How to create a financial forecast for a technical and vocational college?

If you are serious about keeping visibility on your future cash flows, then you need to build and maintain a financial forecast for your technical and vocational college.
Putting together a technical and vocational college financial forecast may sound complex, but don’t worry, with the right tool, it’s easier than it looks, and The Business Plan Shop is here to guide you.
In this practical guide, we'll cover everything you need to know about building financial projections for your technical and vocational college.
We will start by looking at why they are key, what information is needed, what a forecast looks like once completed, and what solutions you can use to create yours.
Let's dive in!
Why create and maintain a financial forecast for a technical and vocational college?
The financial projections for your technical and vocational college act as a financial blueprint to guide its growth with confidence and ensure its long-term financial viability.
To create them, you will need to look at your business in detail - from sales to operating costs and investments - to assess how much profit it can generate in the years to come and what will be the associated cash flows.
During challenging market conditions, maintaining an up-to-date financial forecast enables early detection of potential financial shortfalls, allowing for timely adjustments or securing financing before facing a cash crisis.
Your technical and vocational college's financial forecast will also prove invaluable when seeking financing. Banks and investors will undoubtedly request a thorough examination of your financial figures, making precision and presentation essential.
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

What information is needed to build a technical and vocational college financial forecast?
The quality of your inputs is key when it comes to financial modelling: no matter how good the model is, if your inputs are off, so will the forecast.
If you are building a financial plan to start a technical and vocational college, you will need to have done your market research and have a clear picture of your sales and marketing strategies so that you can project revenues with confidence.
You will also need to have a clear idea of what resources will be required to operate the technical and vocational college on a daily basis, and to have done your research with regard to the equipment needed to launch your venture (see further down this guide).
If you are creating a financial forecast of an existing technical and vocational college, things are usually simpler as you will be able to use your historical accounting data as a budgeting base, and complement that with your team’s view on what lies ahead for the years to come.
Let's now zoom in on what will go in your technical and vocational college's financial forecast.
The sales forecast for a technical and vocational college
From experience, it usually makes sense to start your technical and vocational college's financial projection with the revenues forecast.
The inputs used to forecast your sales will include the historical trading data of your technical and vocational college (which can be used as a starting point for existing businesses) and the data collected in your market research (which both new ventures and existing businesses need to project their sales forward).
Your technical and vocational college's sales forecast can be broken down into two key estimates:
- The average price
- The number of monthly transactions
To assess these variables accurately, you will need to consider the following factors:
- Changes in government policies: As a technical and vocational college, your business may be heavily influenced by changes in government policies surrounding education and training. For example, changes in funding or accreditation requirements may impact the average price of your programs or the number of monthly transactions.
- Economic downturn: A recession or economic downturn can greatly affect the demand for technical and vocational education. During tough economic times, individuals may be less likely to invest in additional education and training, leading to a decrease in both the average price and number of monthly transactions for your business.
- Demand for specialized skills: The demand for certain technical and vocational skills may fluctuate from year to year, depending on the job market and industry trends. This can impact the average price of your programs and the number of monthly transactions, as students may be more or less inclined to enroll in courses that are in high demand.
- Competition from online learning platforms: With the rise of online learning platforms, your technical and vocational college may face increased competition for students. This could potentially lead to a decrease in the average price of your programs as you may need to lower prices to remain competitive, or a decrease in the number of monthly transactions if students opt for online courses instead.
- Changes in technology: As a technical and vocational college, your business may heavily rely on technology for teaching and learning. Changes in technology, such as the introduction of new software or equipment, can impact the average price of your programs and the number of monthly transactions as you may need to invest in these updates, which could potentially increase costs for students.
Once you have a sales forecast in place, the next step will be to work on your overhead budget. Let’s have a look at that now.
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

The operating expenses for a technical and vocational college
The next step is to estimate the expenses needed to run your technical and vocational college on a day-to-day basis.
These will vary based on the level of sales expected, and the location and size of your business.
But your technical and vocational college's operating expenses should include the following items at a minimum:
- Staff Costs: This includes salaries, benefits, and training for faculty and administrative staff.
- Accountancy Fees: You will need to hire an accountant to manage your financial records and ensure compliance with tax laws.
- Insurance Costs: This covers liability insurance, property insurance, and other types of insurance to protect your college.
- Software Licenses: You will need to purchase licenses for educational software and other programs necessary for running your college.
- Banking Fees: This includes fees for maintaining bank accounts, wire transfers, and other banking services.
- Facility Rental: If you do not own your college building, you will need to pay rent for the facility.
- Utilities: This includes electricity, water, and other utility bills for your college building.
- Office Supplies: You will need to purchase supplies such as paper, pens, and printer ink for administrative tasks.
- Textbooks and Course Materials: Your students will need textbooks and course materials for their classes.
- Marketing and Advertising: You will need to promote your college to attract students, which may include costs for advertisements, brochures, and other marketing materials.
- Professional Memberships and Conferences: You may need to pay for memberships to professional organizations and attend conferences for networking and professional development.
- Maintenance and Repairs: This includes costs for repairing and maintaining equipment and facilities.
- Student Services: You may need to provide services such as counseling, career guidance, and disability accommodations for your students.
- Student Activities: Your college may offer extracurricular activities, which may require costs for supplies, equipment, and event planning.
- Security: You may need to hire security personnel or install security systems to ensure the safety of your students and staff.
This list is, of course, not exhaustive, and you'll have to adapt it according to your precise business model and size. A small technical and vocational college might not have the same level of expenditure as a larger one, for example.
What investments are needed to start or grow a technical and vocational college?
Creating and expanding a technical and vocational college also requires investments which you need to factor into your financial forecast.
Capital expenditures and initial working capital items for a technical and vocational college could include elements such as:
- Classroom Equipment: This could include items such as computers, projectors, and other technology used for instruction in technical and vocational courses. These assets are essential for providing students with hands-on experience and practical skills.
- Laboratory Equipment: Technical and vocational colleges often have specialized labs for students to gain practical experience in fields such as science, engineering, and healthcare. These labs require expensive equipment such as microscopes, lab instruments, and safety gear.
- Workshop Tools and Machinery: Many technical and vocational courses involve hands-on training in fields such as automotive, construction, and manufacturing. As a result, these colleges need to invest in tools, machinery, and equipment to create a realistic learning environment for students.
- Building Renovations and Upgrades: As technical and vocational colleges expand their programs and enroll more students, they may need to renovate or upgrade their facilities to accommodate the growth. This could include adding more classrooms, labs, or workshops, as well as making improvements to existing spaces.
- Specialized Software and Licenses: With the increasing use of technology in vocational education, colleges may need to invest in specialized software and licenses for courses such as graphic design, computer programming, and CAD. These assets are necessary for students to develop the skills required in today's job market.
Again, this list is not exhaustive and will need to be adjusted according to the circumstances of your technical and vocational college.
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

The financing plan of your technical and vocational college
The next step in the creation of your financial forecast for your technical and vocational college is to think about how you might finance your business.
You will have to assess how much capital will come from shareholders (equity) and how much can be secured through banks.
Bank loans will have to be modelled so that you can separate the interest expenses from the repayments of principal, and include all this data in your forecast.
Issuing share capital and obtaining a bank loan are two of the most common ways that entrepreneurs finance their businesses.
What tables compose the financial plan for a technical and vocational college?
Now let's have a look at the main output tables of your technical and vocational college's financial forecast.
The forecasted profit & loss statement
The profit & loss forecast gives you a clear picture of your business’ expected growth over the first three to five years, and whether it’s likely to be profitable or not.

A healthy technical and vocational college's P&L statement should show:
- Sales growing at (minimum) or above (better) inflation
- Stable (minimum) or expanding (better) profit margins
- A healthy level of net profitability
This will of course depend on the stage of your business: numbers for an established technical and vocational college will look different than for a startup.
The projected balance sheet
Your technical and vocational college's forecasted balance sheet enables you to assess your financial structure and working capital requirements.
It is composed of three types of elements: assets, liabilities and equity:
- Assets: represent what the business owns and uses to produce cash flows. It includes resources such as cash, equipment, and accounts receivable (money owed by clients).
- Liabilities: represent funds advanced to the business by lenders and other creditors. It includes items such as accounts payable (money owed to suppliers), taxes due and loans.
- Equity: is the combination of what has been invested by the business owners and the cumulative profits and losses generated by the business to date (which are called retained earnings). Equity is a proxy for the value of the owner's stake in the business.

The cash flow projection
The cash flow forecast of your technical and vocational college will show how much cash the business is expected to generate or consume over the next three to five years.

There are multiple ways of presenting a cash flow forecast but from experience, it is better to organise it by nature in order to clearly show these elements:
- Operating cash flow: how much cash is generated by the technical and vocational college's operations
- Investing cash flow: what is the business investing to expand or maintain its equipment
- Financing cash flow: is the business raising additional funds or repaying financiers (debt repayment, dividends)
Your cash flow forecast is the most important element of your overall financial projection and that’s where you should focus your attention to ensure that your technical and vocational college is adequately funded.
Note: if you are preparing a financial forecast in order to try to secure funding, you will need to include both a yearly and monthly cash flow forecast in your technical and vocational college's financial plan.
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

Which tool should you use to create your technical and vocational college's financial projections?
Building a technical and vocational college financial forecast is not difficult provided that you use the right tool for the job. Let’s see what options are available below.
Using online financial forecasting software to build your technical and vocational college's projections
The modern and easiest way is to use professional online financial forecasting software such as the one we offer at The Business Plan Shop.
There are several advantages to using specialised software:
- You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
- You have access to complete financial forecast templates
- You get a complete financial forecast ready to be sent to your bank or investors
- You can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast, and recalibrate your forecast as the year goes by
- You can create scenarios to stress test your forecast's main assumptions
- You can easily update your forecast as time goes by to maintain visibility on future cash flows
- You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck
- It’s cost-efficient and much cheaper than using an accountant or consultant (see below)
If you are interested in this type of solution, you can try our forecasting software for free by signing up here.
Calling in a financial consultant or chartered accountant
Enlisting the help of a consultant or accountant is also a good way to obtain a professional technical and vocational college financial forecast.
The downside of this solution is its cost. From experience, obtaining a simple financial forecast over three years (including a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement) is likely to cost a minimum of £700 or $1,000.
The indicative cost above, is for a small business, and a forecast is done as a one-shot exercise. Using a consultant or accountant to track your actuals vs. forecast and to keep your financial projections up to date on a monthly or quarterly basis will cost a lot more.
If you opt for this solution, make sure your accountant has in-depth knowledge of your industry, so that they may challenge your figures and offer insights (as opposed to just taking your assumptions at face value to create the forecast).
Why not use a spreadsheet such as Excel or Google Sheets to build your technical and vocational college's financial forecast?
You and your financial partners need numbers you can trust. Unless you have studied finance or accounting, creating a trustworthy and error-free technical and vocational college financial forecast on a spreadsheet is likely to prove challenging.
Financial modelling is very technical by nature and requires a solid grasp of accounting principles to be done without errors. This means that using spreadsheet software like Excel or Google Sheets to create accurate financial forecasts is out of reach for most business owners.
Creating forecasts in Excel is also inefficient nowadays:
- Software has advanced to the point where forecasting can be done much faster and more accurately than manually on a spreadsheet.
- With artificial intelligence, the software is capable of detecting mistakes and helping decision-making.
Spreadsheets are versatile tools but they are not tailor-made for reporting. Importing your technical and vocational college's accounting data in Excel to track actual vs. forecast is incredibly manual and tedious (and so is keeping forecasts up to date). It is much faster to use dedicated financial planning tools like The Business Plan Shop which are built specially for this.
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

Use our financial projection templates for inspiration
The Business Plan Shop has dozens of financial forecasting templates available.
Our examples contain both the financial forecast, and a written business plan which presents, in detail, the company, the team, the strategy, and the medium-term objectives.
Whether you are just starting out or already have your own technical and vocational college, looking at our template is always a good way to get ideas on how to model financial items and what to write when creating a business plan to secure funding.

Takeaways
- A financial forecast shows expected growth, profitability, and cash generation metrics for your technical and vocational college.
- Tracking actuals vs. forecast and having an up-to-date financial forecast is key to maintaining visibility on your future cash flows.
- Using financial forecasting software is the modern way of creating and maintaining financial projections.
We hope that this guide helped you gain a clearer perspective on the steps needed to create the financial forecast for a technical and vocational college. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

Also on The Business Plan Shop
- Financial forecast example
- How to project revenues for a business?
- Sample financial forecast for business idea
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