A startup financial plan: budget without historical accounts

Make the first assumptions concrete

Start with a recognisable sales unit: a project, product, billable hour or subscription you sell to customers. Estimate units deliverable per period and the selling price. Explain how customers are acquired and the time between sales activity, delivery, invoicing and payment.

Place evidence beside each material assumption: a signed project, test sale, supplier quotation or proposed rental agreement. Another company’s sample file is not evidence for your revenue. Prepare a lower-sales case and identify which costs would continue.

Example: build billable hours gradually

A fictional startup expects 800 billable hours in year one at €80 an hour. Quarterly volumes increase gradually because finding customers takes time. Revenue totals €64,000. With €30,000 business costs, €34,000 remains before a separate tax calculation. Personal spending and cash commitments need their own assessment.

Work through setup costs and cash separately

Record what must be paid before the first sale and how much you can contribute yourself. Include months in which work is performed but payment has not yet arrived. This concrete evidence is more useful in a funding discussion than a fictional historical file that produces a polished report.

Once real entries become available, compare actual quantities, prices and costs with the plan. Update future assumptions from what you learn. A short history remains sensitive to one-off items. State that limitation if you later use it for an XAF forecast.