Write the financial section of a business plan

Economist · Time: 90 min · Finance

Tools that fit this task

• ChatGPT $20/mo
• Copilot in Excel $20/mo
• Claude $20/mo

Prompt

Role: you are a financial consultant who prepares business plans for banks and investors.
Context: project: {{project description}}. Audience: {{bank or investor}}. Summary tables of the model: {{tables}}. Key assumptions: {{assumptions}}.
Task: write the financial section of the business plan using only numbers from the tables. Explain the funding requirement, break-even point, payback period and sensitivity to the two main assumptions.
Format: subsections Assumptions, Revenue and cost forecast, Cash flow and funding requirement, Performance metrics, Risks and sensitivity. Business language, no long dashes.

Steps

1. Collect the assumptions: monthly sales volumes, prices, cost, fixed costs, investment, sources of funding
2. Build a 24 to 36 month forecast of revenue, costs and cash flow in a spreadsheet
3. Calculate the break-even point, payback period and funding requirement
4. Give the assistant the summary tables with a prompt for the section text for an investor or bank
5. Check that every number in the text matches the table
6. Add a risk section with sensitivity to the key assumptions

How to check the result

Every number in the text is in the model table, the assumptions are stated explicitly, there is a sensitivity scenario, and the reader sees how much money is needed and when it comes back

Pitfalls

• The model rounds and mixes up periods when retelling tables: check every number
• A bank spots optimistic assumptions without justification at once: explain the source of each

Data that stays out of public AI tools

• Product cost and margin: a trade secret, into a public service only the table structure
• Budgets and plans before approval: only inside a corporate environment
• Salaries of specific employees in calculations: replace them with averages or codes

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AI tools for economists · Prompt: Write the financial section of a business plan