If you are looking for professional templates such as budget plan, investor report and cap table, to help you effectively manage your startup metrics, you are in the right place.
This article doesn't list every template out there but focuses only on the 3 proven financial templates for venture-backed startups you'll need to run your financials effectively.
These 3 templates passed the investors' test and are used by top startups who raised millions of dollars in venture capital.
Every business is relying on financial reports and metrics to make proper decisions, track performance, and report to stakeholders like investors, banks, auditors, suppliers, clients, and more.
As soon as you start using them, the easier it will be to keep proper and updated records of your financials and get ready for any due diligence or government support application process.
Professional Startup Template #1: Budget Plan
What is a budget plan and when we use it
According to Investopedia: "A budget is an estimation of revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time and is utilized by governments, businesses, and individuals. A budget is basically a financial plan for a defined period, normally a year that is known to greatly enhance the success of any financial undertaking."
While it mentions one year, it's a common practice to have a 5-year budget plan, especially when you are looking for venture capital.
It is advisable to build one as soon as you are starting to work on your startup.
What to include in a Budget Plan?
What makes a good budget plan template?
We have built a professional 5-YEAR budget plan template for you. The template was prepared by veteran startup CFO and it includes eye-catching graphs to emphasis the company financial trends and growth. You can use this template when pitching to investors and when running your day-to-day financials or submitting a government support application. It will help you make the right business decisions, will save you time and make it easy for you to plug in your numbers.
Professional Startup Template #2: Investor Report
What's Investor Report and when we should use one
A data-driven report which helps the investors to understand the use of their investment money over a specific period of time.
As soon as you raise venture capital, you should update your investors on the state of the startup and its progress on a monthly/quarterly basis.
sometimes, there is a written demand in the investment agreement for such report, with the breakdown of the information they would like to get at a certain period of time.
What to include in an Investor Report?
What makes a good Investor Report?
We enhanced a professional Investor report template prepared by one of the largest and most prominent VC firms in the world. When you are using this template, you know it passed the investor test! This report is best used for your monthly reporting, both qualitative and quantitative information you would like to share with your investors.
Professional Startup Template #3: Cap Table
What is Cap Table and why we need one?
According to Investopedia: "
"A capitalization table, also known as a cap table, is a spreadsheet or table that shows the equity capitalization for a company. A capitalization table is most commonly utilized for startups and early-stage businesses but all types of companies may use it as well. In general, the capitalization table is an intricate breakdown of a company’s shareholders’ equity.
Cap tables often include all of a company’s equity ownership capital, such as common equity shares, preferred equity shares, warrants, and convertible equity."
Once we register our company, we need to start building and managing a cap table report.
What to include in a Cap Table?
What makes a good Cap Table report?
We have built a professional cap table template. In this template, you'll find a breakdown outlining an analysis of a company's shareholders ownership, equity dilution implications, and essential records of each equity round no matter if its founders, investors, employees and consultants. It also includes a future round scenarios with multiple valuation, CLA and SAFE assumptions.