The application digital accompaniment to business creation Coin Des Entrepreneurs includes free online software that allows you to make a business plan – or a single financial forecast – and save and print at no cost.
This file explains how to obtain your financial document using our application: prerequisites to be respected, information to be entered, parts to be completed, etc.
Complete the parts to generate the economic interest of the Business Plan
In this part, you will present your project from top to bottom. Our application helps you structure your approach. It collects the information necessary for developing the economic interest of your business plan in the chapters “Project preparation” and “Market research”. Here’s how to complete the tabs in these categories.
The idea and the feasibility
All business projects start with an idea. This idea you must refine before deepening your reflection. You have to make sure that it will meet demand, that is to say, that a need exists and that your offer will fill it. Finally, you must necessarily study your current professional situation and question yourself about the feasibility of your project.
In the “Project idea” tab, you must present your business creation idea in general. This is a global presentation (for example: creating an e-commerce platform) integrated into your business plan. The details of your offer should be indicated below, in the chapter “The offer and the objectives”. The following questions are intended to help you ask yourself the right questions (target, innovation, protection, website).
In the “Objectives and skills” tab, you will study the match between your profile and your project. All you have to do is answer the questions. The application gives you personal advice (association with other people, qualifications required to exercise your activity, the scope of your skills, etc.). The answers will not fuel your business plan.
In the “Professional situation” tab, you will check the feasibility of your project, taking into account your professional situation (student, employee, company manager, job seeker, retiree). Our application will draw your attention in particular if you are linked to an employer by an employment contract: exclusivity clause, non-competition clause, a consequence of resignation, professional retraining plan, etc.
The market and the competition
After having validated the interest of your idea (the idea is good) and its feasibility (the project is feasible), you must study the market in which you will operate, as well as the stakeholders (customers and competitors). This is the purpose of this part of the application.
The “Market and competition” page includes three important menus: “The market”, “The customers” and “The competition”. All the information you provide here will be included in your business plan:
- The market: specify here the characteristics of the market you are targeting (size, volume, leading players, maturity, development prospects, etc.),
- The customers: Make the portrait robot of your customer (business/individual, age, socio-professional category, interests, activity…)
- The competition: list your main competitors here and the information you have at your disposal (turnover, characteristics of their offers, development, etc.).
The offer and the objectives
You have identified and studied your market, your customers and your competitors; you must now present your offer. This part is organized into 3 essential tabs: the description of your request, your offer’s strengths/weaknesses, and your commercial objectives.
Once again, the text you are going to insert will be included in the economic part of your business plan.
In “The proposed offer”, describe your product/service offer. Define your ranges (if there are several) and focus on the technical characteristics, price, quality, after-sales service, etc., of each of them. The next tab should outline the strengths and weaknesses of your offer. It is essential to be transparent about this. Finally, finish with your commercial objectives (market share, number of customers, turnover, etc.).
The strategy
Your strategy results from the combination of many elements. It ensures the meeting between the added value of your product and your customers. In the shorter term, it is broken down into commercial action plans. You should at least present one in your business plan. To do this, click on the “Commercial action plan” menu and detail the actions and means you will implement to meet your commercial objectives.
Then, go to the “Offer distribution” menu. Specify your distribution strategy (channels used to sell your products/services: stores, boutiques, e-commerce site, etc.). Finally, click on the “Communication Strategy” tab and indicate the means and techniques you will use to make your offer known to the public).
The project team
The economic part of your business plan should include a final part relating to your team’s presentation. Our app allows you to mention all the members of your project. To do this, click on the “Add a participant” button.
Then enter their Name and First Name. Specify his role among those available (creator, employee, partner, advisor, other), then present it (role, skills, experiences, motivation). Insist on the complementarities between each member. Once you are done, click on “Save Participant”.
Complete the parts used to generate the financial position of the business plan
In this part, you must fill in all the figures that will automatically allow our application to generate the financial tables of your forecast automatically. This concerns your estimated turnover, your overheads, your personnel costs, your investments, and your financing. Here is how to complete the different tabs.
Turnover
You must indicate here your forecast turnover, as well as your other operating income. To do this, click on the “Add turnover” or “Add another product” button. You can add as many lines as you want.
Then, you must indicate the nature of your turnover (example: sales of goods, provision of services, etc.). Then select the distribution of your turnover over the year:
- If you choose “monthly”, you will indicate the amount of turnover achieved per year (over 12 months) for year 1, year two and year 3. Our application will consider that you perform a monthly turnover equal to 1/12 of this sum;
- If you choose “personalized”, you will manually enter the turnover you hope to accomplish each month after clicking on “Add the annual amounts excluding taxes in Year 1” then “Year 2” and finally “Year 3”.
Your turnover can generate expenses proportional to the level of the activity. These are purchases directly linked to sales: raw materials needed to manufacture a product, purchases of goods, etc. If you find yourself in this situation, answer “Yes” to the question “Do you have any purchases related to your turnover”.
You must then indicate your percentage of commercial margin. As a reminder, it is calculated as follows: [(turnover – purchases consumed) / turnover] * 100. If, for example, you sell an item for 200 € while you buy it for 80 €, you realize a margin of 120 euros. You, therefore, generate a margin rate of 60% (120/200).
You will likely build up some starting stock before you start your business. It will generate your first sales. If so, enter the pre-tax amount of the initial inventory purchases in the appropriate row. Also, you may define a critical stock, that is to say, a minimum stock level below which you do not want to go down. Indicate it in the cell “Amount excluding taxes in euros of your average stock”.
Finally, enter the VAT rate applicable to your sales, the payment period that you will grant to your customers, and conversely, the VAT rate applicable to your purchases as well as the payment period that you will receive from your suppliers. Don’t forget to click on “Save turnover”.
Expenses
You must indicate here all the overheads that your project will generate. Warning, do not fill in the direct purchases related to your sales (already included in the rate of margin related to sales forecast) nor your expenses (salaries and benefits of employees and managers, discussed in the next point). The investment important – hardware, industrial, transportation, building, software … – should not be included here. They must be entered in the “Investments” tab.
Examples of expenses to add here are: administrative supplies, energy expenses (water, electricity, gas), real estate rents, furniture / real estate leasing fees, equipment or real estate maintenance costs, insurance premiums paid (RCP, multi-risk), advisers’ fees, telecommunications costs (Internet / telephone), subcontracting expenses, bank fees, travel expenses, advertising expenses (including “showcase” websites), etc.
Click on “Add expense” and add as many expenses as you want. For each of them, you must select the category to which it relates, among those appearing in the drop-down list. Then give a name and indicate its amount in year 1, in year 2, then in year 3. If the expenditure is one-off, you can fill in only one year and leave the others at 0.
Then specify the distribution of the expenditure over the year, that is, the payment schedule. The application allows you to manage six distribution modes:
- Monthly: the application will consider that you will pay each month 1/12 of the amount entered
- Quarterly: the application will assume that you will pay each quarter 1/4 of the amount entered
- Semester: the application will assume that you will spend each semester 1/2 of the amount entered
- Annual (start of the year): the application will assume that your expense will be paid in one go at the beginning of the year
- Annual (end of the year) : the application will assume that you will pay all at once, at the end of the year, your expense
- One-off: the application will ask you for the year and month of your expense payment.
All you have to do is select the VAT rate applicable to your expense and “Record the expense”.
Salaries
This section is aptly named. It is devoted to personnel costs, in the broad sense. It is necessary to fill in the net salaries paid to managers and the gross wages paid to employees (net salary + social security charges).
To insert executive compensation, click on “Add an executive”. Fill in the Name and First Name of the manager. Also, indicate whether or not he benefits from ACRE. Then specify whether you wish to enter annual remuneration (which will be “Monthly” by the application) or if you prefer to enter the remuneration month by month (“Personalized” distribution). The application automatically calculates the number of your social charges based on the items entered. Don’t forget to register the ruler.
To declare employees, click on “Add an employee”. Specify the title of the position held and the nature of his employment contract (CDD or CDI). Then enter the amount of gross monthly remuneration. The application automatically calculates the amount of net salary as well as the amount of employer social contributions. All you have to do is specify the year (1, 2 or 3) and the month (1 to 12) of hiring. When finished, register the employee.
Investments
You must detail in this part your purchases of durable goods. These are tangible/intangible, movable/immovable goods necessary for your activity and which you will keep for more than a year. It can be computer equipment (Computer, PC, etc.), transport equipment (vehicle, van, etc.), industrial equipment (machines and tools), furniture, fittings, a website, a patent, etc.
For the sake of simplicity, only include goods here that have a value greater than 500 euros. Those with a unit value less than this amount should instead be included in overhead (see “Expenses” category above).
To insert an investment in our application, click on “Add investment”. Immediately specify the nature of the acquisition: “Tangible investment” (tangible good, having physical substance), “Intangible investment” (non-monetary non-palpable good) or “Financial investment”. Then indicate whether the property is the subject of a contribution in kind (an assumption that you or one of your partners will contribute property that he or she owns in a personal capacity to the company – see below). Name the investment, enter its amount excluding taxes and specify the precise date of the purchase (year and month). Finally, select the duration during which you expect to use this asset. Click on “Save investment”.
Funding
This part lists all the financial means you will bring – directly or indirectly – to finance your investments. These may be contributions to capital in creating a company (contributions in cash and gifts in kind), bank financing (loans), aid or even subsidies. Depending on the nature of your funding, click on the blue button “Add a…”.
In the “capital contribution” sub-category, you must indicate your contributions as a partner (company) or as a business manager (sole proprietorship).
For companies, a distinction is made between donations of goods, called gifts in kind, from contributions of money, called contributions in cash. If you select “contribution in kind”, the application tells you that you must add the good brought in in the “Investments” tab. If you choose a cash contribution, you must enter the contribution, the date (year, month) and save.
The sub-category “contributions/repayments in current account” does not concern companies. In the latter, certain people are authorized to make monetary contributions to recover more easily and quickly than the capital. They may also be reimbursed. An agreement should govern the operation of this type of contribution. Here you can add a checking account contribution and generate a checking account refund. All you have to do is select the nature of the operation: contribution (+) or reimbursement (-) and its amount.
Finally, the last sub-category is devoted to “external financing”. You must indicate there the bank loans that you will contract to meet the financing needs of your project and the loans at subsidized rates (honour loan for example. First, select the type of financing, give it a name and assign an amount. For loans, you must also specify the rate and duration of the funding. Our software will provide you with, as an indication, your monthly repayment. Finish by clicking on “Save the financing”.
There you have it; you have completed the preparatory phase of your business plan or your financial forecast. Our software automatically generates your financial tables and your economic part that you can download and/or print for free. But, before that, a little validation is necessary! Our application has carried out verifications which you can read by clicking on “Forecast summary”.
