Frequently Asked Questions

I am not an accountant, How do I build the financial portion of my business plan?

Yes, for most relatively small start up companies you can.  You need to get organized and then break things down into steps.  Normally the steps are as follows:

1. Build the Start Up Expense Schedule.
2. Build the Starting Balance Sheet.
3. Build the Forecasted Income Statements.
4. Build the Forecast Balance Sheets.

What are the steps to forecasting the Income Statement?

1. Pick your companies chart of accounts. The chart of accounts is a list of commonly used expenses for a particular industry.  For instance the industry "Farmer / Rancher" may have the expense account "Utilities: Water", but the industry "Writer / Artist" will not.  Along with chart of accounts are estimates for each expense and sales item.
2. Forecast the first month that you will be in business and how much you think your business will grow over the next five years.
3. Review the Income Statement and make any necessary adjustments.

What are the steps to forecasting the balance Sheet?

1. Balance Sheet Assumptions - The credit terms you will offer your customers, how many days of inventory you will stock and the credit terms you will receive from your vendors.
2. Equipment Purchases - The cost of your companies fixed assets and when they will be purchased.
3. Equity Investments - How much money investors / the owners will invest in your company and when they will invest it.
4. Loans - How much of a loan you will receive, the approximate interest rate you are offered and how many months you will be given to pay it back.
5. Other Balance Sheet Items - Catch all balance Sheet accounts; these accounts allow you to classify miscellaneous assets or liabilities as short or long term. You will need to list any miscellaneous balance sheet items into the following accounts:
   • Other Current Assets
   • Other Long Term Assets
   • Other Current Liabilities
   • Other Long Term Liabilities

What types of industries are available?

You following types of industries are currently available:

How much cash will I need to start my business?

How much cash you need depends on:

• One time expenses such as the cost to form a legal business entity.
• The Monthly reoccurring expenses before your can make your first sale.
• The cost of the equipment required to start the business.
• The cost of inventory required to start the business.
• Lease deposits.
• Working Capital requirements - cash you will need before you company begins to generate a positive cash flow.

Below is a typical worksheet for a start up company.

Working capital is the hardest amount to pin down.  You should not just plug in a number.  Working capital is dependant on a mix of several items such as the terms you receive from venders, the terms you will give your customers, how much inventory you will stock and when the company will break even.  The best way to calculate working capital is to simply build a detailed budget.  When you do this the cash balance is usually less than zero.  To get cash back to a safe level you will need to either take out a loan, make an equity investment or both. 

Why is the online business plan application free?

The application was originally written for "in house" consultants over a private network. It was very easy for us to simply convert the private network to a public network and begin offering the online application to the general public for free. Of course the reason we did this was to get your consulting business, but you are under no obligation to purchase any consulting services from us. You will not be charged any fees or subjected to online advertising. None of the information in your business plan will be disclosed to the public, used by Fast4cast, Inc. or sold to third parties with out your express written consent.

How do I get my documents and reports?

You can generate real time reports and graphs from the application and then save them to your PC.  Most of the financial reports can be downloaded as excel documents, the images in the common jpg format and the complete business plan as a word document.

Who can view my business plan or budget?

You can add "View Only" users. You assign View Only users a special user name and password which is used to view your business plan. View Only users will only have access to view but not to make any modifications.

Who can edit my business plan or budget?

Only an individual who has the user name and password that you used to register with can edit your business plan or budget.

How long will my business plan and/ or budget data stay online?

Your data will stay online for 6 months after the day you register.

What is required to build a budget?

First you will need to pick a starting date. For new Companies this is normally the first day of the first month you plan on making a sale. Most established companies chose the January 1st for their starting date.

• Opening Day Balance Sheet - a list of the companies Assets, Liabilities and Equity on the starting date.
• Start Up Expense Schedule - a list of the expenses that have been (or will be) incurred before the starting date.

An example of the accounts used in an Opening Day Balance Sheet is below:

You must also be able to estimate your monthly revenues and expenses. Your revenues are comprised of the items that you sell on an ongoing basis. Your expenses are categorized into specific Expense Accounts. For instance, payments to your landlord for rent would be categorized as Rent Expense. Some typical Expense Accounts are as follows: Advertising, Marketing, Office Supplies, Telephone, Rent and Insurance. You will need to be able to choose your expenses accounts and estimate how much each expense will be in a give time period.