FOR FOUNDERS PREPARING FOR FUNDRAISE, M&A DILIGENCE, OR BANK REVIEW
The three-statement model your future investor will demand on day one.
Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement — tied out, three years forward. Most early-stage operators have a P&L only; sophisticated capital allocators (PE, VC, banks, strategic acquirers, fractional CFOs) want all three properly linked. This tool builds the model from the standard input set: revenue, margins, opex, capex, working capital. Output ties out by accounting identity.
3-stmt
IS + BS + CFS
3-yr
Forward forecast
Ties out
Cash + Equity check
Indirect
Cash flow method
YOUR MODEL
1
Starting point
2
Revenue & margins
3
OpEx & capex
4
Working capital & tax
5
3-statement output
STAGE 1 OF 5
Starting balance sheet (Year 0 ending)
Enter your full Year 0 ending balance sheet. The tool will not let you proceed until Total Assets = Total Liabilities + Equity (within $1K rounding). This forces you to start with a clean balance — the most common error in founder-built models is a starting BS that doesn't tie.
CONTEXTIf you have a saved company profile, prefill the inputs across this whole tool with one click.
Assets ($K)
Cash on hand + checking + money-market + short-term Treasury bills. Excludes restricted cash.
$
Customer receivables net of allowance for doubtful accounts. Y0 ending balance.
$
Raw materials + WIP + finished goods at lower of cost or market. Zero for services / SaaS.
$
Prepaid insurance, prepaid SaaS, deposits. Typically 1-3% of revenue.
$
Property, plant, equipment net. Services: $50-200K typical. Asset-heavy: large. Tool depreciates this forward and adds capex.
$
From past acquisitions. Goodwill not amortized (tested for impairment). Identifiable intangibles amortized. Usually $0 for organic-growth businesses without M&A history.
Payroll accrual, vacation, bonus accrual, accrued interest, accrued taxes. Typically 5-10% of revenue.
$
Cash collected for services not yet delivered. Critical for SaaS (annual prepay), subscription, professional services. $0 for most product businesses.
$
Bank line drawn + 12 months of long-term debt principal due within 12 months. Y0 ending.
$
Term loans, mortgages, bonds — portion due beyond 12 months. Y0 ending.
$
Operating lease liability (ASC 842), deferred tax liability, other long-term obligations. Often material for established businesses.
$
Equity ($K)
All equity components combined: paid-in capital, retained earnings (or accumulated deficit), AOCI, treasury stock if any. Tool builds forward retained-earnings progression from net income.
$
Plug equity to balance the BS, OR leave fixed and adjust assets/liabilities. Most founders solve to equity.
Total Assets
—
Total Liabilities + Equity
—
Tie check (A − L − E)
—
—
Why we won't let you proceed without a tied-out starting BS. Most founder-built models start with a balance sheet that doesn't tie — usually because equity is plugged from a P&L number rather than reconciled from actual paid-in capital + retained earnings. Then every year of forecast carries that error forward, hidden in the equity rollforward. By the time an investor sees the model, the BS is off by tens of thousands. Fix it at the start: every line item below ties to your actual GL trial balance.
STAGE 2 OF 5
Revenue & gross margin
Three-year forecast of revenue and gross margin (revenue × gross-margin %).
Trailing-12-month revenue at year 0 end. Starting point for growth ramp.
$
Revenue minus COGS, divided by revenue. SaaS: 70-85%. Hardware: 30-50%. Services: 50-70%. Distribution: 15-30%. Manufacturing: 25-45%.
%
Most aggressive growth typically year 1; tapers thereafter. For early-stage growth: 50-150%. Mid-stage: 25-50%. Mature: 5-20%.
%
Year 2 typically a step down from Y1 as base grows.
%
Year 3 settles toward run-rate growth.
%
Mature gross margin. Most businesses see 100-300 bps improvement at scale (volume discounts, fixed-cost leverage).
%
STAGE 3 OF 5
Operating expenses & capex
OpEx ratios drive operating leverage; capex drives PP&E and D&A.
Mature OpEx ratio. Operating leverage shows up here — most businesses get OpEx as % to decline as revenue scales.
%
Tangible capital expenditure. Services: 1-3%. Distribution: 2-5%. Manufacturing: 5-10%. Software: 2-4%. Heavy industry: 10-20%.
%
Annual depreciation + amortization. In steady state, roughly equals capex. For early-stage where capex outpaces D&A, set lower than capex %.
%
Average rate on outstanding debt. Bank line: prime + 1-3% (currently 8-11%). Term loan: 6-9%. Convertible note: 6-10%. Senior secured: best rate; subordinated: highest.
%
SBC is non-cash expense but DOES dilute. Most operating models add it back to EBITDA but include it in net income. Tech/SaaS: 5-15%. Mature non-tech: 0-2%.
%
STAGE 4 OF 5
Working capital & tax
DSO, DIO, DPO drive working capital evolution. Tax rate drives cash taxes.
Days customers take to pay. Net-30 terms → typical actual ~45 days. SaaS prepay: 5-10 days. B2B services: 30-60. B2B distribution: 30-45.
Days of inventory on hand. SaaS / services: 0. Distribution: 30-60. Manufacturing: 45-90. Retail: 60-120. Restaurants: 5-10.
Days you take to pay vendors. Net-30 vendor terms → typical 30-45 actual. Most companies stretch DPO to 45-60 to fund WC.
Cash tax rate. C-corp federal 21% + state 4-9% blended. Most US C-corps: 25-27%. Tax-loss carryforward situations: 0%. Use 25% as default.
%
Total capital raised across the 3-year forecast period. Spread evenly across the 3 years for simplicity. Set 0 if no new capital expected.
$
Annual principal payments on debt. Typical 5-7 year amort: ~15-20% of starting debt per year. Set 0 if interest-only or no scheduled paydown.
$
STAGE 5 OF 5 · YOUR MODEL
3-year three-statement model
—
Income Statement
$K
Y1
Y2
Y3
Balance Sheet (year-end)
$K
Y1
Y2
Y3
Cash Flow Statement
$K
Y1
Y2
Y3
Summary metrics
LENDER COVENANTS (OPTIONAL)
Enter your lender's covenant thresholds to test compliance year-by-year against the forecast. Leave at zero to skip.
DCF Sanity Check uses your year-3 FCF as the starting point for terminal value. WACC Calculator gives the discount rate for valuation. CFO Engagement helps price the work of the fractional CFO building this for you. Subscribe to the library →
CFO & CONTROLLER'S GUIDE
A three-statement model is the foundation. The CFO playbook is what comes after.
Annual planning & budgeting · monthly close + variance review · KPI dashboard · cap table + dilution scenarios · debt covenant compliance · audit prep · the M&A and capital-raise prep checklist.
WANT THE METHODOLOGY BEHIND THIS TOOL?
This calculator is one chapter of CFO & Controller's Reference Guide.
The tool gives you the answer. The guide gives you the argument — the case law, the worked examples, the negotiation playbook, the cross-check tables, the exception cases. Read the chapter and you can defend your number to a board, a buyer, an examiner, or a counterparty.
The methodology behind this calculator is in Ch 7 Three-Statement Modeling at PE Depth of the reference guide.
This is a simplified three-statement model for planning and concept-validation purposes. Production models include: monthly granularity, multiple business segments, detailed working capital schedules (not just average DSO/DIO/DPO), debt schedule with maturity ladders, equity rollforward with stock-based comp detail, deferred tax accounting, foreign-currency translation, lease accounting (ASC 842), revenue-recognition timing differences (ASC 606), and many other complexities. The model uses indirect-method cash flow; direct method would show actual cash receipts/disbursements but isn\'t what GAAP filers typically present. This is not accounting, financial reporting, or audit advice. For an actual investor / lender / acquirer presentation, engage a fractional CFO or accounting professional to build a full model.