What a bank looks at in a plan, and what Business Plan checks
A plain list of what Dutch and German lenders typically expect from a plan, and how Business Plan turns those expectations into checks you can read.
People write plans for a bank and then guess what the bank wanted. Business Plan lists the expectations as data and checks your plan against them, so you can see the gaps first.
Sections#
A Dutch bank or Chamber of Commerce style plan expects the entrepreneur, the business, the product, the market, marketing, organisation, the legal form, investments, the financing need, a profit forecast and a liquidity forecast. A German plan for a bank or a funding agency is more formal and reads the profitability preview and the liquidity plan first, and expects the capital requirement and the financing plan to agree. The app knows the sections of each market and tells you which required ones are missing.
Statements#
Some packs want a monthly statement, some an annual one, and the model has to cover the horizon. The check compares what you show with what the pack requires.
Ratios#
Cash should never go below zero in the first months. The owner's pay should cover living costs. For a loan, the debt service coverage, which is operating profit after tax divided by interest plus repayments, should be at least one, and the pack may ask for more. Equity as a share of assets and the break-even month are checked against the pack.
The seven packs#
A bank plan and Qredits for the Netherlands. Gründungszuschuss, KfW Startgeld, ERP-Gründerkredit and EXIST for Germany. An investor pack in English.
The caveat that matters#
None of these thresholds is a lender's real threshold. Every legal or numeric value in a pack is flagged to verify with the note: orientation, check with the lender or advisor. No loan amounts, interest rates or form numbers are stated. A lender decides by its own rules, and passing a check here is not an approval.
How to use it#
Run the check early, not on the night before you apply. Read the blockers first, then the warnings. Fix what points at a cell, and ask the lender about the rest.