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What should a good financial model template contain?
A financial model template is an Excel workbook with the structure laid out for you: an inputs sheet, the three financial statements and the formulas that link them. Type in your assumptions and the forecast fills itself in. Search for a free financial model template and you will find thousands, from one-tab budgets to workbooks with dozens of sheets.
The statements are linked, not typed. Net profit from the profit and loss adds to retained earnings on the balance sheet. Depreciation reduces profit but not cash, so the cash flow statement adds it back. Buying equipment adds to fixed assets and takes cash; drawing a loan adds debt and cash. Get the links right and the balance sheet balances by itself.
Size is not the test. A good Excel financial model template, small or large, has the same bones:
- One inputs sheet. Every assumption in one place, coloured blue, so you can see what drives the model.
- Revenue built from drivers. Customers × average spend, stores × sales per store, or seats × price per seat, not one line with a growth rate.
- Three linked statements. Profit flows into the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement explains every dollar of movement in cash.
- Supporting schedules. Depreciation, debt, tax and working capital, each worked out in its own block.
- Checks. A balance check in every period that turns red the moment something breaks.
- Outputs. A summary or dashboard with the numbers your reader looks for first.
Why do most templates break on a real business?
Templates are designed for an average business that does not exist. The trouble starts where yours is different, and it always is somewhere.
Patching a template takes longer than it looks, and a model you cannot trust is worse than none: a lender who finds one broken link starts doubting every number. The usual culprits:
- Your revenue does not fit the rows. A café sells coffee by the cup, catering by the order and gift cards months in advance. The template has one revenue line.
- Adding a line breaks the links. Insert a row for a second loan and the balance sheet stops balancing three sheets away.
- Numbers hide inside formulas. Someone once typed a growth rate straight into a formula, and now nobody can find it.
- The timing is wrong. Annual columns when the bank wants monthly cash, or one year when an investor wants five.
- It is not set up for Australia. A December year end instead of 30 June, and no GST paid each quarter.
- Nothing is sourced. A reader cannot tell which numbers came from your accounts and which were guesses.
How do you check a model before you trust it?
Read any financial model from the outputs back: start with the dashboard, then the cash flow, then the handful of inputs that drive the biggest numbers. Those inputs are where a lender’s or investor’s questions will come from.
Before you rely on it, whether it came from a template, a colleague or us, run these five checks. Every model we build runs the first two in every period, on its own Checks sheet:
- Does the balance sheet balance in every period, not just the first?
- Does cash on the balance sheet equal closing cash on the cash flow statement?
- Change one input, such as price. Do profit, cash and the balance sheet all move?
- Click into a few totals. Are any numbers typed inside the formulas?
- Can you trace each assumption to a document, or is it labelled as an assumption?
Is there a free alternative to a template?
No financial modelling (or modeling) skills needed. Instead of bending a template to fit, tell us about the business. Describe it in a few sentences, attach what you have (accounts, a budget, a pitch deck, a rent roll) or point us to your website.
We assemble a professional-grade model from 1,500+ tested building blocks, chosen for how your business earns and spends: the café’s cups and catering, the SaaS company’s subscriptions and churn, the landlord’s leases and expiries. You get an integrated profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow (a full 3-statement model), a valuation, scenarios, a dashboard and a Checks sheet, in a standard .xlsx with every formula intact and no macros.
Every input sits in blue with its source noted, and a How it works sheet explains each part. Choose monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual periods, for up to 30 years. Our team reviews every model before it is sent, and it is usually ready within the hour. Building it and previewing every sheet are free.
Where can I see a sample financial model?
Want to see what you would get before you ask? We publish sample models for 456 types of business across 15 industries, from cafés, gyms and medical centres to SaaS companies, miners and REITs. Most pages show how that kind of business is modelled: where revenue comes from, what drives costs and how it is funded.
Find the one closest to yours, then tell us what is different. That difference is exactly what a template cannot give you.