Starting up
Your cash flow forecast for a Start Up Loan, without a spreadsheet
A cash flow forecast for a Start Up Loan is built from your sales assumptions. What myplan automates, what you prepare, and the mistake that gets workbooks returned.
A cash flow forecast for a Start Up Loan maps twelve months of money in and money out, and it is mostly built from your sales assumptions. myplan assembles the forecast in the Start Up Loans required format. Your job is the inputs: products, prices, monthly volumes and running costs.
Section 01
What goes into a cash flow forecast for a Start Up Loan?
- Your sales assumptions. Up to four products or services, each with a selling price and a cost price, and monthly volumes for twelve months.
- Your operating costs. Rent, utilities, insurance, marketing, wages: every regular business cost, timed to the month it starts.
- Any other inflows. Grants or personal investment. Many businesses have none, and that is normal.
Month 0 is your pre-trading setup period. Recurring costs usually start in month 1.
Section 02
What myplan handles for you
The rows founders most often get wrong are automatic. Sales revenue and cost of sales are computed from your assumptions. The loan drawdown, your loan-funded setup costs, and the monthly repayment at 7.5% are all placed for you. If your personal survival budget shows a shortfall, the salary the business must pay you goes in automatically too. Re-entering any of these double-counts the money, so you never touch them.
Section 03
The mistake that gets workbooks sent back
Flat sales volumes across all twelve months. Real businesses ramp up, and many are seasonal. A café may dip in January. A shop may peak before Christmas. Forecast a curve you can explain, and be conservative in the early months: that is the scheme’s own guidance.
To prepare your numbers before you start, download our cash flow forecast preparation guide. If you have not checked you qualify yet, start with Start Up Loans eligibility: the check takes 60 seconds with no credit check. bizbritain is an FCA-authorised finance broker and a Start Up Loans Business Support Partner, with a panel of 100+ lenders.
This guide is general information, not financial advice. Applications are subject to status, affordability and lender criteria.
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