How can I enter leases?

This article explains how to enter a lease in The Business Plan Shop's our financial forecasting software. 

This data enables our software to build your forecasted financial statements (balance sheet, P&L, cash flow statement), which can then be downloaded along with your business plan.

It’s fast and easy to do.

The settings tab showing key information about your lease including its name and value

How can I add or edit a lease in The Business Plan Shopour software?

Firstly, follow this link to access the investments module.

Once you are on the module, you can either click the add button at the top of the list to add a new lease or edit an existing one. 

If you are on desktop, to edit an existing lease amount:

  • Hover your mouse over the row containing the lease in the list
  • Click the edit button that appears

If you are on mobile, to edit an existing lease amount:

  • Click on the settings icon at the end of the row containing the lease in the list
  • Click on the edit button that appears

How does the edit lease module work?

The module contains tabs that enable you to enter the financial data required to model the lease

Settings tab 

The settings tab allows you to enter the name, the amount, duration, rate and payment frequency for the lease which will enable our software to compute the rental payments.

VAT or sales tax / GST tab

The sales tax / GST tab allows you to change details related to your VAT, GST, or equivalent sales taxes. You can choose the tax rate and the date from which the tax is owed (either when receiving the invoice or making the payment).

Note that this tab is hidden for users that are not registered to pay VAT or equivalent sales taxes. The name of the tab also varies based on the locale (English US or GB) of the application.

Comments & notes tab

The comments & notes tab lets you write down your hypothesis, notes or comments. 

Notes are private and only visible to you, whilst comments can be seen by other users you invited to collaborate with you on your plan.

How do leases impact my financial forecast?

The Business Plan Shop's Our software will use your lease data to create your forecasted financial statements (P&L, balance sheet and cash flow statement). 

These statements also form part of the financial plan section of your business plan. 

As soon as you save a new lease amount, the software will automatically recalculate everything to ensure that your financial forecast is up to date. It’s fast and simple, meaning that your plan will always be ready to export.

When building your forecasted financial statements:

  • We’ll use the amount, rate, duration and obtention date entered to compute the monthly rental charge in your P&L.
  • We’ll then use your optional VAT/GST settings to build your balance sheet’s liabilities (amount owed to suppliers and tax owed to the government)
  • We’ll then combine all this data to build your cash flow forecast.

What advice can you give me before I begin editing my leases?

Before creating your investments budget we recommend that you first:

  •  List all the equipment that your activity requires
  •  Approach suppliers to get an idea of the costs

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the name of a lease?
  • Firstly, click on the settings tab at the top of this page
  • Next, you’ll see a text box with the heading “What do you want to call this item? entering rent as the lease amount
  • Enter your chosen name into the text box given.
  • Finally, press the “save and close” button. 
How can I enter the lease amount?
  • Firstly, click on the "settings tab" at the top of the page:
  • Next, you’ll see a table with the heading "What is the amount of the lease?" entering annual data for the rent lease amount for three seperate years
  • Enter the value of the lease into the software (NOT the rental payments)
  • Press save & close
How do I account for VAT/GST and equivalent sales taxes?

Reminder: what are VAT, GST and equivalent sales taxes? 

  • VAT, GST or equivalent sales taxes are consumption-based taxes that are applied to goods and services.
  • There are certain sales thresholds, after which your business must register for VAT, GST or equivalent sales taxes with the government
  • Rules vary country by country, but registered businesses are usually able to deduct the sales tax they pay on their costs from the amount collected from customers on their sales
  • VAT, GST or equivalent sales taxes don’t impact your P&L statement but they have an impact on your cash flows (as you collect them from your sales when you are paid by your customers, and then later pay the government)

To account VAT, GST or equivalent sales taxes in your forecast:

Firstly, click on the “Sales tax / GST tab” at the top of this page:

Notes:

  • The tab might also be called VAT if you are using the English GB version of the software.
  • If you don’t see the tab, check in the options that the tax has been enabled for your forecast.

Next, you’ll see a table with the heading “What are the applicable VAT / sales tax parameters?” where you can select the applicable rate and when you wish the tax to become due:

selecting the applicable VAT rate and frequency of payments

When you are happy with the settings, press the “save and close” button 

Notes:

  • You can customize the applicable rates in the options
  • Rules regarding the recognition (when the tax becomes due) vary country by country, but it’s usually either when the goods are delivered or services rendered (which is what we use as the invoicing date in the software), or when the invoices are paid.
  • You can define default rules for product or services in the options, and have the possibility of overriding them here if needed by changing the “Sales tax due” field
  • These settings enable you to configure the recognition of the tax, the payment frequency is configured in the options section and applies at the company level.
How can I group leases in the P&L using segments?

Classifying your lease by segment allows you to group expenses in your forecasted financial statements.

This means that you can breakdown and adjust the level of details when you export your business plan.

grouping leases by segments

To classify your lease by segment:

  • Firstly, click on the settings tab at the top of this page
  • Next, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “show advanced parameters”
  • You’ll see a text box with the heading “does this element belong to a segment?
how to enter a segment in the business plan shop's financial forecasting software

Enter your chosen segment name into the text box given

  • If you don't want to use a segment leave the field empty or on “Global”

Finally, press the “save and close” button 

Can I enter the value of the rental payments directly into the software?

Currently you cannot enter the value of the rental payments directly into the software.

You should enter the amount of the lease rather than the actual rent value.

Once you input an annual interest rate, the software will use that in combination with the lease frequency and lease rent to calculate the value of the rental payments.

Go further with The Business Plan Shop

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