Free Excel Business Plan Template: 5-Year Financial Plan

One workbook, 15 tabs, no macros, no links to other files and no password-protected sheets.

Built as an .xlsx file using only standard functions. Recalculated and checked in LibreOffice Calc; not yet tested in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets or other spreadsheet apps.

1. Open Assumptions. Change only the yellow cells with blue text, top to bottom.
2. Enter your revenue lines: what you sell, units or customers a month, price, growth and direct cost. Then set ramp-up and seasonality.
3. Enter your people and costs: the roles you will pay and when they start, then operating costs from real quotes and your lease.
4. Enter every startup cost and how you will pay for it: loan, owner equity, investor equity.
5. Check: on Startup & Funding, sources must pay for all uses; on Key Ratios, every model check should read OK.
6. Read the results: P&L, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Break-Even and Key Ratios. If the lowest month-end cash goes below zero, you need more working capital.
7. Test what-ifs: lower prices or units, raise costs or change the loan, and watch break-even, DSCR and cash move. Then use Plan Outline to put the numbers into your written plan.

From your own quotes, lease and research, not someone else's averages; the template has no benchmarks built in.

The SBA lists eight common sections for a traditional plan: executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service or product line, marketing and sales, funding request, and financial projections. It also says "you don't have to stick to the exact business plan outline" (SBA).

The Plan Outline tab takes those eight sections and shows, for each one, which tab feeds it and a live figure to quote. For example, the funding request draws on Startup & Funding and Loan. That mapping is this template's own reading of the SBA's guide, not the SBA's. Under the table, "What this workbook leaves out" lists three gaps, the same ones in this page's limitations.

Each revenue line is units or customers a month × price. A unit is whatever you sell: a job, a customer on a plan, an item. You enter full monthly volume for Year 1, then adjust it for ramp-up in the first six months, seasonality by calendar month, and annual unit growth and price increases from Year 2.

Each line also has its own direct cost, as a % of that line's sales.

Assumptions has 12 startup lines plus a working-capital reserve (cash in the bank on opening day), treated three ways:

• Depreciated: equipment, furniture and fixtures, leasehold improvements, vehicles, computers and software.
• Held on the balance sheet: initial inventory and deposits.
• Spent before opening: licenses, legal fees, pre-opening marketing and payroll, and other costs. They reduce equity from day one, not P&L profit.

Startup & Funding sets total uses against the loan, owner equity and investor equity. If sources fall short, it shows the shortfall and lowers opening cash by that amount. Debt and equity are shown as a % of uses; lenders set their own equity requirements, so ask yours.

The employer pays 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare (IRS Topic no. 751), 7.65% in total. It is the template's only published rate. A second input, other payroll costs, covers benefits, workers' comp and unemployment insurance; get that figure from your insurer and payroll provider.

The template applies 7.65% to all wages. Social Security tax stops at a wage base of $184,500 for 2026 (IRS Topic no. 751), so a salary above that is slightly over-costed. The Additional Medicare Tax is not modelled; the IRS says "there's no employer match" for it (IRS Topic no. 751).

It follows the SBA's sales-dollar formula, "fixed costs ÷ contribution margin" (SBA).

• Contribution margin is what each sales dollar keeps: 100% minus direct costs % (at the Year-1 mix of revenue lines) minus variable operating costs %.
• Fixed costs are Year-1 monthly averages of payroll and fixed operating expenses, plus the items in the next subsection.

The worked example's 63.81% contribution margin and both of its break-even figures come from this formula (template, Break-Even tab).

The SBA describes break-even for a single product or service; the template uses one sales-dollar figure across all your lines, so a change in your mix moves it (SBA).

The profit basis is where profit before tax is zero; its fixed costs include depreciation and loan interest, both of which the SBA lists as fixed costs (SBA). The cash basis is the template's own addition: it leaves out depreciation, which is not cash, and adds the full loan payment and owner draws.

The SBA calls break-even "an estimate for lender viability and your business plan" (SBA). For a deeper look, see our break-even analysis template.

Annual debt service is the year's loan payments, interest plus principal, from the Loan tab. DSCR is (EBITDA − income tax) ÷ annual debt service. Above 1.00x, projected operating cash covers the loan payments; at 1.00x the two are equal. That line is arithmetic, not a lender rule.

A second line, DSCR after owner draws, subtracts draws first, because cash you take home cannot also pay the loan. If you pay yourself through draws instead of a salary, read that line. Both lines show n/a in a year with no loan payments.

For SBA-guaranteed loans, the regulation says "[l]oans must be so sound as to reasonably assure repayment" and lists "the earnings or cashflow of applicant" among the criteria lenders may consider (13 CFR 120.150). It sets no DSCR number. Lenders set their own minimum, so ask yours, and no ratio guarantees approval. For the rest of the plan, see SBA loan business plan requirements.

From the template's Key Ratios tab. All nine model checks read OK.

In Year 1 the example earns $11,280 of net income, but cash rises by $15,391, from $40,000 to $55,391. Depreciation of $15,929 is a cost on the P&L but not a cash payment, so it is added back; loan principal of $11,817 is a cash payment but not a cost, so it is taken off (Cash Flow tab).

The first three months lose money while sales ramp up: $8,183, $5,936 and $1,947. Cash bottoms out at $25,060 at the end of month 3, and no month is flagged SHORT or LOW (Cash Flow tab).

An additional service role starts in month 25. Payroll rises from $195,356 in Year 2 to $250,294 in Year 3, so net income falls to $25,526 and DSCR to 2.29x even though sales grow (Payroll and Key Ratios tabs).

With the example inputs, contribution margin is 63.81%. Break-even is $32,879 of sales a month on a profit basis and $32,342 on a cash basis. Planned Year-1 sales average about $34,353 a month, a margin of safety of 4.29% on a profit basis and 5.85% on a cash basis (template, Break-Even tab).

The cash basis is lower here because it drops $1,327 a month of depreciation and $785 of interest, and adds the $1,770 monthly loan payment instead. The example sets owner draws to $0 and pays the owner a $50,000 salary on Payroll, so both DSCR lines match (Break-Even and Assumptions tabs).

• Pre-opening costs sit in Startup & Funding uses, not in the P&L.
• No receivables or payables timing: cash follows profit in the same month, and inventory stays at its opening value. If customers pay on terms, your cash will be lower than shown.
• No capital expenditure budget after opening.
• Funding: opening uses plus one loan only. The SBA asks how much funding "you'll need over the next five years" (SBA).
• No historical financials: the SBA asks an established business for statements "for the last three to five years" (SBA).
• Direct costs are a fixed % of each line's sales, and payroll is salaried by role: no volume discounts, hourly scheduling, overtime or bonuses.
• Flat income tax on positive monthly profit, with no loss carryforward; the example uses 0% (pass-through).
• Straight-line depreciation for planning. The IRS says "you must use the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) to depreciate most property" (IRS Publication 946), so ask your accountant about tax depreciation.
• One fixed-rate, level-payment loan from month 1: no interest-only period, variable rate, fees or line of credit.
• Payroll tax is simplified: no Social Security wage-base cap (IRS Publication 15) and no Additional Medicare Tax (IRS Topic no. 751).