Financial Model Settings
The Settings page lets you control general aspects of your financial model, such as currency, tax rates and spending categories
General Settings
Company Name
Default Value: [Company Name]
This field will update the company name across all pages in the financial model.
Currency
Default Value: USD
You can use symbols or letters to define a currency on the model. Most of the sheets, including Revenue, SG&A, Staff, COGS, and CAPEX, have a 'Currency' column that is linked to this cell. As a general good practice, you should format numbers for accounting, and not for currency.
Model Start Date
Default Value: 1/1/2023
This settings defines the initial month for the entirety of the financial model. Our financial model supports up to 84 months (7 years) from this start date.
This value is linked to cell D6 on the FS-Month sheet, which then uses an EDATE formula to increase the month value by one in every subsequent column. The calendar month section in every other page on the financial model is referenced from here.
Bear in mind that we only support starting the model in calendar years. We use a Data Validation dropdown to limit the input values to the start of calendar years. If you need a year that's different from the list available, you can edit it from the Data Validation settings on the spreadsheet.
Company Capital on _____
Default Value: 0
This settings defines the cash in the bank the company has at the start of the model. It links directly to the Cash Flow section on the FS-Month sheet (specifically cell D89).
It's meant to be used if you would like to reflect free cash balance in your bank accounts prior to the model starting.
Taxes
Corporate/Income Tax
Income Tax Rate
Default Value: 21%
The tax rate determines the Income Tax rate the company will pay based on its profits. It uses the EBIT from the last Fiscal Year. The value is added to the FS-Month sheet, on row 52.
Fiscal Year
Default Value: Jan-Dec
This dropdown defines the 12-month period used to estimate the Income Tax the company will pay.
Need a different fiscal year period? Book some time with our team.
Tax Payment Month
Default Value: 3 (March)
This is the calendar month in which the tax expense will be created for the previous Fiscal Year's dues.
VAT and Sales Tax
VAT/Sales Tax Rate for Revenue Source 1-4
Default Value: 0%
For startups and companies established in legislations where a Value-Added-Tax or a Sales Tax is required, we have enabled the option to estimate this tax as an extra charge on top of the revenue estimates, or to simply account for the cost of those taxes. You can define different tax rates for each one of your 4 revenue lines.
Add VAT/Sales Tax on top of Revenue
Default Value: YES
YES is to be used by companies that would like to estimate the collection of sales/VAT as an added value to their books.
- Let's assume a company generates $1,000 in Revenue in a given month, and has defined their Sales/VAT as 13%.
- Setting Add VAT/Sales Tax on top of Revenue to YES will estimate an additional $130 to be collected by the company. It's reflected on the Revenue Sheet.
- The $130 taxes collected are then 'spent' on the tax section of the FS-Month sheet (Rows 52-54).
- Taxes collected from VAT/Sales Tax are not considered true Revenue, excluded from the Income Tax estimations.
- The Gross Revenue for the company in this case will be $1,000.
NO is to be used by companies that have already included the sales/VAT on their pricing and Revenue estimations, and must therefore pay it out of their end.
- Let's assume a company generates $1,000 in Revenue in a given month, and has defined their Sales/VAT as 13%.
- Setting Add VAT/Sales Tax on top of Revenue to NO will not estimate any additional charges for the customer.
- The $130 taxes collected are then 'spent' on the tax section of the FS-Month sheet (Rows 52-54).
- The Gross Revenue for the company in this case will be $870.
Spending Categories
Spending Category 1-7
Default Values: Growth, Ops, R&D, Legal, Other 1, Other 2, Other 3
This optional feature allows you to define spending categories for your SG&A expenses, which are useful for the 'Use of Funds' section of your pitch deck.
All selections are summarized via a SUMIF formula on the Data for Charts sheet, for the first 18 months in the model. This summary is used to generate a 'Use of Funds' chart you can find on the Cash Flow Charts section of the model.
By default, there are no spending categories assigned for COGS expenses, since they are generally tied directly to revenue, however, the dropdowns are available on column C of the COGS sheet.
This is a functional model you can use to create your own formulas and project your potential business growth. Instructions on how to use it are on the front page.
