Forretningsplan Essentials: Skrive en Cash Flow Projection
Det er på slutten av din forretningsplan, men den finansielle planen delen er den delen som avgjør om din forretningsidé er levedyktig, og er en viktig komponent i å bestemme hvorvidt planen kommer til å være i stand til å tiltrekke seg noen investeringer i din forretningsidé.
I utgangspunktet, den finansielle planen delen består av tre årsregnskapet, resultatregnskap , den kontantstrømmen projeksjon og balansen og en kort forklaring / analyse av disse tre utsagnene.
Denne artikkelen vil lede deg gjennom utarbeidelse av hver av disse tre regnskapet. Men først må du samle sammen noen av de økonomiske dataene du trenger ved å undersøke dine utgifter.
Tenk på virksomhetens utgifter som delt inn i to kategorier; oppstartskostnader og driftskostnadene.
Alle kostnadene ved å få bedriften opp og kjører gå inn i oppstart utgifter kategorien. Disse kostnadene kan omfatte:
- Forretningsregistreringsavgifter
- Forretnings lisensiering og tillatelser
- starter inventar
- leie innskudd
- Ned betalinger på eiendom
- Ned betalinger på utstyr
- Utility sette opp avgiftene
Dette er bare et utvalg av oppstart utgifter; din egen liste vil trolig utvide så snart du begynner å skrive dem ned.
Driftskostnadene er kostnadene ved å holde bedriften i gang. Tenk på disse som de tingene du er nødt til å betale hver måned. Listen over driftskostnader kan omfatte:
- Lønn (din og ansatte lønn)
- Husleie eller boliglån betalinger
- Telekommunikasjon
- verktøy
- råvarer
- Oppbevaring
- Fordeling
- Forfremmelse
- lån betalinger
- Kontorrekvisita
- Vedlikehold
Igjen, dette er bare en delvis liste for å komme i gang. Når du har din driftskostnader listen fullført, vil den totale vise deg hva det vil koste deg å holde virksomheten i gang hver måned.
Multipliser dette tallet med 6, og du har en seks måneders estimat av dine driftskostnader. Deretter legger dette til sammen din starter opp utgifter liste, og du har et omtrentlig tall for din komplette oppstart kostnader.
Nå la oss se på å sette noen årsregnskapet for din forretningsplan sammen, og starter med resultatet.
Resultatregnskapet
Resultatregnskapet er en av de tre regnskapet som du må ta med i Financial Plan delen av forretningsplanen.
Resultatregnskapet viser inntekter, utgifter og fortjeneste for en bestemt periode. Det er et øyeblikksbilde av virksomheten som viser hvorvidt virksomheten er lønnsom på det tidspunktet; Inntekter – Kostnader = Profit / Loss.
Mens etablerte bedrifter normalt produsere et resultatregnskap hvert regnskapskvartal, eller enda en gang hvert regnskapsår, i forbindelse med forretningsplanen bør en Næringsoppgave genereres oftere – månedlig for det første året.
Her er et resultat mal for første kvartal for en tjeneste-baserte bedriften. Det er etterfulgt av en forklaring på hvordan du kan tilpasse denne Næringsoppgave malen til en produktbasert virksomhet.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Total | |
| REVENUE | ||||
| Services | ||||
| Service 1 | ||||
| Service 2 | ||||
| Service 3 | ||||
| Service 4 | ||||
| Total Services | ||||
| Miscellaneous | ||||
| Bank Interest | ||||
| Total Miscellaneous | ||||
| TOTAL REVENUE | ||||
| EXPENSES | ||||
| Direct Costs | ||||
| Materials | ||||
| Equipment Rentals | ||||
| Salary (Owner) | ||||
| Wages | ||||
| Pension Expense | ||||
| Workmen’s Compensation Expense | ||||
| Total Direct Costs | ||||
| General and Administration (G&A) | ||||
| Accounting and Legal Fees | ||||
| Advertising and Promotion | ||||
| Bad Debts | ||||
| Bank Charges | ||||
| Depreciation and Amortization | ||||
| Insurance | ||||
| Interest | ||||
| Office Rent | ||||
| Telephone | ||||
| Utilities | ||||
| Credit Card Commissions | ||||
| Credit Card Charges | ||||
| Total G&A | ||||
| TOTAL EXPENSES | ||||
| NET INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES | ||||
| INCOME TAXES | ||||
| NET INCOME | ||||
Not all of the categories in this Income Statement will apply to your business. Leave out those that don’t apply and add categories where necessary to adapt this template to your business.
To use this template as part of the business plan, you’ll need to set it up as a table and fill in the appropriate figures for each month (as indicated by the line “row listing each month”).
If you have a product-based business, the Revenue section of the Income Statement will look different. Revenue will be called Sales, and the inventory needs to be accounted for. Here is an example showing how the cost of inventory is calculated in the Revenue section:
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Total | |
| REVENUE | ||||
| Sales | $3000 | $4,100 | $4,300 | $11,400 |
| Cost of Goods Sold | ||||
| Opening Inventory | $1000 | $1500 | $1500 | $4000 |
| Purchases | $1000 | $1200 | $1200 | $3400 |
| Freight | $200 | $300 | $350 | $850 |
| Minus Closing Inventory | -$1200 | -$1000 | -$900 | -$3100 |
| Total Cost of Goods Sold | $1000 | $2000 | $2150 | $5150 |
| Gross Profit | $2000 | $2100 | $2150 | $6250 |
The Expense portion of the Income Statement, however, is very similar to the template I’ve provided above.
Ready to move on to the next financial statement that you need to include in the Financial Plan section of your business plan? The Cash Flow Projection is next.
The Cash Flow Projection
The Cash Flow Projection shows how cash is expected to flow in and out of your business. For you, it’s an important tool for cash flow management, letting you know when your expenditures are too high or when you might want to arrange short term investments to deal with a cash flow surplus. As part of your business plan, a Cash Flow Projection will give you a much better idea of how much capital investment your business idea needs.
For a bank loans officer, the Cash Flow Projection offers evidence that your business is a good credit risk and that there will be enough cash on hand to make your business a good candidate for a line of credit or short term loan.
Do not confuse a Cash Flow Projection with a Cash Flow Statement. The Cash Flow Statement shows how cash has flowed in and out of your business. In other words, it describes the cash flow that has occurred in the past. The Cash Flow Projection shows the cash that is anticipated to be generated or expended over a chosen period of time in the future.
While both types of Cash Flow reports are important business decision-making tools for businesses, we’re only concerned with the Cash Flow Projection in the business plan. You will want to show Cash Flow Projections for each month over a one year period as part of the Financial Plan portion of your business plan.
There are three parts to the Cash Flow Projection. The first part details your Cash Revenues. Enter your estimated sales figures for each month. Remember that these are Cash Revenues; you will only enter the sales that are collectible in cash during the specific month you are dealing with.
The second part is your Cash Disbursements. Take the various expense categories from your ledger and list the cash expenditures you actually expect to pay that month for each month.
The third part of the Cash Flow Projection is the Reconciliation of Cash Revenues to Cash Disbursements. As the word “reconciliation” suggests, this section starts with an opening balance which is the carryover from the previous month’s operations. The current month’s Revenues are added to this balance; the current month’s Disbursements are subtracted, and the adjusted cash flow balance is carried over to the next month.
Here is a template for a Cash Flow Projection that you can use for your business plan (or later on when your business is up and running):
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | |
| CASH REVENUE | ||||||
| Revenue from Product Sales | ||||||
| Revenue from Service Sales | ||||||
| TOTAL CASH REVENUES | ||||||
| CASH DISBURSEMENTS | ||||||
| Cash Payments to Trade Suppliers | ||||||
| Management Draws | ||||||
| Salaries and Wages | ||||||
| Promotion Expense Paid | ||||||
| Professional Fees Paid | ||||||
| Rent/Mortgage Payments | ||||||
| Insurance Paid | ||||||
| Telecommunications Payment | ||||||
| Utilities Payments | ||||||
| TOTAL CASH DISBURSEMENTS | ||||||
| CASH FLOW | ||||||
| OPENING CASH BALANCE | ||||||
| CLOSING CASH BALANCE | ||||||
Where:
CASH FLOW = TOTAL CASH REVENUES – TOTAL CASH DISBURSEMENTS
OPENING CASH BALANCE = CLOSING CASH BALANCE from the previous month
CLOSING CASH BALANCE = OPENING CASH BALANCE + CASH FLOW
Once again, to use this template for your own business, you will need to delete and add the appropriate Revenue and Disbursement categories that apply to your own business.
The main danger when putting together a Cash Flow Projection is being over optimistic about your projected sales. Terry Elliott’s article, 3 Methods of Sales Forecasting, will help you avoid this and provides a detailed explanation of how to do accurate sales forecasting for your Cash Flow Projections.
Once you have your Cash Flow Projections completed, it’s time to move on to the Balance Sheet.
The Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet is the last of the financial statements that you need to include in the Financial Plan section of the business plan. The Balance Sheet presents a picture of your business’ net worth at a particular point in time. It summarizes all the financial data about your business, breaking that data into 3 categories; assets, liabilities, and equity.
Some definitions first:
Assets are tangible objects of financial value that are owned by the company.
A liability is a debt owed to a creditor of the company.
Equity is the net difference when the total liabilities are subtracted from the total assets.
Retained earnings are earnings kept by the company for expansion, i.e. not paid out as dividends.
Current earnings are earnings for the fiscal year up to the balance sheet date (income – cost of sales and expenses).
All accounts in your General Ledger are categorized as an asset, a liability or equity. The relationship between them is expressed in this equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity.
For the purposes of your business plan, you’ll be creating a pro forma Balance Sheet intended to summarize the information in the Income Statement and Cash Flow Projections. Normally a business prepares a Balance Sheet once a year.
Here is a template for a Balance Sheet that you can use for your business plan (or later on when your business is up and running):
| ASSETS | $ | LIABILITIES | $ |
| Current Assets | Current Liabilities | ||
| Cash in Bank | Accounts Payable | ||
| Petty Cash | Vacation Payable | ||
| Net Cash | Income Tax Payable | ||
| Inventory | Customs Fees | ||
| Accounts Receivable | Pension Payable | ||
| Prepaid Insurance | Union Dues Payable | ||
| Total Current Assets | Medical Payable | ||
| Workers Compensation Payable | |||
| State/Provincial Tax Payable | |||
| Fixed Assets: | Total Current Liabilities | ||
| Land | |||
| Buildings | Long-Term Liabilities | ||
| Less Depreciation | Long-Term Loans | ||
| Net Land & Buildings | Mortgage | ||
| Total Long-Term Liabilities | |||
| Equipment | |||
| Less Depreciation | TOTAL LIABILITIES | ||
| Net Equipment | |||
| EQUITY | |||
| EARNINGS | |||
| Owner’s Equity – Capital | |||
| Owner – Draws | |||
| Retained Earnings | |||
| Current Earnings | |||
| Total Earnings | |||
| TOTAL EQUITY | |||
| TOTAL ASSETS | LIABILITIES AND EQUITY | ||
Once again, this template is an example of the different categories of assets and liabilities that may apply to your business. The Balance Sheet will reproduce the accounts you have set up in your General Ledger. You may need to modify the categories in the Balance Sheet template above to suit your own business.
Once you have your Balance Sheet completed, you’re ready to write a brief analysis of each of the three financial statements. When you’re writing these analysis paragraphs, you want to keep them short and cover the highlights, rather than writing an in-depth analysis. The financial statements themselves (the Income Statement, Cash Flow Projections, and Balance Sheet) will be placed in your business plan’s Appendices.
Ahmad Faishal is now a full-time writer and former Analyst of BPD DIY Bank. He’s Risk Management Certified. Specializing in writing about financial literacy, Faishal acknowledges the need for a world filled with education and understanding of various financial areas including topics related to managing personal finance, money and investing and considers investoguru as the best place for his knowledge and experience to come together.
