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Profit and Loss Forecast Template (Excel) — Free
The plan a bank, a landlord or a tax adviser asks for: revenue, cost of goods, gross profit, operating costs, EBITDA, EBIT and net profit — with the margin percentages calculated as you go.
The download
Free download
Download: Profit & loss plan
- Revenue, cost of goods and gross margin
- Operating costs split the way a P&L splits them
- EBITDA, depreciation, EBIT and interest
- Tax rate as an input, so the bottom line is yours
No email, no sign-up. Formulas already wired up.
The sheet itself
- Revenue, cost of goods and gross margin
- Operating costs split the way a P&L splits them
- EBITDA, depreciation, EBIT and interest
- Tax rate as an input, so the bottom line is yours
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Profit & loss plan | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Fill in the blue cells — every other cell is a formula and works itself out. foreqast.app | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | ||
| 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | €40,000 | €42,000 | €46,000 | €45,000 | €48,000 | €51,000 | €50,000 | €44,000 | €49,000 | €53,000 | €61,000 | €59,000 | ||
| 6 | €16,000 | €16,800 | €18,400 | €18,000 | €19,200 | €20,400 | €20,000 | €17,600 | €19,600 | €21,200 | €24,400 | €23,600 | ||
| 7 | €24,000 | €25,200 | €27,600 | €27,000 | €28,800 | €30,600 | €30,000 | €26,400 | €29,400 | €31,800 | €36,600 | €35,400 | ||
| 8 | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | ||
| 9 | ||||||||||||||
| 10 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | €19,500 | ||
| 11 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | €2,400 | ||
| 12 | €4,000 | €4,000 | €5,000 | €5,000 | €5,000 | €6,000 | €6,000 | €4,500 | €5,000 | €6,000 | €8,000 | €7,000 | ||
| 13 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | €2,100 | ||
| 14 | €28,000 | €28,000 | €29,000 | €29,000 | €29,000 | €30,000 | €30,000 | €28,500 | €29,000 | €30,000 | €32,000 | €31,000 | ||
| 15 | ||||||||||||||
| 16 | €-4,000 | €-2,800 | €-1,400 | €-2,000 | €-200 | €600 | €0 | €-2,100 | €400 | €1,800 | €4,600 | €4,400 | ||
| 17 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | €900 | ||
| 18 | €-4,900 | €-3,700 | €-2,300 | €-2,900 | €-1,100 | €-300 | €-900 | €-3,000 | €-500 | €900 | €3,700 | €3,500 | ||
| 19 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | €260 | ||
| 20 | €-5,160 | €-3,960 | €-2,560 | €-3,160 | €-1,360 | €-560 | €-1,160 | €-3,260 | €-760 | €640 | €3,440 | €3,240 | ||
| 21 | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | 30.0 % | ||
| 22 | €0 | €0 | €0 | €0 | €0 | €0 | €0 | €0 | €0 | €192 | €1,032 | €972 | ||
| 23 | €-5,160 | €-3,960 | €-2,560 | €-3,160 | €-1,360 | €-560 | €-1,160 | €-3,260 | €-760 | €448 | €2,408 | €2,268 | ||
The blue cells are yours to fill in. Every other cell is a formula and works itself out.
How to use it
- 1
Plan revenue from drivers, not from a growth rate
“10% growth” is a wish. Customers × price, or orders × basket, is a plan you can check against reality in month two.
- 2
Keep cost of goods as a rate on revenue
The template calculates it at 40% of revenue. Replace that with your own gross margin, and the whole plan re-scales with any revenue change.
- 3
Put every fixed cost on its own row
One “other costs” row of €9,000 is a plan nobody can cut. Rent, payroll, marketing and software separately is a plan you can act on.
- 4
Read the gross margin row every month
It is the earliest warning the sheet gives. A gross margin sliding from 60% to 56% is a pricing or purchasing problem, months before it shows up in the result.
A worked example
A month that earns and a year that does not
- Revenue, June
- €51,000
- Gross profit, June
- €30,600
- Operating costs, June
- €34,000
- EBITDA, June
- €-3,400
- Net profit, June
- €-4,560
June is the strongest revenue month of the first half and still loses money: a 60% gross margin against €34,000 of fixed cost needs about €57,000 of revenue to break even. The sheet does not just say the month was negative — it says by how much revenue has to move, which is the only actionable version of that news.
The mistakes that break it
Confusing profit with cash
This plan can show a profit in a month your account goes down, because stock, VAT and loan repayments never appear in a P&L.
Leaving the founder's salary out
A profit that exists because two founders are unpaid is a number no bank, buyer or investor will accept. Price your own time in.
Planning revenue up and costs flat
Doubling revenue with an unchanged cost base is the classic hockey stick. If revenue grows, at least the variable costs have to grow with it.
Where the template stops
A P&L is not a bank account
It is written on the accrual basis: revenue when invoiced, costs when incurred. Your solvency runs on a different calendar entirely.
12-month cash-flow planIt is only as current as your last evening with it
Every number in here is typed in. The month you skip is the month the sheet quietly stops describing your business — and it never says so.
It cannot compare itself to what happened
The plan is a plan. Tracking it needs a second sheet with your actuals beside it, refreshed every month.
Budget vs actual templateWhat comes after the spreadsheet
Cash vs profitA plan is only worth the tracking behind it. Foreqast puts plan and actuals in one view and keeps the variance current.Calculators