How can I enter leases?

• 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?
• Enter your chosen name into the text box given.
• Finally, press the “save and close” button. 

• Firstly, click on the "settings tab" at the top of the page:
• Next, you’ll see a table with the heading "Do you want to input the rent amount directly?"
  • Select yes, if you wish to enter the amount of the rent for each period.
  • Select no, if you want us to calculate the amount of the rent based on the lease value, duration and interest rate.

1/ If you selected yes (directly enter the rental amount):

• You'll see the heading "How much is the rent of this lease?"
  • You can enter either annual or monthly data into the table.

How can I enter annual data?

You can enter annual data by clicking on the annual summary, you will a input field for each of the financial years (FY) in your forecast.

You can also enter annual data by filling the “total for the year” field in the monthly view of each financial year.

Use the navigation at the top of the table to toggle between the annual summary and the monthly view of each financial year.

Press the “save and close” button when you are done.

How can I enter monthly data?

Use the navigation at the top of the table to select the monthly view of the financial year for which you wish to enter data. 

Then enter the amount for each month and press the “save and close” button when you are done:

Notes:

Mensualisation

By default when you enter an annual figure, our software will allocate one-twelfth of the total income to each of the 12 months. 

For example, if you enter £48,000 in the “total for the year” for Year 1, the software will allocate £4,000 to each of the 12 months leading up to that period. 

Using monthly data is useful if you anticipate a material change at a specific date and to get a more precise cash flow forecast.

Financial years

In The Business Plan Shop, the financial year always includes 12 months and is defined using the start date entered when creating the forecast (if needed you can change that value in the options).

For example: 

• If your forecast starts in January: your financial year will run from January to December. 
• If your forecast starts in March: your financial year will run from March to April.

Financial years are formatted using the last month in the period. For example a financial year running from January to December 2022 will be displayed as FY - Dec 22. 

It is therefore possible that your forecast’s financial year will be different from your accounting financial year.

That’s OK, using 12 full months for each financial year is a best practice when forecasting as it makes the data between years comparable (which wouldn’t be the case if one year had 3 months and the others 12). 

Investors and lenders would rather get an accurate projection using the most up to date information than dates matching your accounting or fiscal year end.

If there are tax implications, for example if your corporation tax bill is based on a different fiscal year end, you can use a custom tax model in the options where you can use a fiscal year end that is different from the financial year end used for forecasting.

2/ If you select no (let the software calculate the rental payments):

• You'll see the heading "What is the amount of the lease (£)?"
  • Here you should enter the total value of the lease (not the rental payments)
  • The rest of the steps will be explained in seperate FAQs below

Note: This FAQ is only relevant to you if you choose "not" to input the rent amount directly

• Firstly, click on the settings tab at the top of this page
• Scroll down and you'll see a heading named "When does the lease start?"
  • Here you can enter the start date of the lease

Note: This FAQ is only relevant to you if you choose "not" to input the rent amount directly

• Firstly, click on the settings tab at the top of this page
• Scroll down and you'll see a heading named "What is the interest rate?"
  • Please enter the annual interest rate
  • The software will take care of adjusting it to compute the value of the rents based on the lease frequency and length.

Note: This FAQ is only relevant to you if you choose "not" to input the rent amount directly

• Firstly, click on the settings tab at the top of this page
• Scroll down and you'll see a heading named "What is the length of the lease (in months)?"

Note: This FAQ is only relevant to you if you choose "not" to input the rent amount directly

• Firstly, click on the settings tab at the top of this page
• Scroll down and you'll see a heading named "What is the frequency of rental payments?"
  • Select a frequency of rental payments from the dropdown menu
  • You can select either monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly

• Firstly, click on the “payment terms” tab at the top of this page
• Next, you’ll see a table with the heading “What are the payment terms?”
• You can enter payment terms in this table:
• Then press the “save & close” button once you are done

How does our payment table work?

You can forecast the impact of your commercial terms on your cash flow using payment laws. 

The table uses the following terms:

• Cash: paid when the goods are delivered or the services rendered (no payment terms).
• Advance XX days: paid in advance (before the goods are delivered or the services rendered). For example “advance 90 days” means paying your suppliers 90 days in advance.
• XX days: paid in credit. For example “90 days” means paying your suppliers 90 days after the goods have been delivered or the services have been rendered.

The software assumes you receive the invoice when the goods are delivered or the services rendered.

By default the table shows up to 90 days in advance or 90 days in credit but this can be increased to 360 days in advance and 360 days credit by clicking the “expand table” button below the table

You can enter payment terms by typing percentages into the allocated text boxes. For example, if you always pay when you receive the invoice, enter 100% into the text box labelled “cash” (cash means upfront in this context, it’s not the payment method)

Multiple payment terms can be used simultaneously. For example, if you pay for half of your purchases upfront and the other half in 30 days after receiving the invoice, you should enter 50% into the cash box and 50% into the “30 days” box.

For any financial year the total percentage must equal 100%. If it does not, the software will automatically allocate the remaining percentage to reach 100%. When doing so the software tries to preserve your inputs, so it is possible that the remainder gets allocated in a part of the table not visible on the screen (for example the “360 days” credit field which is only visible when you expand the table)

The table enables you to enter different payment terms for each financial year in your forecast (for a definition of financial years please refer to the: “How can I enter the cost amount?” question of this FAQ)

If your payment terms remain constant throughout your forecast, you can use the “Easy data entry” link below the table to copy the value of the first year across to the other years.

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:

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.

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.

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?

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