

By leveraging Plannit's financial projections and income statement generator, you can ensure that your business plan is backed by a detailed financial overview that puts numbers behind your vision and provides you with a blueprint for a successful outcome.

Create Your Business Plan Today

Original text

Access our collection of user-friendly templates for business planning, finance, sales, marketing, and management, designed to assist you in developing strategies for either launching a new business venture or expanding an existing one.

You can use the templates below as a starting point to create your startup business plan or map out how you will expand your existing business. Then meet with a  SCORE mentor to get expert business planning advice and feedback on your business plan.

If writing a full business plan seems overwhelming, start with a one-page Business Model Canvas. Developed by Founder and CEO of Strategyzer, Alexander Osterwalder, it can be used to easily document your business concept.

Download this template to fill out the nine squares focusing on the different building blocks of any business:

• Value Proposition
• Customer Segments
• Customer Relationships
• Key Activities
• Key Resources
• Key Partners
• Cost Structure
• Revenue Streams

For help completing the Business Model Canvas Template, contact a SCORE business mentor for guidance

From creating a startup budget to managing cash flow for a growing business, keeping tabs on your business’s finances is essential to success. The templates below will help you monitor and manage your business’s financial situation, create financial projections and seek financing to start or grow your business.

This interactive calculator allows you to provide inputs and see a full estimated repayment schedule to plan your capital needs and cash flow.

A 12-month profit and loss projection, also known as an income statement or statement of earnings, provides a detailed overview of your financial performance over a one-year period. This projection helps you anticipate future financial outcomes by estimating monthly income and expenses, which facilitates informed decision-making and strategic planning. 

If you’re trying to get a loan from a bank, they may ask you for a personal financial statement. You can use this free, downloadable template to document your assets, liabilities and net worth. 

A Personal Financial Statement is a

Marketing helps your business build brand awareness, attract customers and create customer loyalty. Use these templates to forecast sales, develop your marketing strategy and map out your marketing budget and plan.

How healthy is your business? Are you missing out on potential growth opportunities or ignoring areas of weakness? Do you need to hire employees to reach your goals? The following templates will help you assess the state of your business and accomplish important management tasks.

Whether you are starting your business or established and looking to grow, our Business Healthcheck Tool will provide practical information and guidance.

Learn how having a SCORE mentor can be a valuable asset for your business. A SCORE mentor can provide guidance and support in various areas of business, including finance, marketing, and strategy. They can help you navigate challenges and make important decisions based on their expertise and experience. By seeking out a SCORE mentor, you can gain the guidance and support you need to help grow your business and achieve success.

SCORE offers free business mentoring to anyone that wants to start, currently owns, or is planning to close or sell a small business. To initiate the process, input your zip code in the designated area below. Then, complete the mentoring request form on the following page, including as much information as possible about your business. This information is used to match you with a mentor in your area. After submitting the request, you will receive an email from your mentor to arrange your first mentoring session.

Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org

Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

Cash Flow - Business Plan Forecast Template

Use our business plan financial projections template to create financial projections for a business plan which includes 12 monthly periods and 5 annual periods. The template includes a detailed income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet in Excel. Cash flow projections are based on user defined turnover, gross profit and expense values and automated calculations based on a series of assumptions.

• Includes 12 monthly & 5 annual periods
• Suitable for service and trade based businesses
• Reporting periods based on a single user input cell
• User input limited to basic template assumptions
• Expense accounts can be customized & more accounts added
• Automated income statement, cash flow statement & balance sheet
• Accommodates loan amortization or interest-only loans
• Includes sales tax, income tax, payroll accruals & dividends

How to use the Cash Flow - Business Plan Forecast template

This template enables users to create cash flow projections for a business plan which includes 12 monthly periods and five annual periods. The template includes a monthly income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet. The cash flow projections are based on turnover, gross profit and expense values that are entered by the user as well as a number of default assumptions which are used to create an automated balance sheet. These assumptions include opening balance sheet balances, working capital ratios, payroll accruals, sales tax, income tax, dividends and loans. The monthly reporting periods are based on any user defined start date.

Note: We have included 12 monthly and 5 annual reporting periods in this template because this format is frequently required by financial institutions when submitting business plans. If you only require annual cash flow projections, refer to our Annual Cash Flow Projections template and if you only require monthly cash flow projections, refer to our Monthly Cash Flow Projections template.

The following sheets are included in the template: Assumptions - this sheet includes the default assumptions on which the monthly & annual cash flow projections are based. IncState - this sheet includes a detailed monthly income statement for 12 monthly periods and 5 annual periods. All the rows that are highlighted in yellow in column A require user input and the codes in column A are mainly used in the sales tax, receivables & payables calculations. The rows that do not contain yellow highlighting in column A contain formulas and are therefore calculated automatically. CashFlow - as with the income statement, only the rows with yellow highlighting in column A require user input. All the other rows contain formulas and are therefore calculated automatically. BalanceSheet - all balance sheet calculations are based on the template assumptions and the income statement & cash flow statement calculations. No user input is therefore required on this sheet. Loans1 to Loans3 & Leases - these sheets include detailed amortization tables which are used to calculate the interest charges and capital repayment amounts that are included on the income statement and cash flow statement. Each sheet provides for a different set of loan repayment terms to be specified.

Note: If you do not want to include any of the line items that are listed on the income statement, cash flow statement or balance sheet, we recommend hiding these items instead of deleting them. If you delete items which are used in other calculations, these calculations will result in errors which you then need to fix or remove.

Business Name & Reporting Periods

The business name and the start date for the cash flow projections need to be entered at the top of the Assumptions sheet. The business name is included as a heading on all the sheets and the reporting periods which are included in the template are determined based on the start date that is specified. This date is used as the first month and the 11 subsequent months and four subsequent years are added to form the 5 year projection period.

The income statement and cash flow statement only require user input where there is yellow highlighting in column A and the user input only relates to the 12 monthly periods. All annual totals are calculated automatically and all rows without yellow highlighting are calculated automatically in both the monthly and annual columns.

Income Statement

All monthly income statement projections need to be entered exclusive of any sales tax that may be applicable.

Turnover & Gross Profits

Monthly turnover values need to be entered on the IncState sheet for the first 12 months. The projected monthly gross profit percentages also need to be entered on this sheet and are used in order to calculate the gross profit values. The monthly cost of sales projections are calculated by simply deducting the gross profit values from the monthly turnover values.

The year 2 to 5 turnover amounts are calculated based on the totals for the first year and adjusted by the annual turnover growth rates that are specified on the Assumptions sheet. Gross profit percentages for each turnover line need to be entered on the IncState sheet. Gross profit values and cost of sales totals are calculated automatically.

The template includes two default lines in each of these sections - one for a typical product based item and one for a typical service based item. The template can therefore be used for both service and trade based businesses. There are no cost of sales and gross profit values in service based businesses and a gross profit percentage of 100% can therefore be specified. You can also hide the cost of sales and gross profit sections if you do not want to include them in your cash flow projections.

Note: You can insert as many additional line items as required by inserting the required number of items in each section and then entering the appropriate values where user input is required or copying the formulas from one of the existing lines. We recommend inserting additional line items between the two existing default line items.

Note: The codes in column A are used in the sales tax and trade receivables calculations. The first two characters represent the sales tax code and the last two characters represent the payment status. Refer to the Balance Sheet - Sales Tax and Balance Sheet - Trade Receivables sections for more information on these codes.

Other Income

Monthly projections of other income should be entered in this row. Note that other income may consist of items like interest or dividends received and this line item is therefore not included in trade receivables and sales tax calculations. If you want to include other income in the trade receivables or sales tax calculations, you need to add the income to the Turnover section as an additional line item.

The year 2 to 5 totals for other income are calculated by applying the annual turnover growth percentages on the Assumptions sheet to the previous year's total.

Operating Expenses

All the monthly operating expense projections need to be entered in the operating expenses section of the income statement. The template contains 22 default operating expense line items but you can add as many additional items as required or delete the line items that you do not need. When adding additional line items, remember to copy the formulas in the total columns from one of the existing line items.

The year 2 to 5 totals for operating expenses are calculated by applying the annual expense inflation percentages on the Assumptions sheet to the previous year's total.

Note: The codes in column A are used in the sales tax and trade payables calculations. The first two characters represent the sales tax code and the last two characters represent the payment status. Refer to the Balance Sheet - Sales Tax and Balance Sheet - Trade Payables sections for more information on these codes.

Staff Costs

All the monthly staff cost projections need to be entered in the staff costs section of the income statement. The template contains 2 default staff cost line items but you can add as many additional items as required or delete the line items that you do not need.

The year 2 to 5 totals for staff costs are calculated by applying the annual expense inflation percentages on the Assumptions sheet to the previous year's total.

Note: Staff costs have been included in a separate section on the income statement in order to be able to calculate payroll accruals. If you do not need to include payroll accruals in your cash flow projections, we recommend entering nil values and hiding these rows. If you delete the section, some of the payroll accrual formulas may result in errors and you therefore may need to delete them as well.

Depreciation & Amortization

Monthly & annual projections for depreciation and amortization charges need to be calculated independently of the template and included in this section. We unfortunately cannot include default depreciation or amortization calculations because some businesses may have very different asset bases than others with existing assets which may already have been depreciated over a number of years. Any calculation which is based on a percentage of the balance sheet asset value may therefore not be accurate.

If you already have a sheet which is used for depreciation or amortization calculations, you can include it in this template and add formulas in the depreciation & amortization section of the income statement to include your calculations in the appropriate line items.

The monthly depreciation & amortization charges for the first 12 months need to be included on the IncState sheet and the totals for year 2 to 5 need to be included on the Assumptions sheet.

We also realize that some users may want to include depreciation and amortization as part of their operating expenses. We have therefore provided for this in that the depreciation and amortization calculations on the cash flow statement are based on the default code which is included in column A. You can therefore enter nil values in the depreciation & amortization section on the income statement, hide the section and include these line items in the operating expenses section and as long as you also include the default codes in column A, the cash flow statement values for depreciation and amortization will be calculated correctly.

Interest Paid

All interest paid calculations are automated and based on the amortization tables on the Loans1 to Loans3 and Leases sheets. The template accommodates the inclusion of loans & leases based on four different sets of loan repayment terms which need to be specified on the Assumptions sheet.

Opening loan balances are based on the balance sheet opening balances section on the Assumptions sheet and additional loan amounts can be entered in column C of the appropriate amortization table.

You do not need to use all four loan amortization sheets - if you only need to include loans based on one set of repayment terms, you can delete the other loan amortization sheets, delete the other interest paid rows on the income statement, delete the other proceeds from loans rows on the cash flow statement, delete the other repayment of loans rows on the cash flow statement and delete the other loan balances from the balance sheet.

The template provides for four sets of loan repayment terms - the same amortization table can basically be used for all loans with the same repayment terms by adding additional loan amounts as proceeds to the cash flow statement in order to add new loans to the appropriate amortization table.

If you need to add more than four sets of loan repayment terms, you will need to copy one of the amortization sheets, change it to reflect the appropriate loan terms and then change the formulas in the amortization table to be based on the correct loan repayment terms at the top of the sheet. This means that you need to add another set of repayment terms to the Assumptions sheet and link the fields at the top of the new amortization table to the appropriate cells on the Assumptions sheet.

If there is an opening balance for the required additional loan terms, you need to include a new code in the balance sheet opening balances section on the Assumptions sheet and base the opening balance calculation in the first period of the amortization schedule on this code. You also need to add new rows to the interest paid section on the income statement, the loan proceeds section on the cash flow statement, the loan repayment section on the cash flow statement and the loan balances section on the balance sheet. The appropriate formulas can be copied from one of the existing items and the sheet reference in the copied formula can then just be replaced by the sheet name of the new amortization table that you've added.

The taxation line item on the income statement is automatically calculated based on the profit before tax and the income tax assumptions which are specified on the Assumptions sheet. If you do not want to include income tax in the cash flow projections, simply enter an income tax rate of 0%. This will result in no income tax being calculated.

If you do want to include income tax calculations, the appropriate income tax percentage needs to be entered in the Income Tax section on the Assumptions sheet. You can also enter a value for an assessed loss (as a positive value) which may have been carried over from a previous tax year which would result in income tax only being calculated after profits exceed the value of the assessed loss.

You also need to specify the payment frequency in months and the first calendar month in which a payment needs to be included. The template automatically provides for income tax based on what is due and includes the income statement amount and a provision for taxation on the balance sheet. The payment frequency and month of payment assumptions are then used to determine when the income tax liability will be settled which will result in the appropriate cash outflow being recorded on the cash flow statement and the provision for taxation being reduced.

The template can accommodate income tax calculations based on current and subsequent month payments. If you select the Current option, the income tax payment amount will be calculated based on all amounts that have accrued up to and including the month of payment. If you select the Subsequent option, the income tax payment amount will only be calculated based on all amounts which have accrued up to the previous month end.

Example: If you select the Current option in the Income Tax section of the Assumptions sheet, all income tax amounts up to and including the current month will be included in the income tax payment amount. This means that the provision for taxation at the end of the particular month will be nil. The Current setting is therefore usually appropriate for provisional taxpayers.

Example: If you select the Subsequent option, all amounts up to and including the previous month end will be included in the income tax payment amount. The provision for taxation balance on the balance sheet will therefore not be nil at the end of the month of payment and include the current month's income tax charge.

The template also includes automated dividends calculations. If you do not want to include any dividends in your cash flow projections, you can simply specify a dividend percentage of zero percent.

If you want to include dividend calculations, you need to specify a dividend percentage which will be applied to the profit for the period in order to calculate the dividend value. You also need to specify the frequency in months of dividend payments and the first payment month. The frequency of dividends determines when the dividends are included on the income statement and the first month of payment determines when the dividend payment is included on the cash flow statement (only has an effect if the dividend payment option is Subsequent).

You can also specify whether the dividend is paid in the month of calculation (Cash option), the month after calculation (Next option) or in a subsequent month. When you elect the subsequent month option, the payment of the dividend will be included based on the relative position of the first month of payment in relation to the year-end period (which is determined based on the template start date at the top of the Assumptions sheet).

Example: If you want to include a dividend in the last month of each financial year, select a payment frequency of 12 months and month 12 as the first payment month. Then select the Cash option in order to include both the dividend on the income statement and the payment in the last month of the year.

Example: If you want to include a dividend in the last month of each financial year but delay payment to the first month of the next financial year, select a payment frequency of 12 months and month 12 as the first payment month. Then select the Next option in order to include the dividend on the income statement in the last month of the financial year and the payment in the first month of the next financial year. A dividend payable amount will then automatically be included on the balance sheet at year-end.

Balance Sheet

All the calculations on the balance sheet are automated and no user input is therefore required.

Opening Balances

If you need to compile cash flow projections for an existing business, you will need to include the opening balance sheet balances at the start of the cash flow projection period. This is facilitated in the Balance Sheet Opening Balances section on the Assumptions sheet. The opening balances that are entered here are included in the first column on the balance sheet.

You can use the trial balance as at the end of the period immediately before the start of the cash flow projection period for this purpose. All assets should have positive balances and all equity & liabilities should have negative balances. The opening balances should also balance to a total of nil as with any accounting system trial balance. If you enter balances and the total of all balances is not nil, the entire opening balances section on the Assumptions sheet will be highlighted in orange.

You then need to fix the imbalance by adjusting the opening balances so that the total comes to a total of nil. The orange highlighting will then be removed automatically. Also note that the cash flow projection balance sheet cannot balance if the opening balances do not balance.

Note: If you are preparing a cash flow projection for a new business, you can include zero balances for all the balance sheet items in the opening balances section.

Non-Current Assets

The property, plant & equipment balances on the balance sheet are calculated by adding the purchases of property, plant & equipment (entered on the cash flow statement for the first 12 months and on the Assumptions sheet for year 2 to 5) and then deducting the appropriate depreciation charges that are included on the income statement.

Intangible assets balances are calculated in much the same way by adding the purchases of intangible assets (as per the cash flow statement for the first 12 months and the Assumptions sheet for year 2 to 5) and deducting the appropriate amortization charges as per the income statement. The calculation of the investments balances on the balance sheet is a bit simpler in that only the purchases of new investments (as per the cash flow statement for the first 12 months and the Assumptions sheet for your 2 to 5) are added to the previous period's balance and there is no depreciation or amortization on investments.

Note: Purchases of property, plant & equipment, intangible assets and investments all need to be entered as negative values. The purchases for the first 12 months need to be entered on the cash flow statement and the purchases for year 2 to 5 need to be entered on the Assumptions sheet.

Current Assets - Inventory

The inventory balances on the balance sheet are calculated based on the inventory days assumption which is specified on the Assumptions sheet. The number of days that are entered here is applied to the monthly cost of sales in order to calculate the appropriate inventory balance. This calculation is based on the actual number of days in each month if the inventory days assumption is greater than the number of days in the appropriate month.

Example: If you enter an inventory days assumption of 60 days and the month is April, the entire cost of sales value for April will be included in the inventory balance because April only has 30 days. After including the 30 days in April, there is a difference of 30 days between the 60 days assumption and the 30 days in April. The March cost of sales balance will therefore be used, divided by the 31 days in March and multiplied by the 30 remaining days. The inventory balance at the end of April will therefore consist of the cost of sales total for April and an equivalent of 30 days of the 31 day cost of sales of March.

Note: The above calculation principle is applied regardless of the number of days which are entered as the inventory days assumption on the Assumptions sheet even if the value of the inventory days assumption requires the inclusion of more than 2 months. This method of calculation is the most accurate way of projecting inventory balances even for businesses where there is significant sales volatility.

Note: If your business does not carry inventory, you can simply enter a nil value in the inventory days assumption on the Assumptions sheet. The inventory line on the balance sheet will then also contain nil values.

If you want to include variable monthly inventory days, you can do so by changing the inventory days assumption in the Workings section of the balance sheet which has been included below the section with the ratios. Simply replace the formula which links the inventory days assumption to the value on the Assumptions sheet by overwriting it with the appropriate inventory days value.

The year 2 to 5 inventory balances are calculated by applying the annual turnover growth percentage to the inventory balance at the end of year 1. This method ensures that the monthly trend in year 1 is reflected in the year 2 to 5 balances. If you amend the inventory days in the Workings section of the balance sheet, the amended days for the appropriate year will be used in the calculation.

Current Assets - Trade Receivables

The trade receivables balances on the balance sheet are calculated based on the debtors days assumption which is specified on the Assumptions sheet. The debtors days number can be determined based on the average trading terms which has been negotiated with customers. The debtors days is applied to the monthly turnover in order to calculate the appropriate trade receivables balance. This calculation is based on the actual number of days in each month if the debtors days assumption is greater than the number of days in the appropriate month.

Example: If you enter a debtors days assumption of 60 days and the month is April, the entire turnover value for April will be included in the trade receivables balance because April only has 30 days. After including the 30 days in April, there is a difference of 30 days between the 60 days assumption and the 30 days in April. The March turnover balance will therefore be used, divided by the 31 days in March and multiplied by the 30 remaining days. The trade receivables balance at the end of April will therefore consist of the turnover total for April and an equivalent of 30 days of the 31 day turnover of March.

Note: The above calculation principle is applied regardless of the number of days which are entered in the debtors days assumption on the Assumptions sheet even if the value of the debtors days assumption requires the inclusion of more than 2 months. This method of calculation is the most accurate way of projecting trade receivable balances even for businesses where there is significant sales volatility.

Where sales tax is applicable, the appropriate sales tax value relating to monthly turnover will be added to the trade receivables balance. Sales tax codes are defined on the Assumptions sheet and the codes in column A next to the turnover amounts on the income statement are used to determine the appropriate rate of sales tax to be used.

The trade receivables calculation will also only include lines that are coded with a sales tax rate code (in the first two characters) and a "C1" at the end of the code. The C1 part of the code refers to credit sales while the inclusion of a C0 code at the end refers to cash sales. Cash sales do not need to be included in the trade receivables calculation and turnover lines with C0 or no code in column A are therefore ignored when calculating trade receivable balances.

Example: If the standard rate sales tax code is V1 and the appropriate turnover line needs to be included in the calculation of trade receivables, the code V1C1 needs to be added in column A of the appropriate turnover line on the income statement. If you do not want to add sales tax in the trade receivables calculation but you do want a trade receivables line to be included in the balance sheet, you can add a code which refers to a 0% sales tax calculation as well as the C1 credit sales indicator.

Example: If you do not want a particular turnover line to be included in the trade receivables calculation, you can include any sales tax rate followed by C0 in order to exclude the line in the trade receivables calculations. For example, a turnover line with a code of V1C0 would not form part of the trade receivables calculations.

Note: If your business has no trade receivables, you can simply enter a nil value in the debtors days assumption on the Assumptions sheet. The trade receivables line on the balance sheet will then also contain nil values.

If you want to include variable monthly debtors days, you can do so by changing the debtors days assumption in the Workings section of the balance sheet which has been included below the section with the ratios. Simply replace the formula which links the debtors days assumption to the value on the Assumptions sheet by overwriting it with the appropriate debtors days value.

The year 2 to 5 trade receivables balances are calculated by applying the annual turnover growth percentage to the trade receivables balance at the end of year 1. This method ensures that the monthly trend in year 1 is reflected in the year 2 to 5 balances. If you amend the debtors days in the Workings section of the balance sheet, the amended days for the appropriate year will be used in the calculation.

Current Assets - Loans & Advances, Other Receivables

The loans and advances & other receivables balances cannot be calculated by basing them on specific income statement items and they are therefore calculated by adding the movements in these balances (as per the cash flow statement for the first 12 months and the Assumptions sheet for year 2 to 5) to the balances of the previous month. If you therefore want to increase or decrease these balances, you need to add the amount of the increase or decrease to the line with a matching description on the cash flow statement (under the changes in operating assets section) for the first 12 months or the Assumptions sheet for year 2 to 5.

Current Assets - Cash & Cash Equivalents

The cash & cash equivalents balances on the balance sheet are linked to the closing cash balances on the cash flow statement. If the resulting cash & cash equivalents balance has a negative value, it will automatically be included in the bank overdraft line in the Current Liabilities section of the balance sheet.

Equity - Shareholders Contributions, Reserves

The shareholders contributions & reserves balances cannot be calculated by basing them on income statement items and they are therefore calculated by adding the movements in these balances (as per the cash flow statement for the first 12 months and the Assumptions sheet for year 2 to 5) to the balances of the previous month. If you therefore want to increase or decrease these balances, you need to add the amount of the increase or decrease to the line with a matching description on the cash flow statement or Assumptions sheet.

Note: The shareholders contribution line on the cash flow statement can be found under the cash flow from financing activities and the reserves line on the cash flow statement under the non-cash adjustments.

Equity - Retained Earnings

The retained earnings balances on the balance sheet are linked to the retained earnings for the year which is calculated on the income statement.

Non-Current Liabilities - Loans 1 to 3, Leases

The template provides for loans & leases to be included based on 4 different sets of loan repayment terms. Loans with the same repayment terms can be grouped together in the appropriate line item. There is no difference between the treatment of loans 1 to 3 and leases. If you do not have finance leases and have loans with 4 different sets of repayment terms, you can use the Leases sheet and rename the appropriate line items accordingly.

Note: The loan repayment period in years is limited to a maximum period of 30 years. If you want to include a loan repayment period which exceeds this period, you need to change the data validation settings in the appropriate input cell by selecting the data validation feature from the Data tab on the Excel ribbon and editing the maximum value of 30 which has been set in the loan repayment period cells.

Each of the loan repayment terms can be specified in the Loan Terms section on the Assumptions sheet. The loan terms include the annual interest rate, loan repayment period in years and a selection field which can be used to indicate interest-only loans. These loan repayment terms are then included at the top of the appropriate loan amortization sheet on the Loans1 to Loans3 and Leases sheets.

Note: A set of loan terms can be specified as interest-only by selecting the "Yes" option from the interest-only drop-down list in the appropriate loan terms on the Assumptions sheet. If this selection is made, the loan will be interest only and not include any loan repayments.

All the calculations on the amortization sheets are fully automated. The only user input that is required on these sheets is entering the additional loan amounts in column C. The loan terms are taken from the Assumptions sheet and the opening balances in the first row of the amortization table are based on the opening balances that are entered in the balance sheet opening balances section of the Assumptions sheet.

The loan repayments, interest charged and capital repayments are calculated based on the outstanding balances at the beginning of each period. The outstanding loan or lease balances at the end of the appropriate monthly or annual period are then included in the appropriate lines on the balance sheet.

Current Liabilities - Bank Overdraft

The bank overdraft as well as cash & cash equivalents are based on the closing cash balances which are calculated on the cash flow statement. If the appropriate monthly closing balance is negative, the balance is included as a bank overdraft and if it is positive, it is included as cash under current assets on the balance sheet.

Current Liabilities - Trade Payables

The trade payables balances on the balance sheet are calculated based on the creditors days assumption which is specified on the Assumptions sheet. The number of days that are included here can be determined based on the average trading terms which has been negotiated with suppliers.

The monthly cost of sales, operating expenses and staff costs on the income statement are added together in order to determine a monthly value on which the trade payables calculations should be based. Expenses and costs which are paid on a cash basis can be excluded from the trade payables calculation by entering a code which ends in C0 in column A on the income statement. The codes in column A start with the appropriate two character sales tax code and end with the two character payables code.

Example: The expense codes in column A for all line items that need to be included in the trade payables calculation and which need to be subject to sales tax at a standard rate should be V1C1. If the expense item is settled on a cash basis and also subject to the standard sales tax rate, the code in column A should be V1C0 which will then result in the item not being included in the trade payables calculation.

If you want to also include purchases of property, plant & equipment in the trade payables calculation, the standard code of PPE in column A on the cash flow statement needs to be amended to the appropriate code which starts with the sales tax code and ends with C1. For standard sales tax, the code will therefore be V1C1.

Like the calculation of inventory and trade receivables balances, the trade payables balances on the balance sheet are based on the actual number of days in each month if the creditors days assumption is greater than the days in the appropriate month.

Example: If you enter a creditors days assumption of 60 days and the month is April, the entire cost of sales & expense value for April will be included in the trade payables balance because April only has 30 days. After including the 30 days in April, there is a difference of 30 days between the 60 days assumption and the 30 days in April. The March cost of sales & expense balance will therefore be used, divided by the 31 days in March and multiplied by the 30 remaining days. The trade payables balance at the end of April will therefore consist of the cost of sales & expenses total for April and an equivalent of 30 days of the 31 day cost of sales & expense values of March.

Note: The above calculation principle is applied regardless of the number of days which are entered as the creditors days assumption on the Assumptions sheet even if the value of the creditors days assumption requires the inclusion of more than 2 months. This method of calculation is the most accurate way of projecting trade payables balances even for businesses where there is significant sales or expense volatility.

Where sales tax is applicable, the appropriate sales tax value relating to monthly cost of sales & expenses will be added to the trade payables balance. Sales tax codes are defined on the Assumptions sheet and the code in column A next to the cost of sales & expense amounts on the income statement are used to determine the appropriate rate of sales tax to be used.

The trade payables calculation will also only include lines that are coded with a sales tax rate code (in the first two characters) and a "C1" at the end of the code. The C1 part of the code refers to purchases on credit while the inclusion of a C0 code at the end refers to cash purchases. Cash purchases do not need to be included in the trade payables calculation and cost of sales & expense lines with C0 or no code in column A are therefore ignored when calculating trade payables balances.

Example: If the standard rate sales tax code is V1 and the appropriate cost of sales or expense line needs to be included in the calculation of trade payables, the code V1C1 needs to be added in column A of the appropriate line on the income statement. If you do not want to add sales tax in the trade payables calculation but you do want a trade payables line to be included in the balance sheet, you can add a code which refers to a 0% sales tax calculation as well as the C1 credit purchases indicator.

Example: If you do not want a particular cost of sales or expense line to be included in the trade payables calculation, you can include any sales tax rate followed by C0 in order to exclude the line in the trade payables calculations. For example, an expense or cost of sales line item with a code of V1C0 in column A on the income statement would not form part of the trade payables calculations.

Note: If your business has no trade payables, you can simply enter a nil value in the creditors days assumption on the Assumptions sheet. The trade payables line on the balance sheet will then also contain nil values.

If you want to include variable monthly creditors days, you can do so by changing the creditors days assumption in the Workings section of the balance sheet which has been included below the section with the ratios. Simply replace the formula which links the creditors days assumption to the value on the Assumptions sheet by overwriting it with the appropriate creditors days value.

The year 2 to 5 trade payables balances are calculated by applying the annual expense inflation percentage to the trade payables balance at the end of year 1. This method ensures that the monthly trend in year 1 is reflected in the year 2 to 5 balances. If you amend the creditors days in the Workings section of the balance sheet, the amended days for the appropriate year will be used in the calculation.

Current Liabilities - Sales Tax

The template accommodates the inclusion of sales tax in all relevant calculations based on four default sales tax calculation codes and any sales tax period. All income statement and cash flow statement items need to be entered exclusive of any sales tax that may be applicable and the trade receivables and trade payables balances on the balance sheet will be calculated inclusive of sales tax. The net sales tax liability is included in the Sales Tax line on the balance sheet.

The template can be used for general sales tax (GST) and value added tax (VAT) purposes. Where there is no sales tax input which reduces the sales tax liability, the codes in column A on the income statement can simply be changed to contain a sales tax code (in the first two characters of the code) which has a zero percentage. Only the sales tax codes that are included next to the turnover lines will then be included in sales tax calculations (as required by some general sales tax calculations).

The appropriate sales tax percentages can be entered in the Sales Tax section of the Assumptions sheet. The template provides for 4 default sales tax codes, each with its own sales tax percentage. The sales tax codes are numbered from V1 to V4.

The income statement contains codes in column A which affects the calculations of sales tax and trade receivables or trade payables. The first two characters of these codes determine which sales tax percentage is used in the sales tax calculations. If an income statement item needs to be excluded from sales tax calculations, you should use a sales tax code with a zero percentage on the Assumptions sheet.

Note: Each line on the income statement can therefore only be linked to one sales tax percentage. If more than one sales tax percentage needs to be applied to the same income statement item, you need to split the income statement amount into two lines and enter the appropriate sales tax codes in column A for each of the lines.

Note: If you are preparing cash flow projections for a business which is not subject to sales tax, simply enter zero percentages for all four sales tax codes.

The sales tax assumptions that need to be specified on the Assumptions sheet also include the frequency of sales tax payments (in months) and the calendar month of the first payment period. You can therefore calculate sales tax based on any period frequency from one to twelve months.

Example: If your business is subject to sales tax payments of every two months and the first payment is due in February, a frequency of 2 needs to be specified and the first payment month should be set to 2 for February. Similarly, if your business is subject to sales tax payments of every 6 months with payments due in March and August, the frequency should be set to 6 and the first payment month should be set to 3. If your business is subject to monthly sales tax payment periods, the frequency should be 1 and the first payment month should also be 1.

The Current or Subsequent setting in the Sales Tax section on the Assumptions sheet determines how the calculated sales tax amounts of the current period are handled. If you select the Current option, the sales tax amounts of the current period will be included in the calculation of the payment amount which is due in the particular month and the sales tax liability at the end of the payment month will be nil.

If you select the Subsequent setting, the sales tax amount of the current period is not included in the calculation of the payment amount and the sales tax liability at the end of the appropriate payment month will always include at least one month.

Note: The Subsequent setting is usually the appropriate setting to use for sales tax purposes. The Current settings is more applicable to tax types which are subject to provisional tax.

Example: If you set a payment frequency of 1 month, first payment month of 1 and select the Current option, the sales tax liability on the balance sheet will always be nil because the current month's sales tax will be included in the sales tax payment. If you have the same period settings and select the Subsequent option, the sales tax liability on the balance sheet will always include the current month's sales tax because the payment amount will be based on the previous month's sales tax.

Note: The first payment month setting refers to the month of payment and not the sales tax period end. There is a difference - a sales tax period may end in February with payment in March which means that the first payment month of the calendar year is actually January or month 1 (if the payment frequency is two months).

The year 2 to 5 balances for sales tax are calculated by calculating the total sales tax for the appropriate year, dividing it by twelve and then multiplying the value by the number of months that are included in the sales tax balance at the end of the first year.

Current Liabilities - Payroll Accruals

The payroll accrual on the balance sheet is based on the payroll accrual assumptions in the Working Capital section of the Assumptions sheet and the amounts in the staff costs section of the income statement. If payroll deductions are paid in the same month as they are incurred, you can set the payroll accrual percentage to zero and the payroll accrual balances on the balance sheet will also be zero.

Staff costs have been included in a separate section on the income statement to make it easier to calculate payroll accrual balances. You can however include staff costs in operating expenses but you need to ensure that you also include the "PAY" code in column A for all the staff costs that you want to include in the payroll accrual calculations.

You also need to specify the appropriate percentage of staff costs which needs to be included in your payroll accruals. This percentage should be based on the percentage of staff costs which are paid in a subsequent month and is based on the current month's staff costs. Payroll accruals usually consist of salary & wage deductions which need to be paid over to third parties and differ from entity to entity. You therefore need to calculate the appropriate payroll accrual percentage based on the composition of the salary or wage structures of all employees.

The payroll accrual assumptions that need to be specified on the Assumptions sheet also include the frequency of payroll accrual payment periods (in months) and the payment month of the first payroll accrual period. You can therefore calculate payroll accruals based on any payment period frequency from one to twelve months. The calculated payroll accruals are added together in the payroll accrual balance until the month of payment.

Example: If you need to settle payroll accruals every two months and the first payment is due in February, a frequency of 2 needs to be specified and the first payment month should be set to 2 for February. Similarly, if you settle payroll accruals every 6 months with payments due in March and August, the frequency should be set to 6 and the first payment month should be set to 3. If you settle payroll accruals on a monthly basis, the frequency should be 1 and the first payment month should also be 1.

The Current or Subsequent setting in the Payroll Accruals section on the Assumptions sheet determines how the calculated payroll accrual amounts of the current period are handled. If you select the Current option, the payroll accrual amounts of the current period will be included in the calculation of the payment amount which is due in the particular month and the payroll accrual balance at the end of the payment month will be nil.

If you select the Subsequent setting, the payroll accrual amounts of the current period are not included in the calculation of the payment amount and the payroll accrual balances on the balance sheet at the end of the appropriate payment month will always include at least one month.

Note: The Subsequent setting is usually the appropriate setting to use for payroll accrual purposes. The Current setting is more applicable to tax types which are subject to provisional tax payments where payment occurs in the same month as the tax calculation.

Example: If you set a payment frequency of 1 month, first payment month of 1 and select the Current option, the payroll accruals on the balance sheet will always be nil because the current month's payroll accruals will be included in the payment calculation. If you have the same period settings and select the Subsequent option, the payroll accruals on the balance sheet will always include the current month's payroll accrual because the payment amount will be based on the previous month's payroll accrual.

Note: The first payment month setting refers to the month of payment and not the payroll accrual period end. There is a difference - a payroll accrual period may end in February with payment in March which means that the first payment month of the calendar year is actually January or month 1 (if the payment frequency is two months).

If you want to include payroll accruals based on variable monthly payroll accrual percentages, you can do so by changing the payroll accrual percentage assumption in the Workings section of the balance sheet which has been included below the section with the ratios. Simply replace the formula which links the payroll accrual percentage assumption to the value on the Assumptions sheet by overwriting it with the appropriate payment accrual percentage.

The year 2 to 5 payroll accrual balances are calculated by adjusting the previous year's balance by the appropriate expense inflation percentage on the Assumptions sheet.

Current Liabilities - Other Accruals, Other Provisions

The other accrual & other provisions balances cannot be calculated by basing them on specific income statement items and they are therefore calculated by adding the movements in these balances (as per the cash flow statement for the first 12 months and the Assumptions sheet for year 2 to 5) to the balances of the previous period. If you therefore want to increase or decrease these balances, you need to add the amount of the increase or decrease to the line with a matching description on the cash flow statement (under the changes in operating assets section) for the first 12 months or the Assumptions sheet for years 2 to 5.

Current Liabilities - Provision for Taxation

The calculation of income tax on the income statement is based on the profit before tax on the income statement and the assumptions that are specified in the Income Tax section on the Assumptions sheet.

The profit before tax amount is multiplied by the income tax percentage on the Assumptions sheet in order to calculate the monthly or annual income tax value. If there is a loss before tax on the income statement, no income tax will be calculated but if there were profits before the period with the loss, the income tax that was calculated in previous periods will be reversed in the period with the loss.

The template also makes provision for the inclusion of an assessed loss which has been carried over from previous financial periods and income tax will only be calculated after the assessed loss has been fully reduced by profits in the projection periods.

The income tax assumptions on the Assumptions sheet also include the frequency of payment of income tax (in months) and the calendar month of the first income tax payment. You can therefore calculate a provision for income tax based on any payment period frequency from one to twelve months. The calculated income tax amounts are added together in the provision for income tax balance on the balance sheet until the month of payment.

Example: If you need to settle income tax liabilities every six months and the income tax payments are due in February and August of each year, a frequency of 6 needs to be specified and the first calendar month should be set to 2 for February. Similarly, if you settle income tax liabilities at the end of each quarter with payments due in March, June, September and December, the frequency should be set to 3 and the first payment month should also be set to 3. If you need to settle income tax liabilities 9 months after each year-end and the cash flow projection year-end is February, the frequency should be set to 12 months and the first payment month should be set to 11.

The Current or Subsequent setting in the Income Tax section on the Assumptions sheet determines how the income tax amounts of the current period are handled. If you select the Current option, the income tax amounts of the current period will be included in the calculation of the payment amount which is due in the particular month and the provision for income tax balance on the balance sheet at the end of the payment month will be nil.

If you select the Subsequent setting, the income tax amounts of the current period are not included in the calculation of the payment amount and the provision for income tax balance on the balance sheet at the end of the appropriate payment month will always include income tax for at least one month.

Note: The Current setting is usually the appropriate setting to use for income tax purposes if the entity is a provisional taxpayer which effectively means that income tax is paid in advance. If the entity is not a provisional taxpayer, the Subsequent setting should be used because income tax will be settled after being incurred.

The year 2 to 5 balances are calculated by calculating the income tax amount for the appropriate year, dividing it by 12 and multiplying the value by the number of months which needs to be included in the provision. This is determined based on the year-end period and the income tax assumptions on the Assumptions sheet.

Current Liabilities - Dividends Payable

The calculation of dividends on the income statement is based on the profit for the year on the income statement and the assumptions that are specified in the Dividends section on the Assumptions sheet. Dividends will only be calculated if you enter a dividend percentage on the Assumptions sheet - if you therefore do not want to include dividends in your cash flow projections, you can simply enter a zero value as the dividend percentage.

The dividend percentage that is specified on the Assumptions sheet is applied to the profit for the year on the income statement which can be found directly above the dividends line. Dividends will also only be calculated if there is a cumulative profit for the year.

The dividends assumptions on the Assumptions sheet also include the frequency of payment of dividends (in months) and the first calendar month of the dividend payment. You can therefore calculate dividends based on any payment period frequency from one to twelve months (although 6 or 12 months is the norm). The calculated dividends amounts are added together in the dividends payable balance on the balance sheet until the month of payment.

Example: If dividends are declared every six months, you need to specify a frequency of 6 months on the Assumptions sheet and then select the appropriate payment basis. Dividends will be reflected on the income statement every 6 months and the dividends payable balances on the balance sheet will be determined based on the first payment month and the payment option which is selected (Cash, Next or Subsequent). Similarly, if the payment frequency is set to 12 months, dividends will be included on the income statement every 12 months and the dividends payable balance will be determined based on the first payment month and the payment option.

The Cash, Next or Subsequent setting in the Dividends section on the Assumptions sheet determines how the dividends payable balances on the balance sheet are calculated and therefore also when the dividend payment will be included on the cash flow statement.

If you select the Cash option, the dividend payable balances on the balance sheet will always be nil and what this means is that the dividend payment is effectively included in the same month as the month in which the dividend is declared. The month in which the declared dividend is included is based on the payment frequency (in months) and the cash flow projection year-end.

If you select the Next option, the dividend payment will be included in the month after the month in which the dividend amount is included on the income statement. The dividend payable balance on the balance sheet will therefore only contain a balance in the dividend declaration month.

If you select the Subsequent option, dividends will be included on the income statement based on the frequency setting on the Assumptions sheet and the payment of the dividend will be delayed until the first payment month (also as per the Assumptions sheet) is reached. A dividends payable balance will be reflected on the balance sheet in all months until the payment month is reached.

Example: If you set the dividend payment frequency to 12 months, a dividend amount will be included on the income statement in the last month of the appropriate cash flow projection year. If the payment option is set to Cash, no dividend payable amount will be included on the balance sheet and the dividend payment will be included on the cash flow statement in the same month.

Example: If you set the dividend payment frequency to 12 months and the payment option is set to Next, the dividend will be included on the income statement in the last month of the appropriate cash flow projection year, the dividend payable at the end of the financial year will equal the income statement amount and the dividend payment will be included in the first month of the next financial year.

Example: If you set the dividend payment frequency to 12 months and the payment option is set to Subsequent, the dividend will be included on the income statement in the last month of the appropriate cash flow projection year and the dividend payable at the end of the financial year and all subsequent months in the new financial year until the first payment month is reached will equal the income statement amount. The dividend payment will be included in the first payment month as set on the Assumptions sheet but in the year after inclusion on the income statement.

If the cash flow projection year-end as per the above example is February, the first payment month is set to 9 for September and the Subsequent payment option is selected, the dividend will be included in February on the income statement and the same amount will be included as a dividend payable on the balance sheet from February to August of the next financial year. The dividend payment will then be included in September on the cash flow statement and the dividend payable at the end of September will be nil.

The year 2 to 5 balances are calculated based on the profit for the year, the dividend percentage and the payment status of Cash, Next or Subsequent.

Balance Sheet Errors

If the balance sheet for any monthly or annual period does not balance, the amount of the imbalance will be included in the row below the total equities & liabilities and displayed in red. The template has been designed in such a way that the balance sheet should always be in balance as long as the total of the balance sheet opening balances which are included on the Assumptions sheet is nil.

If you see an imbalance on the balance sheet, you therefore need to check the opening balance sheet balances on the Assumptions sheet and ensure that the total of all the opening balances in this section is nil.

If fixing the opening balances does not resolve your imbalance, you can e-mail our Support function and let us know what changes you have made to the formulas in the template so that we can assist you. If you have made a lot of changes, you may need to start over with the downloaded copy of the template.

Balance Sheet Workings

We have included all the calculations which form part of the calculation of balance sheet balances in the Workings section below the balance sheet ratios. These workings will not be printed and are for information purposes only. You can therefore hide this section if you do not want to see it on the sheet but do not delete any of these formulas because it will result in calculation errors if you do!

Cash Flow Statement

All the rows on the cash flow statement which require user input are indicated with yellow highlighting in column A. User input is only required in the monthly columns - the user input for the annual columns need to be included on the Assumptions sheet in the first balance sheet section. All the rows on the cash flow statement which do not contain yellow highlighting contain formulas which automate the calculations of these items.

The input rows on the cash flow statement are all related to balance sheet items where the calculations on the balance sheet are based on adding the movement on the cash flow statement to the previous month's balance on the balance sheet. If you need more guidance on any of these items, refer to the appropriate section for the particular item under the Balance Sheet section of these instructions.

Note: The colour of the codes in column A on the cash flow statement indicate whether positive or negative values need to be entered in order to increase the appropriate balance sheet item's balance. If the code is green, positive input values increase the balance sheet balance and if the code is red, you need to enter negative values in order to increase the balance sheet balances.

Loan Amortization Tables (Loans1 to Loans3 & Leases sheets)

The template makes provision for including loans with up to four different sets of repayment terms in the cash flow projections. The amortization tables that are used to calculate the interest charges, loan repayments and outstanding balances have been included on the Loans1, Loans2, Loans3 and Leases sheets. The only user input that is required on these sheets is the additional loan amounts in column C.

Note: Refer to the instructions in the income statement - interest paid section and the balance sheet - non-current liabilities section for guidance on how these amortization tables have been compiled and where to include user input for each of these amortization tables.

How to Write a Business Plan Financial Projection [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans

The financial statement is a distinct section of your business plan because it outlines your financial projections. A business lives and dies based on its financial feasibility and most importantly its profitability. Regardless of how hard you work or how much you have invested of your time and money, people, at the end of the day, only want to support something that can return their investments with profits.

Your executive summary may be brilliantly crafted, and your market or industry analysis may be the bomb. But your business plan isn’t just complete without a financial statement to justify it with good figures on the bottom line.

Your financial statement is what makes or mars your chances of obtaining a bank loan or attracting investors to your business.

Even if you don’t need financing from a third party, compiling a financial statement will help you steer your business to success. So, before we dig further into how to prepare a financial statement, you need to understand what a financial statement is not.

What’s the Difference Between a Financial Projection Statement and Accounting Statement?

However, you need to keep in mind that the financial statement is not the same as an accounting statement. Granted, a financial statement includes financial projections such as profit and loss, balance sheets, and cash flow, all of which makes it look similar to an accounting statement.

But the major difference between them is that an accounting statement deals with the past, while the financial projections statement of your business plan outlines your future spending and earnings. Having made this point clear, let’s now look at the steps involved on preparing a financial statement for your business plan.

So what exactly do you have to include in this section? You will need to include three statements:

• Income Statement
• Balance Sheet
• Cash-Flow Statement

Now, let’s briefly discuss each.

Components of a Business Plan Financial Statement

Income statement.

This beautiful composition of numbers tells the reader what exactly your sources of revenue are and which expenses you spent your money on to arrive at the bottom line. Essentially, for a given time period, the income statement states the profit or loss ( revenue-expenses ) that you made.

Balance sheet

The key word here is “ balance, ” but you are probably wondering what exactly needs to be weighed, right? On one side you should list all your assets ( what you own ) and on the other side, all your liabilities ( what you owe ), thereby giving a snapshot of your net worth ( assets – liabilities = equity ).

Cash flow statement

This statement is similar to your income statement with one important difference; it takes into account just when revenues are actually collected and when expenses are paid. When the cash you have coming in ( collected revenue ) is greater than the cash you have going out ( disbursements ), your cash flow is said to be positive.

And when the opposite scenario is true, your cash flow is negative. Ideally, your cash flow statement will allow you to recognize where cash is low, when you might have a surplus, and how to be on top of your game when operating in an uncertain environment.

How to Prepare a Business Plan Financial Projections Statement

1. start by preparing a revenue forecast and a forecast profit and loss statement.

Also, prepare supporting schedules with detailed information about your projected personnel and marketing costs. If your business has few fixed assets or it’s just a cash business without significant receivables, you don’t need a forecast balance sheet.

2. Using your planned revenue model, prepare a spreadsheet

Set the key variables in such a way that they can be easily changed as your calculations chain through. To ensure that your projected revenues are realistic and attainable, run your draft through a number of iterations. For each year covered in your business plan, prepare a monthly forecast of revenues and spending.

3. If you plan to sell any goods, then include a forecast of goods sold

This applies the most to manufacturing businesses. Give a reasonable estimate for this cost. And be of the assumption that the efficiency of your products would increase with time and the cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales will decline.

4. Quantify your marketing plan

Look at each marketing strategy you outlined in the business plan and attach specific costs to each of them. That is, if you are looking at billboard advertising, TV advertising, and online marketing methods such as pay-per-click advertising and so on; then you should estimate the cost of each medium and have it documented.

5. Forecast the cost of running the business, including general and administrative costs

Also, forecast the cost of utilities, rents, and other recurring costs. Don’t leave out any category of expenses that is required to run your business. And don’t forget the cost of professional services such as accounting and legal services.

6. In the form of a spreadsheet, forecast the payroll

This outlines each individual that you plan to hire, the month they will start work, and their salary. Also include the percentage salary increases (due to increased cost of living and as reward for exemplary performance) that will come in the second and subsequent years of the forecast.

Additional tips for Writing a Business Plan Financial Statement

• Don’t stuff your pages with lots of information, and avoid large chunks of text. Also, use a font size that is large enough. Even if these would spread out your statement into more pages, don’t hesitate to spread it out. Legibility matters!
• After completing the spreadsheets in the financial statement, you should summarize the figures in the narrative section of your business plan.
• Put a table near the front of your financial statement that shows projected figures, pre-tax profit, and expenses. These are the figures you want the reader to remember. You can help the reader retain these figures in memory by including a bar chart of these figures, too.

As a final note, you should keep in mind that a financial statement is just an informed guess of what will likely happen in the future. In reality, the actual results you will achieve will vary. In fact, this difference may be very far from what you have forecast.

So, if your business is a start-up, prepare more capital than your projections show that you will need. Entrepreneurs have a natural tendency to project a faster revenue growth than what is realistic. So, don’t let this instinct fool you.

Related Posts:

• How to Write a Business Plan Mission and Vision Statement [Sample Template]
• Writing a Business Plan Yourself Vs Using a Software – Which is the Best?
• Hiring a Business Consultant Vs Using Business Plan Software
• 22 Tips on How to Start a Business Plan Proposal Presentation
• How Long Does It Take to Write a Business Plan?

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My Transitional Housing Business Plan: Transitional Housing Business Plan Kindle Edition

Welcome to our Digital Business Plan Outline designed specifically for Transitional Housing Programs. This comprehensive outline provides a structured framework for your business plan, saving you time and effort. Each section is meticulously crafted to address the unique needs of your transitional housing program, allowing you to tailor the content to your specific business model, goals, and target audience. With all the groundwork laid out for you, you can easily customize each section to reflect your organization's mission, services offered, market analysis, financial projections, and more. Thank you for your purchase, and we're confident that this resource will help guide your transitional housing program to success.

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Editable Version

• Print length 13 pages
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• Publication date May 1, 2024
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D36DYCK1
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 1, 2024
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1659 KB
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